Today an 8 hour long journey from Bagan to Kalaw, another
hill station dating back to the time of the British. Given that our last journey had taken twice
as long as anticipated I don’t think anyone was really looking forward to it. But it was a good journey.
We stopped en route at a palm tree farm and sampled some toddy flavoured
with peanuts (ground nuts) and watched the cow grinding the nuts.
This lady was desperate to plaster thanakha all over my face.
I thought it was odd that birds would nest so close together
but apparently the nests have been collected and tied up there.
We stopped for a loo break (I didn’t go, the smell from the
doorway put me off) and there were various ladies selling foods, including
chickens. Ian and I settled for 12 little
satsumas.
A lot of the photos are just quick snaps from the coach
window so the quality is poor.
Lunch was a bit weird as we seemed to be eating in a
garage. They very kindly washed all the
plates and cutlery in front of us but we didn’t have a clue as to where the
water had come from so I decided to play safe and found a little shack outside
selling crisps.
Driving up through the clouds
We finally got to Kalaw just before sunset so all I had time
for was a couple of quick snaps. It’s
about 4,500 ft above sea level and was very cold and windy there, a real shock
to the system, but the hotel was new and very clean and warm but seemed to be
run by teenagers – everyone looked so young.
Sadly we would be off after breakfast the following morning,
so it’s another of these places you wonder why you’re actually there - arrive at dusk, leave early – but I think
it was just to break the journey to Inle Lake.