Myanmar, Part 3

Our very short flight took us to the tiny Heho airport and it was blissfully cool when we got off the plane.  We hadn't felt temperatures in the 60's in almost a year!

No jetways or luggage carts here...it was pretty simple but surprisingly organized.

Baggage claim was pretty easy!

We had a massive van that day and the kids loved having a row to themselves.

We had about an hour's drive to Pindaya and the roads were fascinating.  This is one way to move a lot of people around.

Once a week, Heho has a livestock market and we stopped in to have a look.

Fields are still plowed with cattle or water buffalo and we saw lots of teams working as we drove around.  We also saw several carts pulled by cattle.

There was some traffic on the roads.  On a side note, the main roads we used were actually in really good condition, but many of the ones we saw are just one lane.  When you drive a big van, the other car generally has to move aside!  One more interesting fact - the driver sits on the right but also drives on the right.  Makes for some interesting times passing cars or turning corners.

We saw several people bathing and washing clothes in the ponds on the side of the road.

We stopped in one little village to walk around and watched women harvesting eggplant from their garden.

We also visited a man who dries tha nat phet leaves for making local cigars, called cheroots.  The leaves are pressed under the weights on a huge fire-heated stove and he fills tall baskets with the flattened leaves to sell to cheroot makers.

(Can't walk by a tiny kitten and not pet it!)

We met a lovely woman out moving her water buffalo along the road.

When we arrived to Heho, we checked into our charming hotel.  Apparently there are only two hotels in the town.  No a/c needed here when it gets in the 60's overnight!  It was a nice, traditional room but the thatched walls were not quite soundproofed.  We could tell the kids goodnight through the walls :)

The grounds were really pretty.

Ben loved the "Chinese water buffalo", some type of truck from China with the entire engine exposed.  Very useful and very loud.

We had lunch at a gorgeous restaurant on the shores of the little Pone Taloke Lake.  It was such a treat to sit outside in perfect weather and enjoy the view.  This does not happen in Jakarta.

At least one other Houston Texans fan has visited there and sadly forgot his hat.

After lunch, we drove up into the hills to the mouth of Pindaya cave, but first we enjoyed the view from the top.

Stupas everywhere!  Golden spires make everything so much prettier.

I was pretty curious to see the inside of Pindaya cave.  It has over 8,000 Buddha images, dating back to the 1700's.  It's so full they had to stop accepting more Buddhas.

They filled every nook and cranny!

I loved the ones in random places.  Some people were very creative when they placed the statues.

There were even some small rooms off the main caverns for prayer and meditation.

There is a legend about seven sisters being trapped by a giant spider and a prince coming to save them with his bow and arrow.  Alex had to check out the spider's mouth.

On our way out, we saw the kids from the nearby monastery loading up for a trip somewhere.  They were as fascinated with us as we were with them.

The next place we explored was a shop that creates handmade paper.  The kids watched a big sheet come together and then got to make their own.  First step, pounding out the pulp with wooden mallets. 

Next, they spread out their pulp on the tray and added some decorations.

After carefully lifting it from the water, we got to see their masterpiece and set it in the sun to dry.

The shop mainly uses the paper for wooden umbrellas.  The father had some fascinating tools customized to trimming and shaping all the pieces he needed for the umbrella frame.

Our last stop for the day we understood to be a tour of the local tea production, but it turned out to be so much more than that.  We went into a local family's home where they had prepared an afternoon tea for us with local treats.  We even made our own green tea salad, which we had never heard of and turned out to be absolutely delicious.

Our hosts were so thoughtful and generous and it was so interesting learning about their home, even through our guide Win-Win who was translating everything for us.  We found out we were only the fifth family to visit their home and tour the village.

They offered to let us try the thanaka on our faces and Ben and I willingly jumped in.  Alex hates having anything on his face and was less than excited, but he was a good sport and gave it a try as well.  It was nice and cool at first but then just felt like paint on my face.

The lovely family inside their main room.  The two older children, on either side, are the ones leading the tours.  They were shy to speak English to us but knew and understood quite a bit.  The mother and grandmother were just delightful.  I felt a bit like a giant in their home.

They took us through the village to see how they grow green tea, and also the other fruits and veggies they produce.  The local kids have not seen many white faces and some were thrilled while others were terrified of us.

Pindaya is full of these massive Banyan trees, most over 200 years old.

The village has its own tea warehouse to dry and sort it.  They have recently started exporting it to Germany and the US, which is pretty awesome considering it's such a small village with families growing tea in their backyards.

At this home, the ladies were rolling and sorting pickled tea for eating in the green tea salad.

It was such an incredible day and probably one of our favorites, because our afternoon in the village was pretty far off the beaten track.  It was one of those times that we were really happy we had a guide because we'd have never been able to do that on our own.  It was also a long day, starting with the sunrise in Bagan, and a flight and a drive, so the little guys were getting tired and cranky.  We asked a lot of them on this trip to tour around for hours a day and appreciate a different culture and they were awesome.

We were the only guests in the hotel restaurant that night and received very personalized service with four people waiting on us!  Then we had a lovely night with windows open and perfect temps in the morning.