Have you missed us

Have you missed us? Ron and I have been outside of Yangon for the past 12 days and have had no Internet, newspaper, or TV. Imagine! It has been wonderful to divorce ourselves from the rest of the world and immerse ourselves in the slow pace of the countryside. Leaving Yangon we flew on a 72 seat prop plane to Heho airport an hours drive on rough roads to the town of Naungshwe. All flights require you to reconfirm a day ahead. Your guesthouse manager will take your tickets and do this for you. We have found that all flights will be later than you are told. The planes come roaring down the runway, taxi as close to the small terminals as possible, unload passengers and baggage as fast as they can, then load the waiting passengers and roar off down the runway. About 10 minutes turnaround. A bit unsettling, but somehow it seems to work. It is very crowded with tourists and most of the flights and hotels are full. We have been most fortunate in that we came here thinking we could just leave all up to chance, but times have changed. Thankfully our hostess at the charming Inn we stayed in Yangon called ahead to the next Naungshwe and we slipped into the Princess Cottages on a cancellation. Only eight cottages in a lovely garden, and a pool. The town is small, diet roads mostly, abit funky and low key. But, we relaxed in our garden at the edge of town listening to birds, crickets and locals riding their bikes singing out loud. Chanting morning and night from the nearby monastery. We could walk the entire town, or better, ride a one speed bicycle. Nearby was the best restaurant in town which we ate at each nite. Awaking with the sunrise, in bed around 8:30. We could only stay 4 nites as he was booked up, so we ended up reserving a bungalow about an hours boat ride away on Inly Lake. The bungalow was on stilts on the water. Most people hire boats to take them around the lake visiting small towns, markets, and the usual tourist things like silversmiths, weavers of local textiles, cigar makers. And the many temples. Every place mostly shacks on stilts, dirt roads, very poor existence. But the people are cleaver, and have created floating gardens for veggies on little man made islands and the fishermen go out each day in tiny narrow wooden canoe and control the rudder/oar with their foot as they man the nets. Sunsets are brilliant and then the roar of all the boat engines taking all the travelers on the lake becomes silence. Sky filled with bright stars and nothing to do but eat dinner and read a book. After a very mellowing 6 nights in these two places, we took an afternoon boat back across the lake to town, then a bicycle rickshaw to our bungalow where our manager had our airline tickets. He informed us that the plane would be an hour later. This was no surprise. The hospitality was so gracious. We hung out there, they served us cool smoothies and later watermelon, arranged our taxi to the airport and took care of all of our needs. No charge. After an hour ride back to the airport we waited just a bit longer,than we thought. Met a nice couple from England who happened to be on our flight and staying at the same hotel we reserved. Then there was a commotion and a group of young Burmese moved as one towards us and announced in very accented English that our airline, Yangon Air, was not coming, but they would put us on Mandalay Air. We were whisked onto the flight with our bags before as the plane was running late and was doing the fast turn around. After we took off, we discovered we were not going straight to Bagan as we planned, but flying to Mandalay first, then flying to Bagan. oh well, you just have to give up control and go with it. Bagan is one of the most unique and special places on earth. Thousands of temples on a vast plain. To make up for the extra landing and takeoff, we came in just as the sun was setting over Bagan and was rewarded with incredible views. When we got to the the hotel we found that our room had a most outstanding view. We were located adjacent to the architectural reserve and from our second floor room, we could look out over the plain and see hundreds of temples. Breathtaking. At night, several of the larger temples were lit up. This is many miles of temples. Mornings by sunrise we had a show of six huge balloons lifting over the plain, tourist ten to a basket paying $300 to view the temples from the air. We got to watch from below. Renting bicycles we rode several days over gentle hills to many of the temples. We chose to forgoe a guide so we could elude the regular tourist groups. Afternoons were so hot that we would return to our hotel and lay by the ice cold pool to refresh. Sunset we would bike off again for another show. Amazing light. Evenings, dinner outside on the patio. Simple curries, vegetables, rice. Very very simple. We flew back to Yangon late last nite. Back to our lovely Inn which we reserved when we left. The entire trip we have been blessed to have very nice accommodation and people looking out for us, "minding our journey". One last day and then back to Thailand to rendezvous with our dear friend Jim and another phase of the trip. So, from my sweet bed at the Classique Inn, looking out the window to the top of the temple light in the distance, we send you greetings Burmese style, "Mingalaba"