The next early morning after a standard breakfast of toast, egg and jam, we took a taxi to the bus station where we boarded the bus to Taungoo, only getting there early afternoon. We checked into a nice guesthouse overlooking the fields and toddy trees and took a beautiful teak room with quaint furnishings. With an Italian couple that had come on the same bus we decided to charter a taxi the next day to go and see elephants working at a logging camp in a natural reserve west of Taungoo. So a pick-up truck with driver and guide showed up at 5 am the next morning and we left shortly after, all seated in the back. Not too cool as the sun was rising soon anyway. As we entered the reserve the road became a sandy path through a rather dense jungle of teak, ironwood, bamboo and other sorts of trees. Some relatively small areas we passed were clear-cut and we were told that there are some reforestation projects ongoing (it takes 80 years for a teak tree to be ready to be cut). Here and there we also passed villages inhabited by Karen people (unfortunately without any visible signs). Our guide had to ask frequently where the elephants might be working. At this time of year (beginning of the hot season) they don't really work much and certainly not after 10 am. But being persistent we finally encountered 4 elephants around (that time) on the path ahead of us, going towards their camp. They agreed to take us with them for an hour or so (while the taxi was following us at a distance...). It wasn't as comfortable a ride as I had in Laos, but these elephants were not outfitted to carry tourists. It still was a lot of fun and it felt quite authentic (they were spraying spit all the time on themselves to cool off...). When we/they had enough, we boarded our truck and we drove to a point where we had to (jungle-)hike for a while through a river(bed) in order to reach a small elephant logging camp. A mother and (playful) baby elephant showed up after a while and their handlers gave us a good demonstration of how elephants push big teak logs with their trunks or drag them with chains. Naturally we had to give them a small tip for this, but I certainly had my money's worth!
That evening we went out into town and had tea snacks (incl. paratas) in a typical teashop. The next day was a rest day that started off with a large breakfast served outside with all sorts of typical Burmese morning snacks. The son of the guesthouse owner, a doctor, was there to explain lots of things to us as well. Later he took Papa to the train station and helped him secure tickets for the night train to Mandalay. Most of the day I played with his daughter around the house. We did take a hike into the fields and through a village at the end of the day. We saw a man climb a palm tree to collect juice to make toddy and people hoisting a bucket out of a well using a long bamboo lever. After dinner we waited at the guesthouse a few hours and the doctor and his family took us then to the train station. The train was only 90 minutes late and at 12:30 am we took off, seated on the hard wooden benches of "ordinary class". Our car was not overcrowded and we had 3 reserved seats, so I got a good sleep after all (my parents were only able to get some shut-eye). During the morning hours it was nice to see the scenery and when we stopped at a station there were a lot of vendors getting on the train. We arrived in Mandalay at 10 am.
