The next day we went to watch working elephants in the jungle. What a great trip. 10 of us hired a little boat and we had to go about 2 hours down the river and then walk for about 2 hours in the jungle until we found the working elephants. It was great to watch them pulling the massive big trees in the jungle , they are so strong. Trev and some other boys were allowed to sit on the elephants while they were working. Us girls were not allowed to do so.

Well, I will make my story short now.

After Hsipaw we went to a beautiful place called Bagan. Bagan is a very wondrous sight in Burma. Across 40 sq. km of country stand thousands of stupas (Buddhist religious monuments) and temples. In every direction you’ll see ruins of all sizes – huge and glorious temples soar towards the sky. Classifying the ancient monuments of Bagan by style and age is made difficult by the vast number of archaeological sites. The official count by the end of the 13^th century is said to have been 4446. The last count was taken in 1978, when archaeologists found 2230 identifiable sites, however, these figures do not include brick mounds, which would give a total of nearly 4000 separate visible sites. Again we hired bicycles which makes the sites much more accessible than on foot. For a panoramic view of as many temple ruins and stupas as possible you can climb up some temples and they are beautiful spots for catching the sunset.

After Bagan we left for Inle Lake, which is 22 km long, roughly 11 km wide and it has very calm waters dotted with patches of floating vegetation (floating gardens) and busy fishing canoes. High hills rim the lake on both sides, the lakeshore and lake islands bear 17 villages on stilts. The typical motorboat trip on the lake was not bad – we saw some floating gardens, fishermen, floating markets etc. But all in all we found the lake area like Bagan a bit to touristy and preferred much more the little villages in the North.

Back in the capital Yangoon we met a monk in a park who asked us if we would join him and go with him to his English class. We agreed to do so and spend an afternoon in a classroom speaking and teaching some very interested Burmese children English. After a couple of hours in the classroom some of them invited us for a coup of tea in a tea house and thanked us for taking the time to take to them and help them with their English.

We had wonderful experiences in Burma/Myanmar and the people there are one of the most friendly  people we have ever met in the world.  

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