Earlier: January 8 in Yangon

Backtracking to our second day in Myanmar, at the Shwedagon Paya, Yangon's stunning temple complex.  C is pouring water over the Buddha of her day of birth (Monday).  H did the same for the Tuesday Buddha.

Monks picking up any fallen pieces of gold at the end of the day.

• This particular spot has a reputation for answering prayers.

Outside one of the four entrances.

Nuns in pink.

Our journey begins: Yangon, Kalaw to Bagan

Haney here - My apologies for the delay in posting and for the shortness of descriptions that will accompany this first message on the road. We've been in Myanmar/Burma almost 3 weeks and the internet here is quite challenging. We are seeing some really wonderful scenes while at the same time having to struggle a bit to make progress.  Currently in Hsipaw and will fly to Bangkok on Jan 29th.

The initial plane ride was surprisingly easy. I had never been on planes for 20 hours.  Traveling west is better than the reverse and watching three movies helps burn up time. Started in Yangon and had a hard time there, crossing the street reminded me of the game Frogger but everyone seemed to make it across safely while in our view.  Locals seem to have a very different sense of what level of traffic danger they are willing to accept. Too many taxis getting stuck in traffic too long and making up for it with speed when the lanes are free, no matter if pedestrians are halfway across the road or no.  Odd that they drive on the right but have steering wheels on the right.  And honking is mandatory, to scare, to greet, just for the fun of it it seems. Also strange that they are 30 minutes off all other time zones. Seriously. Reset your watch by 1/2 hour. I saved the photos of Yangon to my laptop which we left there so will have to post those later.   Anyway, the heat, pollution, jetlag and lack of being able to navigate easily made us want to get out of the huge city.

So we flew to Kalaw. A nice, small town. We arrived on market day which occurs about every 5 days.  People from a variety of local villages brought produce in. I came down with a bug so Caroline went for a day hike by herself. 

Here is famous Kalaw trekking guide J.P. who maintained a slow but steady pace.

After Kalaw, we took a 7 hour bus ride to Bagan - the land of pagodas. We decided not to do any more long bus rides after that.

At this point the internet slows down to the point that I'll have to post this and take up again when possible.

Hope everyone who is reading this is doing well!

Not the Freedom Ride. At a bus stop between Kalaw and Bagan, we accepted the offer of segregated toilets. Later all the tourists on the bus had to file off and pay $20 to enter Bagan.