In search of an Empire.Siam,Burma and Singapore.

[drron]

So to the nunnery-

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Note the locked phone.Right on cue it rang-

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At that stage everyone went upstairs but I was summonsed by one nun who I thought was going to show me her room.Instead I was ushered into the room of the head nun aged 97.She did look her age.I was asked to take a photo which I did but don't feel right posting it.I presume I was then given a blessing,asked to go to her bedside where she took my hand and said thank you-one of the 3 phrases I know.But back to the nuns.This is their shower area-

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The senior nuns get a cubicle with the largest for the head nun.

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[drron]

The head nun's lunch-she is still good on the tooth-

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This father was extremely proud of his new daughter.He wanted all of us to take a photo-

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Then up the main hill to Soon U-Ponnyashin pagoda.Famous as it's statue of Buddha is said to contain 2 of his hairs.

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[drron]

Once again amazing decorations-

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The food offerings are given to the monks who then give them to the poor.That is what is left after the birds have had their fill.

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The views are also great-

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And a Buddhist retreat that our guide spent 3 weeks at.Looks peaceful-

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[drron]

So more pagoda pics plus views-

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[drron]

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So if you get to Mandalay I recommend a visit to this pagoda on Sagaing hill.

 

[drron]

So back on the bus and the next stop a silversmith.Though I think I've found where the tooth fairy exchanges teeth for silver-

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I went outside and observed the passing parade-

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[drron]

So now it was off to Ava the site of an old royal palace.It was built of teak but demolished and the wood used elsewhere-the Golden Palace monastery and the U-Bein bridge.Looked rural and our ferry was waiting for us to cross a tributary of the Ayarwaddy-

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The horse carts were waiting-

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The cart stopped briefly at what is supposed to be the leaning Tower of Ava.Reaally difficult taking a shot when your body is in such an uncomfortable position in the back of a Burmese horse cart.Didn't really appear to be leaning.

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[drron]

Fortunately a respite when we reached a monastery-

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Earthquake damage-

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[drron]

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Views back to Sagaing-

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But then back on the cart before we thankfully reached the river and our transport back to Orcaella-

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People who have no land-and land is still being taken without compensation by the authorities-live on a raft on the river-

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[RooFlyer]

So back on the bus and the next stop a silversmith.Though I think I've found where the tooth fairy exchanges teeth for silver-
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<snip>.

Dang! No silver shop on my tour .... That might have been more affordable than the gold leaf!

 

[drron]

Not surprisingly mrsdrron found herself something to buy at the gold leaf shop,silk shop and silversmith!

After our visit to Ava we motored downstream.Some random pics-

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[drron]

Sunset is approaching and you all know what that means by now-

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[drron]

Some shots of breakfast on the Orcaella-

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The Christmas eve dinner-

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[drron]

We both had the scallops and the Halibut.both were sensational.The halibut rates as one of the best fish dishes I have had.

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After dinner we were invited upstairs.At first I thought it was the pool decorations-

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But we were told to look over the side-

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2014 candles floating down the river.A Christmas I will not forget.
To finish off some more of that afternoon and sunset-

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[drron]

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

John Lennon.
Well my Christmas was so different to any previous Christmas Days.Just the 2 of us.I started by going ashore at 0700 for breakfast in Yandabo village.Only 8 of us did this but as well as brekkie we were rewarded with a much longer tour of this pottery village.So our restaurant-

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Food consisted of samosas,tempura,fried dough and rice flour cakes-

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We weren't the only guests for breakfast-

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But this fellow had obviously pigged out the night before-

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[drron]

This is what you come to Burma for-the people.These kids had come to watch us eat-

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Yandabo is a pottery village with lots of poultry-

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Small boats bring in the clay and take out the pots-

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[drron]

This young lady is the pot decorator using different wooden blocks-

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The women do most of the physical work-

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Men have a different way of carrying-

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The young woman in the purple got me.I was handing out lollies to the children.We had pooled all that our table of 8 had been given by Santa.This young lady after putting down her pots came over to me and told me it wasn't fair as I was taking photos of the children and giving them lollies but taking the women's photos and giving them nothing.And she said it in English though a little mangled.Soon I had all the women around me demanding their lolly!

This old fellow had a great story that I will tell next-

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[drron]

This fellow had lived in the village all his life.Probably in his 80s but wasn't too sure.He was proud of the fact that 6 of his grandchildren had graduated from University-

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However that just highlighted the problem.One of his granddaughters was a teacher.She spent 6 years teaching but returned to the village as she could make more money here.On retirement a teacher gets the princely pension of 600K($US0.60c) a month.A principal teacher gets 1200K per month.

The pots are dried in the sun for a few days or under the house in wet season.They then get fired but they have no kilns.They use everything in this process.The district grows a lot of peanuts so the shells are used-

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Kindling to start the fire and sawdust-

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Straw is used to separate the layers of pots-

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The base of the kiln.In this case sawdust and a generous layer of kindling-

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[drron]

Men working hard and women being beautiful-

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Now this lady is showing us her collection of Nats-spirit worship which at least 60% of the population believe in.I liked the nat who was a hard drinker so he has to be given what he likes.Here the popular Mandalay rum-

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So I taught our guide the Australian word for the worship of this Nat-the "pub".

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A kiln which has just been started with a fellow letting just a little air in-

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[Clivem]

.........I started by going ashore at 0700 for breakfast in Yandabo village.Only 8 of us did this .............

Bingo ........for as long as I can I hope I will always be part of the 'Yep let's get up early and go explore the real world' contingent ...... Nice to see there some that think and do the same.

Aside from family and friends one of the few possessions I treasure is my camera. Clearly you do as well ..... lots of shoots to get the few real 'keepers' and the edit being half the fun ........You are clearly going the extra mile ......consistent forum friendly pixel resizing and the full stop 'dot' spacers .......don't think it goes unnoticed. Really nice stuff thanks.