Myanmar day 7

Myanmar day 7 starts with 5.45am breakfast then 7am flight to Heho. The bus that meets us is necessarily small to take us on a very slow bumpy ride deep into rural Shan State. But the agricultural land here is much better organised than around Mandalay and Bagan. The fields are clean and clearly delineated, growing a wide range of crops. The earth is bright red, identical to the soil and cliffs in South Devon. We see growing ginger, tangerines, maize, mustard, bananas, tea, cheroot, shallots, onions, mangos, wheat, various pulses, the yellow flowers of sesame, and of course rice. We stop to say hello to a group working in the fields, they are picking and stripping maize. Another stop is to talk to some ladies in the road collecting donations for a nearby new monastery under construction. Also here a man is washing his ox in the lake. Next a village and we stop at the school; the kids all run away from us but I get a good photo of some playing football and some braver souls who eventually venture nearer. Some of these children are novice monks who are released from their monastery to attend school. Lunch is in a lakeside restaurant, brown bean and red pea soup followed by pork, chicken and fish curries, delicious. Then a parasol workshop, very small and basic but beautiful end products which several of our group buy. Then something amazing. A cave. The Pindaya Natural Cave. It is actually a series of large caves with man-made pathways through the complex and it is PACKED with buddhas, 9000 of them, all sizes, many 2m high, going way up into the cave roofs. This is Shwe U Min pagoda it is an incredible place. We overnight in the small market town of Kalaw where we have dinner in a VERY local caf.. Best Wishes to you all, John