BAGAN / POPA MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

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Geo: 21.3667, 95.4667

We woke to our last morning in Inle Lake. As we walked around the hotel grounds on our way to breakfast, we noticed about a dozen military personnel perched at various spots around the facility, a few holding machine guns. (In Myanmar, it is illegal to photograph the military and police, so sorry, no pictures.) As we ate our breakfast, the table of distinguished looking Asian gentlemen and their wives next to us had finished and we're leaving. As they exited the doors of the restaurant, the military guys all assembled in formation and left with them. We then learned that we had been having breakfast with the Prime Minister of Thailand. Yep....that's how we roll.

We then took a tour bus with our tour expedition leader, guides, and the nine in our group, through the towns on our way back to the Heho Airport. We stopped at a little shop where they make paper and paper umbrellas, and then flew on to Bagan. Outside of the airport, our local guide, Nina, took us by an isolated dusty village where we visited the locals. One of the women in our tour group had brought soccer balls and games from home, so we stopped by the village elementary school to give them to the kids. These children rarely see foreigners, and were completely intrigued. We were impressed by how these kids shared and looked out for each other.

An hour's drive then brought us higher into hills draped with green vegetation, and ultimately to our ecolodge in Popa Mountain National Park, which boasts some of the most panoramic vistas in Myanmar. After lunch, we stopped to visit a sacred monastery on top of an extinct 5,000-foot volcano, Taungkalat. We climbed up the 920 steps to the summit, taunted by cheeky macaques along the way, and were rewarded with a magnificent view across the park.

The entire country of Myanmar is about the size of Texas, yet today we left the series of lakes and canals around Inle Lake, drove through the dry, dusty, desert-like village outside of the Bagan airport, and ended up in the mountain jungle of Popa Mountain.

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Comments

[Rachel Trainer]

Looks like you guys are having an unbelievable time! Love the elephants.....of course! Miss you both! Rachael