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Five neighboring villages host a rotating market in this part of the Shan State. The market was being held in Heho on the day I left Nyaungshwe, so that's where I went.
It was colourful of course but it would have been more exotic had these people not lost the custom of wearing their traditional costumes.
In this area, the people are mostly Shan (Tai), Burman, Palaung (Bulang) or Pa'o (Karen). It's hard to tell, just from her appearance, what group this girl driving her bullocks, could belong to. I would wager however, that the novice and girl below were Shan...
These young men in the buffalo market were Burman, I know because I asked them. And so was the boy wearing a longyi on the left below.
The Pa'o or white Karen are numerous in this part of the Shan State. These ladies selling chillies and the shopping couple on the left below, seemed proud to wear their Pa'o dress. The two ladies running a food stall on the right said they were Shan.
After Heho, another long, uncomfortable ride in the crowded box of a pickup truck brought me to Meiktila where I spent the night before going on to Mandalay. There is'nt much to see in Meiktila except the monastery where I took a shot of these novices.
The next leg was a comfortable 5 hour ride in a modern bus to Mandalay. It was so much nicer than travelling in the crowded pickup trucks and slow bullock carts that we passed on the way!
This composite panoramic picture shows the southwest corner of Mandalay Fort, looking up the western moat on the left and the southern one on the right.
And this is a small part of the Mandalay Palace in the center of the fort.
Looking north, up the eastern moat towards Mandalay Hill with the lookout on top.
Mandalay has many Buddhist temples and monasteries but also some churches, Hindu and Sikh temples and mosques. This is the 29th Street mosque.
These lions guard the entrance to the 1700 step covered stairway going up Mandalay Hill. Fortunately you can also go up by mini van which is of course what I did. I took some pictures from the top but there was too much haze and they did not turn out well enough to show on my site.
These two gentlemen who are staying at the Royal Hotel like me invited me out to try some excellent Burman delicacies. Zin Myint and Kyan Thinn had left the army where they had been high ranking officers to become businessmen in the lumber industry. We had an interesting conversation about Burman culture and the economy but they very carefully avoided my queries about ethnic minorities and the government.
