Christmas in Myanmar

How weird it feels to be surrounded by so many foreigners after three months of seeing only Myanmar people everyday. I'm treating myself to all luxuries available in Nyaung Shwe: hotel with swimming pool, real pizza, beef mignon, Burmese massage, boat ride in the lake,... Wonderful...

I managed to avoid paying the $10 fee they charge to foreigners to enter Inle Zone by showing my VSO card, it was quite easy, didn't involve a long negotiation process. I was spotted at the checkpoint among the 20 passengers in the pickup from coming from Taunggyi.

Girls making Shan paper

Puppet show

At The Golden Kite, the pizza place, I heard a group of tourists speaking Spanish and couldn't resist approaching them. They were travelling with a Myanmar guide who spoke Spanish with a Mexican accent; she had had a Mexican teacher in Yangon. Then, at the massage place I met an Austrian woman travelling on her own who had done an Erasmus in Valencia 18 years ago. Small world!!! It was a family business and I had the son massaging my whole body, lucky he was not a heavy guy as Burmese massage means someone standing on top of you at some point. Great experience....

At dinner time I was invited to Christmas cake by a large group of British/New Zealanders who were celebrating their last night in the country. I ended my day at a puppet show and learnt from some Vietnamese tourists in the audience how puppet shows are performed in the water in Vietnam. Interesting!!!

I spent my second day at the lake, it's so beautiful and relaxing there.I got a small present from a girl at a market, it turns out that she knew me from the college as she was a trainee there. On my way back to Taunggyi, I met a German traveller on the pickup, quite attractive by the way, and had a friendly chat with him all the way home. All in all, a very pleasant weekend to start savouring the holidays.


Next week, I'm heading for Bagan, then Ngwesaung Beach and Yangon. I can't wait!!!