Day 11 - To Kalaw, British Hill Station

Bit of a ragged start to the day, with the minibus that was to take us to the luxury bus to Kalaw spending about an hour running around picking up people in Bagan, in confusion that became comical, and then turning out to be our transport to Kalaw.

Not that big a problem, however, since we were a chummy little group...




the passing rural scenes held my interest, and we occasionally saw some odd stuff, even bizarre, like this giant duck barge that was over 200 feet long and 60+feet high.




Our route was from Bagan in the flat lowlands south east to Kalaw, at 4000+ feet in the Shan highlands. Most of the climbing took place in the last part of the trip.




Turns out SST had arranged a really nice place for us, Nature Land...



and after we checked in we immediately set out on a walking tour of the town, or so we thought. It was only after tromping a couple of miles that D (prompted by my rather aggressive griping) noticed the LP warning that this was actually a half-day trek around the city and its outskirts. We did see a catholic church where an Italian priest had served for 59 years until his death in 2000....


and an over-the-top Buddhist cave shrine, that took the religion somewhere Buddha could never possibly have imagined, let alone condoned.



It looked to me to be an attempt to out-kitsch the more extreme Catholic shrines, and I said so, unfortunately within earshot of an American tourist who I believe gave me a withering look - not sure because I elected to avoid her gaze that a caught out of the corner of my eye.

When we left the shrine I was thinking maybe we had been abandoned by Providence for the insult, because we had no real idea how to get back, and it was getting cold and darkening. We returned to a hotel we had passed and asked the host in reception to get us a cab. He was on the phone for a surprisingly long time, then came out with glasses of real orange juice for us. A few minutes later a very nice American car pulled up, and a well-dressed, composed, and almost distinguishing looking young man got out, saying he was to take us to our hotel. We had decided by that time to go to a restaurant we thought was near our hotel, and he explained that it was indeed very near our hotel, and (this is how good his English was) that it was "arguably" the best in Kalaw. He answered our questions about the shrine and some other things with clever diplomacy and humor, and proceeded to explain that it was his uncle managing the hotel where he'd picked us up who'd called him, and that that man's brother managed our hotel. When he dropped us off at the restaurant and I asked how much, he said no charge, it was a service of the hotel. (When we later got back to our hotel, the very sharp female desk clerk there said the driver was her brother.)

Quite a family, maybe on a par with the seven sisters who own, and give the name to, the restaurant where he dropped us off. And actually, the two families are related, by marriage. The clerk at our hotel is married to the brother who manages it.

Anyway, the restaurant story is that the sisters, who grew up in the house where the restaurant is located, decided to turn it into a restaurant after their mother was no longer living there.


Keep in mind, SST chose Nature Land, we just happened upon the hotel near the shrine out of desperation, and we picked the restaurant only because it was near our hotel.

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