Keung tong

After a good night’s sleep we woke up this morning and headed downstairs for the buffet breakfast at the hotel. Your typical eggs and bacon with the standard fruit and grilled tomatoes but also some noodles soups, fried rice, and John Denver playing on the sound system. Even after all of these years that never ceases to make me laugh. You can be sitting anywhere in any little corner of the world and they will be playing old U.S. songs.

Then we were off to airport. Our flight was at 10:30A. I found it on the board. Happy to have done so I waited to see notification of boarding for one of the only two flights on the schedule ahead of us. We were there 30 minutes before their take off times so I figured it would be soon. And I wanted to familiarize myself with the process – not because this is my first rodeo but because (1) there was only one door/gate to exit to the buses outside so the formation of a line in and of itself would in no way indicate that it was MY line and (b) because I don’t speak the local language to understand the announcements. Well, it would appear that, much like the fancy schedule board they installed at the never used airport in Anguilla, this board was just that – a schedule board for all of the flights for the day. It was not a reality board. Flight statuses never changed. No ‘proceed to the door’, no ‘Now boarding’. Nothing. So when I thought I heard Heho and 109 we got up and got into line. Luckily we were right. It was our plane departing exactly on time and with all of our remaining luggage. We felt quite blessed.

Speaking of luggage, no exact word on ours yet. We kept getting reassurances from our guides and our tour agency that it would arrive. And then it dawned on me. We were not being specific enough. Much like when we would vacation on some island somewhere and be hit with unfortunate rain. We would half jokingly ask someone ‘is it going to stop raining?’ And they would also answer, Yes. We weren’t being specific enough. Of course it was going to stop raining. It always had in the past. We just weren’t asking WHEN it was going to stop. So today we had the local guide in Kueng call and ask THAT question. Presumably it will be waiting for us in Kalaw two nights from now. Fingers crossed.

After we got settle in our hotel room here in Kueng tong, we headed out for our afternoon of sightseeing First stop the rice fields where they were in the process of harvesting. Some areas already cut and stacked. Some not cut at all. And some areas were being handcut because the weather last week blew the stalks down. Those had to be hand cut before the tractor could come in to cut the rest. Just a beautiful valley. Then off to see a palau village where folks still in live in VERY primitive conditions in wooden slat houses on stilts so the flood waters can flow underneath and the animals (buffalo, pigs, chickens etc) can stay there all of the rest of the time. Some of the older women in the village still do hand-weaving and were amenable to our watching and taking pictures with the tacit understanding that we would buy something. So we drank green tea and ate sunflower seeds and chatted. I marveled at the fact that these clearly older souls could do this fine work without eyeglasses. And then was shocked to learn that they were 65 and 70 years old. Apparently with great vision but with prematurely aged bodies from their very difficult lifestyle.

We stopped at the lake. Went by the Lone Tree on the Hill and the lacquer factory.  And on the way back the guide pointed out the one restaurant in town that the tourists seem to enjoy so we would know how to get there for dinner on our own. When we headed out, the jasmine trees along the hotel driveway were blooming and the perfume was really strong – so strong, in fact, that we knew we were nearly home again after dinner by that sweet aroma in the air long before we saw the hotel. Next: trekking for a day.

PS: Sorry no pretty rice filed photo. Have only had this brief window of opportunity for internet so didn’t take the time to load one.