Burma - Myawaddy

So finally we hand over our passports to Burmese immigration officials and find our feet on Burmese soil in Myawaddy! We have waited so long for this and the afternoon did not disappoint. As we walk along the main street it is evident that Myawaddy has very few signs of Westernisation. No Coke signs, no KFC and no modern cars. What we find instead are lovely people who burst in to smile when we smile and say Mingla Ba (hello in Burmese)! We wander up an amazing market full of beautiful colours, smells and a wide variety of Burmese produce and textiles. If you look closely you see people working in the back of these stalls - on old fashioned Singer sewing machines - running up shorts and tops to sell. We have never experienced anything like this before. As we wander back along the main streets we see a man carrying a large bundle of Burmese money on his shoulder - can you imagine this on the streets of Musselburgh! Albeit their money is worth very little so it may not have been the thousands of pounds it looked like. After collecting our passports (thankfully) we walk back across the river which marks the border between Thailand and Burma. We are all deep in thought about the "problems" the Burmese people face and what the future holds for them. PS WE ARE HAVING HUGE PROBLEMS FINDING INTERNET ACCESS IN CHIANG MAI. THIS COMPUTER DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A WORKING RETURN KEY!! PHOTOS TO FOLLOW WHEN WE ARRIVE HOME.