Hotel and Palm Products

We started Day 1 in Bagan with a nice breakfast at our hotel.  It was nice to see the hotel in the daylight, it was very pretty.

We hadn't brought our swimsuits so we didn't get to make use of the pool, but it was still worth taking pictures of.

See how it's all surrounded by little temples?  So exotic.

Then we made arrangements to have a driver for the day.  Which was a pretty nice arrangement, he took us everywhere we wanted to go for 70 dollars.  There were 6  of us so it's a good deal!

The first stop is a toddy and jaggery (palm sugar) shop.

When we first got out of the car we saw peanut oil being made.

We got to hop on and watch from the inside too!  As the animal walks the mortar rotates and presses the oil out of the peanuts and it comes out of a little spout in the bottom.

A local family lives and works at the shop.  Here is one of the little ones with her Mama playing with a piece of palm frond.

They both have Thanaka on their faces.  Isn't she so CUTE?

To get the sap from the trees they have long ladders they attach to the trees and climb up, then they hack off a frond and place a clay pot under it to collect it as it drips out.  They switch the pots out twice a day at certain times or it is not any good.

They can distill the sap into alcohol:

  Also palm sugar which they make into candy:

They don't waste the palm fronds either, they use them to make useful things, as well as toys and decorations:

Obviously we had to sample the wares:

 The alcohol was very stout and the sugar was very sweet.  We bought a packet of the candies.  On that note Matt tried one when we were in the hotel and after that started telling me we should share with some of the boys.  I thought he was crazy.  Share my exotic sugar candy? Um, I don't think so. Until we got home and I tried one.  Well...forget sharing, give it away completely!!!!  Get it out of the room!  I had to eat 3 Oreos to get the taste out of my mouth.  YUCK!!!! Actually the ones that we tried at the shop were very nice.  However the packet had clearly been sitting out in the sun for too long and had gone off.  Very, very off.  So, I can only recommend trying the ones you buy before you drive off into the sunset.  Figuratively speaking.  That way you can be sure to have something to enjoy and not make your room smell sour and your breath smell worse.

Before we stop, I want to share one more picture.  See these clay pots?

 If you come to Myanmar you will see many of them alongside the road.  They are community water jars.  You know, instead of community fountains.  I think its endearing the way they do things here the old way.  I also would never drink from them, personally.  In Moldova it was safe to drink from the wells because they were clean and the culture was such that the wells were respected.  In Myanmar you really need to know where your water is coming from.  As in, a sealed bottle or filtered tap.  As a visitor that is.  Just saying. 

Ok.  Enough for now. Keep in touch, we are enjoying the emails we have been getting!