Thursday 17 November: NYAUNGSHWE to PINDAYA

An early start to avoid the heat and we are on the road by 7am. A rough ride out of the village to the bottom of the 7km climb: feared by a number of our group. In fact it is a pretty gentle ascent by Devon standards and Simon is King of the Mountain and I am First Lady (not that we are competitive or anything!) We are lucky to be part of a really lovely group. There are 14 of us and I reckon we are the 3rd or 4th youngest with the majority being retired. There is a young German couple who live in Switzerland, otherwise we are all from the UK: from Huddersfield, Derby, Brighton, London and Cambridge. We have eaten meals together and it has been a lot of fun so far.  At the top of the hill we visit an umbrella making family outlet where we watch them making paper from the bark of the mulberry tree, decorating with petals from bougenvilia and pointsettia leaves before assembling with bamboo and elephant wood. On the road again and the scenery is as stunning as ever. Small roads across the Shan Highland take us through remote rustic villages with smiling children calling "mingalar ba" - a general greeting of hello which literally means "Auspicious to you all".The fields are bright yellow but filled with sesame plants rather than rapeseed. We see oxen pulling wooden carts and men shreshing corn in the fields. There is bright red pointsettia growing by the side of the road and the occasional golden pagoda on the horizon. We are refreshed at regular intervals from the Exodus magic bus which provides fresh watermelon, bananas, peanut snacks and water. We are never left wanting. A pleasant descent takes us down into PINDAYA where we pass the lake to our hotel. We are disappointed to discover that the swimming pool is under renovation but we pass the time relaxing with a beer and some delicious ginger and lemon grass Tom Um soup before a snooze in the shade on our terrace. We the visit the PINDAYA caves (Shwe Umin meaning "golden cave") which contains more than 8000 gilded Buddha images. It is a voluminous cavern with a labyrinth of statues and stupas and although very impressive I'm afraid the phrase "seen one seen 'em all" comes to mind. Buddha'd out we have a Thai supper by the lake before an early night. We have a long day tomorrow.