The following morning we went to the Pansadan ferry point, queued to buy a ticket and waited in a large hall with dozens of locals for the ferry to take us across the river. There were more stall holders on the riverside selling fruit, veg and fish all of which looked beautifully fresh
As soon as the ferry arrived the crowd surged forward to get on board
There were more hawkers on the boat, all shouting out what they had for sale
The river was busy with other boats and fishermen
We landed at Dalah, a small but busy rural village- it was quite a contrast to the city only 15 minutes away. Of course there was lots more stalls with interesting produce for sale, not sure what these are, they weren't little tomatoes ....
Below is a Betel seller. He smears slaked lime on a leaf, adds a pinch of tobacco and wraps it around an areca nut, this is then popped into the mouth and chewed. It gives a 'buzz' and like cigarettes is addictive and can cause cancer. It also produces red saliva which not only stains and rots the teeth, but causes the red splats frequently seen on the streets
There was a bicycle taxi rank, many were keen to offer us a ride but the village we wanted to visit was an hours drive away so we politely declined
A kind stranger who spoke a little english took us to his 'friend' who was a taxi driver and negotiated for him to drive us for the morning and take us to the places we wanted to visit.
We drove through some beautifully green countryside but it was quite hard to enjoy as our driver drove very fast, at one point we nearly took off going over a humpback bridge!
Only 40 minutes later (!) we arrived in Twante, a village known in Myanmar for it's cotton-weaving and pottery. We left the tarmac road, went down several dirt tracks to arrive outside a simple bamboo and banana leafed workshop, inside was the pottery. One man was trampling some clay
another starting to make a pot
he turned the wheel with his foot, but when he needed both hands to raise the pot another man took over spinning the wheel by hand
Behind them were stacks of pots
and nearby the kiln, (very similar to the old dragon kiln I had visited in Singapore) being stacked with pots ready for firing
There were also some ladies smoothing pots with a pebble
Back outside was a family of goats and a large pig sheltering from the sun under a huge tree
A few streets further on we came to some weavers at looms underneath a covered area to the side of a house
The looms seemed simply built but complicated to operate and the expert weavers were creating beautiful textiles
Our next stop was to Baungdawgyoke Pagoda. It contains a small shrine in the middle of a lake connected by four long wooden walkways
It is also known as Snake Temple, as there are several large pythons inside the pagoda-even dangling from the windows
fortunately they all seemed to be fast asleep
Our driver then took us back to Dalah and the ferry (just as fast but safely) and we returned to the other side of the river.
In the late afternoon I went for a walk around Kandawgyi lake and saw Karaweik Palace, built in 1974 it now contains a restaurant
as the sun started setting I had a lovely view of the Shwedagon Pagoda again
We had had another fascinating day and seen a little bit of rural Myanmar, I was looking forward to tomorrow and a trip into the hills to the East of Yangon that extend into neighbouring Thailand
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