Trekking in Shan State - Part 4

In the afternooon on February 10th, we arrived at our destination for that day: Manau. We checked out the village monastery, where there is one home for monks and another for nuns. The nuns made us a massive and delicious meal!




Here's a 30 second exposure of a stupa overlooking the monastery grounds at night:




That night the moon was really, really red. I saw it and immediately grabbed my camera, took around 40 shots, of which maybe 5 turned out ok. This is a cropped frame, but not enlarged:




We slept that night in Manau with warm blankets protecting us from the frigid temperatures outside, and woke up on February 11th feeling terrific.

Part of the monastery in the morning:




We passed by the home of the nuns on our way out of town, and some of them came to the windows to wave goodbye, like this one:




This was the final leg of our actual walking expedition from Hsipaw to Namhsan, and it wasn't the easiest day by any means. If anything, it was harder as the sun was ridiculously intense and there was even less shade than on previous days. The hill climbs were really steep and I found it extremely challenging. We stopped in a bit of shade by these waterfalls for about 5 minutes at one point:




We made it to Namhsan, a very small mountain town that apparently serves as the local capital. After a nice freezing cold shower and some good food, the four of us went to bed in the only guesthouse in town. The walls between rooms, while visible, offered no resistance to the sound waves emanating from the room next to ours. Throughout the entire night, we were serenaded by the monstrous snoring of some sort of beast from the netherworld. It was by far the worst snoring I have ever heard, and I have heard some CRAZY loud snoring. In the morning the snorer woke up and walked past my room, the door of which was open as Scott was out for a minute. He looked in with a scowl on his face and let out a massive fart. I was glad we only stayed there one night.

That morning, we walked a short distance in town to wait for our 630am bus, which of course arrived around 9 or so. Turns out that February 12th was Burma's Union Day, so there were flags EVERYWHERE.




While waiting, we ate, joked around, etc. Luke, who's around my height (a little over 6 foot), decided to climb onto Scott's shoulders. Adding a 6 ft man to the shoulders of an estimated 6'9" man produced a monster that seemed to frighten some of the local children a wee bit:






Next post: Riding a bus loaded with tea leaves.