We cycled from the hotel to a local small village, with houses mainly made from bamboo to see how they make items to sell from bamboo including bowls, plates and decorative items. It was amazing to see them just get a big bit of bamboo and start to cut it down and using their toes to hold it as they cut through and pull away sections. We fed some goats as we walked through and bought a little black painted bamboo bowl with the middle section showing the bamboo and stopped with the locals preparing us green tea and nibbles similar to prawn crackers and nuts. I had my first facial here: in Myanmar they use Thake wood ground down and add water to it and then apply it to the skin as a natural sunscreen, some have extra over the cheeks and then brushed, so Emma and I both had this, and yes there are pictures to follow :-) Back on the bikes, cycled around and stopped at more pagodas. At lunch Xi had suggested we get a boat ride on the irrawaddy river to see the sunset, we all jumped at the chance. We cycled back to our amazing hotel with just enough time to have a jump in the pool which was amazing, change then short coach ride to river and we had 2 long boats between our group and some beers Xi had arranged for us all - it was lovely!!
