Dalama Adventures Tale of two corporate types ditching their jobs and traveling the world for 14 months... check out all photos, blogs & interesting tid bits at http://www.dalama.net

We have outdone our Indian experience of being the tourist attraction for the locals here in Mandalay.  So much so, that the local girls wanting their picture with us - after working up the nerve to ask us, ended up blowing it up into a glossy postcard sized photo all laminated and ready for show and tell!  Apparently there's a service at these religious monuments that cater to tacky tourism, and now we are part of the real life post card commerce here.

We hired a blue taxi - a mini tuk-tuk type truck with seating for 4 in the back for the day to tour the ancient cities surrounding Mandalay.  We played full on tourist today, our first stop to visit a monastery and see the hundreds of monks line up for their only meal of the day.  We crossed the famous teak U Bein's Bridge that is 1.2k long, into the town of Pahtodawagyi where we had a blast with the young local children practicing and teaching English phrases.  The highlight of each day really is our interaction with children and curious teenagers who just seem to follow you around, and imitate hat you do... Trying to pick up on westerner actions and speech.  Before you know it, you have a crowd of curious onlookers following your for miles, and they don't want to sell you anything, then just simply want to be around you and learn from you.  It's so refreshing - I could just spend days hanging out with these kids- their curiosity, enthusiasm and kindness are infectious.