Elephants & Caves

We left Bagan by private van to go to Kalaw, a small town up in the mountains. 

After a short drive we stopped at a place where the show how to make peanut oil the old way, having an ox walking round and round pulling the grinder.

We were also shown how the get the juice out of the fruits on the toddy palm, to make toddy. 

Last but not least they showed how palm sugar candy, Jaggery is made.

The drive continued on very curvy mountain roads until we reached Kalaw district. 

Here we had a rememberable experience at the “Green Hill Valley Elephant Camp”

A place where they look after retired log elephants and disabled domestic elephants. The government recently forbid working elephants.

At the moment they have 8 elephants at the camp.

The go find them every morning to check them, feed them and bathe them before letting them free again.

We got to meet four of the elephants and fed them pumpkin, banana stem and grass.

You put it in their mouth or trunk. How amazing!!!

Then we got in the river to bathe and scrub them.

Loved it!!!

Before we left we met the vet that talked about their job at the camp, and how they make “poo paper” from the dung.

Altogether a wonderful experience!

It was late when we reached Kalaw. Myself and S found a lovely little bar, no bigger than a closet where we spent our evening.

The next morning we hade a little bit of time before our train departed so we took a walk to a cave, full of Buddha statues. Over 8000 of them scattered everywhere inside this natural cave with narrow patches and small halls. Fascinating!

The train left almost on time and a couple of rocky and bumpy hours we reached Shwe Nyaung. From here we got a van to Nyaung Shwe. 

This is by the Inle Lake which we will explore tomorrow.