To Kalow

A 5am wake up call so we could be in another town to catch the 8am train to Kalow. Could have stayed in bed for much longer as when we arrived at the station we found out the train wasn't going to come til 10am ... or maybe later!!! 

No problem as there was a pretty good market in the town that we were  keen to check out and also a pharmacy! I needed antihistamine creamfor some  very impressive  bed bug bites. It's the first time I've ever experienced those so didn't really recognise what they were at first and went back for more the next night. They got pretty bad as I react very strongly to that sort of thing. My visit to the pharmacy was interesting as they were insisting on selling me antifungal cream. Eventually I went away with some Chinese stuff which they reckon was the right thing but who knows. The stuff another person in the group gave me worked much better and it actually said 'antihistamine ' on the tube😊

Lots of beautiful vegetables at the market and also fish and meat. This is about the time I turn vegetarian, although I must say many of the chickens and fish were still live. This is an area where they grow many fruits and vegetables, especially beans, cabbages, tomatoes and avocados. Many of the meals include these.

Back to the train..... not leaving at 10am... maybe 11 am or maybe later. So we entertained ourselves on the station doing a lot of people watching and attempting to converse with the locals. The people are lovely and very friendly and not touristed out yet. They also haven't learnt to be aggressive in trying to sell you stuff.

Our tickets were for upper class and although the train was old it was quite comfortable as long as you didn't need to use the toilet. Geraldine walked in to one and came out 10 seconds later gagging . We we pleased to see that our ticket price included life insurance... we thought it was worth about a $200 payout.

Loved the train trip when we eventually got started at about 11 .30 am. It was very slow so we got to see lots of villages and people close up. 

At the stations there were many different snacks to buy and I particularly liked the cold boiled sweet potato.

From the station we had another bus ride to our hotel, which is a lovely colonial style building with nice gardens. Kalaw was founded by British civil servants as a retreat from the heat of the lower areas., and is a very pleasant laid back town. The Japanese also had a hospital here during the war and its now a hotel.

Our hotel is a little way from the town so we are going to be driven in for dinner, then no doubt it'll be drinks on the verandah of the hotel before bed.. This is routine now.

Kalaw is known as a trekking centre and tomorrow half of the group are going off trekking for the day. The rest of us are just going to enjoy a sleep in and a lazy day in very pleasant surroundings,