First on the itinerary for today was a visit to an elephant sanctuary in the jungle about one hour's drive from Kalaw. This turned out to be a charming enterprise run by some very dedicated people, committed to ecology, conservation and the welfare of ex-logging elephants in need of some special care. They deliberately avoid the tacky circus-like activities that one finds in some of the elephant camps in Thailand, for example. So we got to feed them with bananas, and the braver members of our party also participated in bating the elephants in the nearby river. Then it was time for each of us to plant a teak seedling, which 80 years from now will hopefully have grown into a mature tree. Unfortunately, much of the teak forests in Burma have already been decimated, so it is good to see that there are local people seeking to reverse this situation.
After a mid-morning feast of local goodies, it was on to the starting point for our ride to Pindaya. This was a much more leisurely ride than yesterday's, through some beautiful scenery - apparently some of the best that Burma has to offer. Lots of road construction going on, which made riding a bit interesting at times. Our route also took us through several villages, where the local children were very excited to see these strange people riding through and shouted out mingelabar (hello) to us as we passed by.
After checking into our hotel we paid a visit to the famous Golden Cave, which is a natural limestone cave system that has been filled with over 8000 Buddha statues. Not sure whether this is totally awesome or the epitome of tackiness, but certainly has to be seen to be believed.
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