Sheila is obviously adjusting to a new time zone so we decided to go for a gentle walk into Chinatown to see what was happening. What was happening was a free food and drink fair, not to mention other Chinese activities such as paper cutting. We both made a lantern- under the delightful supervision of a 10 year old!! We were taught how to say thank you in Burmese and were given a drink by a monk.

Both temples we visited were crammed with people celebrating the New Year and in one they were giving away food - bowlful of rice porridge later, we were ready to look inside. The drums were being drummed, the fires were lit and the incense sticks were everywhere. There was quite an atmosphere, you had to wonder were there any batteries in the smoke detectors.

Yesterday my sandal broke and I asked the receptionist at the hotel, where could I go to get it fixed. She showed me on a map and this afternoon I went searching - I asked at a shoe shop, the assistant came out and showed me an umbrella further up the road and said under that. Off I trotted and I found a man mending shoes - 20p later my sandal was fixed. He was delighted that I said thank you in Burmese. While he was mending my sandal I was sitting on both his plastic stools - he obviously thought I could not lower myself far enough to reach one - or he thought I was so fat that I would break it! Whatever he sat on a wooden pallet, while I sat on both stools stacked one on the other.

The gentleman that taught us thank you - said that people here will help you, not for money but from the heart. So far I have to agree with him.