Last day in Burma and all we intend to do is visit Shwe Dagon. The Shwe Dagon is the largest pagoda in the world which is covered with gold. It is also the highest pagoda in the world. the largest golden monument in the world, the most valuable pagoda in the world and the largest golden pyramid in the world. It is covered with some 50tons of gold and the crown is tipped with 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies. Immediately before the diamond bud is a flag-shaped van...

Up early for flight from Heho to Yangon (Rangoon) and transferred to the hotel with stunning views over the Royal lake from our room. Only today and tomorrow left in Burma before we move on so today we are just chilling around the hotel and making use of the good wifi and the good beer and the good food and the good bed.

This morning we were picked up by our guide and boat and spent the majority of the day visiting different artisan workshops spread around this lake in the middle of the Burmese jungle. First we visited cigar makers rolling cigars by hand, a blacksmiths making propellers for the boats, boat makers building long boats out of teak which you could have done for $700, silversmiths making naff jewellery and a silk weavers that was really fascinating and Lesley bought a...

After breakfast we drove to Nyaung Shwe and on the way stopped to see how local craftsmen make umbrellas. They use Shan paper which is from this area being Shan State. The paper is the same format as the elephants but different. First process in the paper making is to strip the bark from young branches of the Paper Mulberry, Morus papyrifera, a tree native to eastern Asia. It grows to 15 metres, is a rapid grower and is really rather a weed, so it’s a resour...

After breakfast we drove to Green Hill Valley Elephant camp with a re-plantation program to learn more about how one family created a natural retirement place for the elephants who spend all their life working in teak forests of Burma. The re-plantation part of the projects aims to plant trees in the areas previously destroyed by teakwood logging. We were also shown how they make paper out off elephant poo. They collect the poo, wash it then boil it for 7 hours. ...