The World Cup final was on while we were in Hsipaw, and it seemed that the whole town had turned out to watch it at the local cinema where it was being played - at 1AM. It was an interesting experience especially with the locals spitting out remnants of sunflower seeds, and red betel nut juice all over the floor and seeing red streams of it pass by your feet - pretty gross. They are really into their football here and as Italy and France battled it out on our big screen the Burmese jeered and cheered, until it seemed someone was very happy with the result- they must have bet on France!
While Martin was ill, I explored town and the outer villages by bicycle with an Ozzie couple staying at our hotel. The village kids were as usual very excited about having their photo taken and then seeing it afterwards on the digitial screen. In town I searched for a local traditional hat and couldn't find one with character, so with lots of sign language and pointing I bought a hat straight off a lady's head selling mushrooms and vegetables on the side of the street near the market. It was perfect: well worn-in with lots of character. I offered her the equivalent of 50cents and she seemed happy until she saw other notes that I pulled out of my purse - and by pointing to these she got an extra 10cents! * Mush
No comments:
Post a Comment