Around Hsipaw

More alien dispatching. I investigate this traffic crazed dust bowl we've hiked out to see.

It's not so bad as it first seems, really. Away from the main road it's green paddy fields and farming. Outside town temples, green fields, water buffalo, the river. It's another world. Wooden houses and everything made by hand - noodles, bamboo walls, cigarettes and the alcohol. Misty hills all around. It's hard to hold onto on the main street, but there is something more here.

In the market I have two long conversations with old women - amazing that they speak such good English: both have brothers who do not speak it at all. One woman is over 70, full of smiles, betel and non-sequiturs. We visit her the next day for coffee and she lectures Ul on the need to have children.