Hsipaw

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The small brickyard was interesting.  There were rows and rows of unfired bricks lying wasted in the yard due to the heavy rains.   Any intact unfired bricks had been built into a wood burning oven.  

A fire is lit within and stoked for three days, at which time the bricks are ready to use.

A shy girl is coaxed to smile by one of the other hikers.  

On the banks of the Dokhtawaddi River we came across an elderly lady sitting 'rolling her own', cheroots that is.

I believe the land and house she occupies belong to Mr. Charles and is earmarked for bungalows to house the tourists they hope will come.  She acts as caretaker until the elusive planning permission is obtained.

2005 Update

The elderly lady has since passed away and the bungalows are still in planning permit limbo.
Stepping outside she offered us all a cheroot and stayed to smoke one.  She has such a marvelous face.

Had the cheroot only been white I would have had the perfect picture of Kipling's Supu-Yaw Lat of whom he wrote " I seed' her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot.  The fact he never went to Mandalay is neither here nor there, perhaps he made it as far as Hsipaw, I hope so.
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