Whilst we were waiting for the first flight to Heho, we had an initial conversation with Naing; he seemed very responsive to our aims and purposes and we boarded that flight feeling “this seems good”. And that’s exactly what turned out to be the case. He listens and adjusts the itinerary. He listens not just to us but also to the local driver and to other guides with local/ relevant experience. And he suggests additions/amendments to the itinerary. A lot of them too; and so after two weeks with him we really feel he has helped us get under the skin of the country, its people and its culture. Which was the objective. We owe him a lot for his efforts and his patience with us; hopefully he enjoyed the experience as much as we did. The local guides (obligatory, as you’ll know) in Kengtung and Loikaw were excellent. Naing had briefed them about what we wanted to experience and they arranged an excellent set of experiences. We were fortunate to arrive at Inle Lake during the annual end of lent festival. So with advice to Naing from the boatman, we added into the itinerary an early morning view of the procession of the Royal Barge carrying four Buddha images from one village to another accompanied by maybe fifty boats of one hundred leg rowers. A wonderful sight and a great start. Later that day we hiked up to a village that Naing thought was Pa O but turned out not to be. As a precursor to what followed elsewhere he asked at one house some questions about grain etc being dried in the front garden; each time he did this resulted in an invitation for us to join the family for a ‘chit-chat’. We spent an hour or so with the family learning about their life and local culture. Very interesting and Naing I think got almost as much out of the conversation as we did. From here to Kaing Tong where we went off into the hills with Ko Sie supporting Naing. Again some hour, hour and a half, and two hour hikes in the heat and humidity so exhausting physically. Ko Sie is well known in these villages and in each we were invited into two or three houses to chit chat so built up a good understanding of culture and life. We sat in a blackened smoky long house for an hour ++ getting a real understanding of how life is lived. These days pushed us physically and took longer than estimates but were very rewarding. And then on to Bagan, Mandalay, Loikow and Yangon; too much to talk about here but Naing did us proud; great job!