March 25 - Katha -> Mandalay - Left early for bus station to get a ticket to Nobia. From Nobia a night train to Mandalay.

Waiting for the bus departure time we walked back to our friends the old tire shoe makers. Since the Burmese don't have size 12 feet I couldn't get a pair of the sandals that fascinate me so much. In hopes of getting a custom made pair talked to some bored looking craftsmen. Once they understood what I was wanting they jumped at the challenge. Soon I had two guys working on tracing my sandals and crafting the parts. The rest of the street soon arrived with chairs and offers of food. Pretty soon I was entertaining the local kids with a slide show from the screen on back of my camera. Melodie made friends with a young girl who gave her a pin and wanted their picture taken together. It also turned out to be an opportunity to photograph the shoe making process. It took about 30 minutes to make the shoes and they only wanted $1.50 USD. 1500 kyat. I paid $3 and felt cheap for not giving them more. However, the man was shocked that i gave them more then they asked and insisted we take some snack es with us.

Found out why it is recommended to take the train over the bus. The roads are worse then any I've seen. Chunks of pavement only create obstacles on what is effectively a dirt road. Bridges flex with the weight of the bus, creaking and moaning.

Once at the train station we ran into trouble. The station manager would only except dollars. The ride cost $14 total and all our singles didn't meet the crisp bill standerds. All our fives didn't meet his standard either. No change is available in dollars or in Kayt. Over paying ended up being the only option and both of us had reach our limit of patience with the manager. The other troubling reality was that the money goes directly to the government. Going back to Katha to get a bus would have ended up costing more then $20 and take a longer time. NOTE TO SELF: bring crisp change with you next time!

After the train headache we found a beer at sat down to mellow out. Before we could finish our cold drinks a google of kids gather to stare at us. When they would give up we gave in. Melodie started making them games out of paper and drawing. I started folding the scrapes into paper air planes. We spoke broken English with them and cause a few jealous fights over paper toy greed. As usual they enjoyed flipping through the pictures of our Lonely Planet paper weight/door stop.

Also have to give a shout out to the local guitar players. One heck of a jam!

Decided I'm going to miss Katha and really wish I had more days here. I feel like I just started to connect with the people. So little time before our visas run out and 10 days minimum for meditation still fast approaching.