Christmas in Myanmar was one for the books. My family doesn't celebrate Christmas so it doesn't mean anything to me, but I do miss the holiday spirit and cheer. Peppermint bark, hot chocolate, twinkling lights, and festive Christmas music are so comforting.

On Christmas day, Sian, my friend from Australia, and I decided to bike around Inle Lake and get a closer look at the countryside. We were aiming for the "Forest Temple" which was about 1.5 hour ride away. Little did we know how much uphill biking we were going to have to do at the end, and with our less-than-stellar bikes, we walked the rest of the way up. The monastery at the forest temple had many novices who were curious to see us. I've noticed that many of the novices are blind or disabled in some way. They tend to be orphans who had nowhere else to go, so the monastaries took them in. Of course, there are some kids who do choose at a very young age that becoming a monk is the path they want to take.

After the temple, we decided to celebrate the holiday with some wine. Yes, there is a winery in Myanmar! The wine is definitely not the best compared to our California Napa and South Australian standards, but what can you expect in Myanmar? The view is hard to beat, and I felt like I was transported back home. I have to give the winery some credit though— we both loved the Late Harvest and had a couple of glasses before slightly wobbling back to the village on our bikes.

The Song of Travel Hostel was putting on a 6-course dinner for 20 people for Christmas (for only 10,000 kyat which is less than $10). The cooks had never done a meal like this, let alone cook a Christmas meal.  The evening was so much fun and the food we ate was phenomenal. We started with some crunchy Burmese fritters, sort of like Indian pakoras, paired with a rice alcohol and hibiscus infused cocktail. One course was a make-your-own tea leaf salad, followed by some Chinese Muslim chicken noodle soup. The main attraction was mouthwatering pork belly, which they got from a town 10 hours away just for this occasion.

Evan had hinted at a big surprise, but none of us were prepared for it. All of a sudden came a huge group of Burmese children singing Christmas carols. Everyone was so delighted and started to sing along. I can't describe how precious these kids were. We were told that the kids came from one of the local orphanages, and they had been practicing these Christmas carols for days not knowing a single English word. Looking around I couldn't see a dry eye in sight.

Christmas traditions from the various countries were shared among us. The two other Americans and myself had organized a white elephant exchange, which no one else had ever heard of. I realize how much I take for granted back home and how I expect other people in the world to know exactly what I'm talking about. Not the case at all. I'm now obsessed with the Danish tradition of holding hands and singing "nu det jul igen," while running around the Christmas tree faster and faster.

The next day I was obviously not feeling great, but had an early start to do a day trek through the hills and villages around Inle Lake. Razaa, a small 20 year old Thai boy who spoke very broken English, was my guide for the day. He first took me to this secluded temple cave, marked by a white elephant statue outside. Nearby was a school for the novices, where I saw them playing outside. They are so happy and sweet.

Walking through the countryside with Razaa was really calming. It was blazingly hot but it was so nice to get outside and be active. Sitting, and eating a bunch of food while traveling for an extended period of time starts to make you feel very, very soft. He kept checking in and stopping to make sure I was okay, to which I responded with "I'm fine let's keep going." Reaching the village at 11am, he was very surprised at how fast we were going, saying that he usually reaches the village around 12:30pm. "You are strong woman!" he says to me. This might be one of my favorite compliments to date.

The villages we stopped at were so quaint. Everyone we passed by looked so happy and content with life. Compared to people back home who have so much, the Burmese villagers have so much less yet are infinitely happier. Lessons to be learned.

I'm just going to say this now— it is incredibly hard to keep updating this blog. I hardly ever want to be sitting inside, uploading pictures, and writing a blog post when I could be outside on an adventure, exploring, and meeting new people. I have a newfound respect for serious bloggers, because I now understand how much work this takes. I'm a month behind in my posts, but I promise I'll try harder!