U Ott Ta Ma and moi

We were up at 8 which pushed us for time slightly. We took a taxi to Mogok monastery to see U Ott Ta Ma. We waited for him whilst we watched some ladies make the monks food. We found out later on in the day that he was waiting at the bus stop for us. We felt rather bad. He made coffee for us and whipped out some cupcakes which we ate in his room. They were so nice as we haven't had very many sweet things for a while. He shares a room with 4 other monks but it is all divided up. We looked through two of his photo albums. He wasn't a monk before and in the pictures he had long hair! Another monk gave us biscuits to munch on. He showed us around his monastery. We looked in a room where a special monk had died and they had kept his teeth, hair, eyes, blood and other disgusting bits and bobs! Wasn't the nicest things to be looking at!! We walked to the bus and along the way we walked along a railway track. There was street food to the right of it and there were lots of little nats eating. There was masses of rubbish on the railway and looked like slumdog millionaire. And the normal with lots of ladies walking around with baskets of things on their head. Crossed the line and came to a crazy little market. Don't think any of them have seen white people before!! Took a local tuktuk bus which was extremely cramped. Our skirts were already undoing which was slightly awkward...especially with a monk.
First stop was the same pagoda as yesterday. He made us sit in front of a Buddha, told him I wasn't going to pray but Morag and I just watched them put masses of gold leaf on the Buddha. They do it everyday. He was a cheeky monk as we avoided paying by taking us a different way.
Took us into a room with masses of paintings. He tried to tell us lots of history about it but his English isn't amazing so we got slightly confused.
Also saw bronze statuses from Angkor Wat. When we were at Angkor Wat we were told that there were some statuses missing. Got a normal bus (very cramped) to the biggest book in the world. On the bus there was a lady right next to Morag breast feeding. It was funny as she was squeezed right next to her! Morag took a picture of me and i leaned over and put my hair on U Ott Ta Ma which was rather bad. We thought we were going to see 1 huge book but it was lots of little white pagodas that were open with a tablet inside. Morag had find a loo so she could get her skirt sorted out. People were laughing at her because of it! Took another bus to a market. The market was actually inside and very big! Got laughed at massively, not sure if it was because we are white or our longyis! We had lunch at a local place while U Ott Ta Ma had a cup of tea and a bit of our huge dumplings. We ate everything with our hands.
He then found another bus for us and took us to the other monastery. Masses of children approached us and were fascinated by our feather in our hair. We tried to ask them where the main person in the school/monastery is. We then finally found the office with masses of kids showing us there. We sat in the monks seat which was bad. Chatted to Charlotte who is a little bit boring. She is learning Burmese for her uni course and teaching English to the teachers. We got the feeling she didn't like us being around, which we understand but she could have hidden it! We watched some of the children dance to us. They sang and danced to baby - Justin Beiber and then gangnam style. Monica arrived finally with the main man who was a monk. Whilst our funny meeting with them both we were being photographed. Organised that we are going to stay there for a couple of days. Just before we left Monica and another girl sorted our skirts out whilst we almost got naked infront of 2 old monks! They giggled and said they would send us to a tapestry course whilst we stayed there so we could wear our skirts. U Ott Ta Ma walked us back to get the bus. Skirt was literally falling off now. Was a lot worse than before. We said goodbye and shaked his hand which I was super shocked about as I thought they weren't aloud to touch women! He wrote the Burmenese school address for us so it is easier for us tomorrow. Also gave us his mobile number so we can call him if we have free time! Had a very well needed shower. We then went to get some street food. It was Indian street food. We had chapati, chicken (which was a chicken wing with no meat on it), coconut rice, curry soup sauce and some extreme spicy stuff. We ate everything with our hands again. We then sat in a niceish restaurant we had found and had a tea and coffee. Listened to a fab playlist and wrote up our dairies in full stop form so we don't forget anything. It's late and have to get up early to go to the school tomorrow!