PHOTO FRIDAY: MILLION KYAT SMILE

An elated Shan woman greets us at a market in the Shan state, Myanmar.

As we've said before, we love markets. Lucky for us, there are plenty of them in Myanmar for us to mill around in (or for Kip to wait while his wife mills or whatever).

In Shan State, women trek miles across mountain trails each week for market day, carrying atop their heads bulging baskets and plastic bags with everything from firewood to vegetables to water buffaloes and elephants carved from local teak. The woman pictured above, who spoke no English but loved to have her photo taken, wears her village's traditional clothing complete with brightly colored terrycloth head scarf.

While her "million kyat smile" didn't quite cost us that many kyat (the local currency, pronounced "chat"), the lady did convince us that we (or more accurately, Kip) needed a few of the wood carved animals she had for sale.