PHOTO FRIDAY: MEAT MARKET

Talk about a dirty job. 

Next time you're having a bad day at the office, imagine what it might be like hauling around slabs of raw meat on your back all day. That's the occupation of the guy above we met at Stone Town's meat market. 

Six days a week. For hours on end. With blood running down his neck, dripping onto his bare feet and soaking into his T-shirt. 

It's a dirty job, but this guy managed to do it with a smile. 

FUNNY MONDAY: LIME LADY, GOOFY KIDS

Selling fruit can get boring, or so it seemed when we met this lady at the market in Belo. After we bought a few limes, she did her best to convince us we needed a tomato ,too. We assured her we didn't, which she for some reason found hilarious. She then proceeded to make funny faces at us, cracking up us and all the kids around her in the process. 

In case you're wondering, the yellow stuff on her face is a local version of sun block made from thanka, the same stuff ladies in Burma use. Small world.

As a bonus, here are a few other funny faces we saw in Belo...

PHOTO FRIDAY: FARMERS PADDLING TO MARKET

Two female farmers paddle their harvest to one of the many daily markets located along the shores of Inle Lake in Myanmar.  We've seen hundreds of these boats on our trips out on the lake. Many are so loaded down with vegetables/fruit/rice/kids that the middle of the boat is often under water. This results in some lucky passenger squatting in the center bailing furiously with a small pail or their hands. 

These two ladies, however, clearly have their boat buoyancy under control. 

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. 

MORNING AT THE FISH MARKET

Early morning catch at the local fish market on the Calbayog pier.

Unloading the boats.