Hpan Pu ViewView from Hpan Pu Mountain in morning haze. Hpa-an, Kayin State, Myanmar (Burma). I woke up about 7 and quickly got dressed and moving. I went to the White, a breakfast place mentioned in Lonely Planet, and had a quick breakfast. A Burmese guy, Naing Tun, asked if he could join me, not for breakfast, but to  practice his English. I politely said yes, but really didn’t want a conversation because I was in a hurry to do my hike before it got too hot.

I explained what I was doing, and he offered to take me on his motorbike to the waterfront at no charge. It would save me about 10 minutes walking, so I said yes. He helped me negotiate a fare with a boat man to cross the river, and then we said goodbye.

Two minutes later he was back with an idea. Since he had never been to Hpan Pu Mountain, and since he didn’t have to be at work until 10, could he join me on my trip? I said “sure.”

It was a quick ride across the river, and we started walking at 8. It was already hot and humid, and I started sweating right away. We had nice talks at our rest stops and reached the top in about 25 minutes. The views are really nice, but it was very hazy.

In fact it was so hazy that when I was working on this photo, I had forgotten that the mountains were in the background until they popped out while I was using Nik Software to make some contrast adjustments.