I rejoined my American travelling companions and we headed with the famed Mr Anthony from the lonely planet guide and we headed off at 8 am to catch the first ferry to Ogre island. It recommends that you get a guide here as the island is as large as Singapore and has 200, 000 inhabitants, it has not yet been granted a licence to have foreigners staying over so we must get the 3. 30 ferry away! So we have a packed agenda of visiting the rubber band production, the pipe maker, the walking sticker maker, (slightly tempted) and the chalk board maker, who sells across the whole of Burma.
What a beautiful island and so untouched, but that is the beauty of travelling here as soon as the international barriers are down is that it is all so unspoilt on the surface.
I tried my hand at using the mangle to dry and stretch rubber, took some lovely pictures of the villagers and then on route to our next destination I asked to stop to take a picture of the local national league for democracy office. With the large pictures outside of Aung San and his daughter, it is amazing to think that two years ago this was not allowed. Amazingly the family give me a NLD flag, which is a wonderful treasured gift.
Before we head back to the ferry we pop into a local orphanage, sponsored by some American families. There are 36 children here and they warmly welcome us, but sadly we had to rush to the ferry to ensure that we got off the island in time. There's only enough time for a quick rendition of " ha ha ha he he he" and then we drove like the clappers to get back to the ferry and made it with 5 mins to spare!
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