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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2021 11 We only passed through one village on the way down. A quaint little place. The radio was blasting out the Burmese top five songs repeatedly so by the time I got to Dawei I knew the words by heart. There was a limited choice of hotels there and I decided to give the lowest cost establishment a miss. I am just used to walls and windows. Actually, I found a perfectly reasonable place for about $10. The next day I rented a mini motor bike (90cc) and toured the local area. I explored a rubber plantation and cashew orchard. The owner of the hotel told me his brother took tourists out in his boat to snorkel around the local Moscos Islands. I arranged to go the next day. My hotel was a short distance to the small boat harbor so early the next morning I walked along the seaside trail to the boat. There was thick jungle to my right and low seawall to my left. As I turned a little bend and pushed aside an overhanging branch, there lying across the path was a Burmese python. I would like to say that I responded like Indiana Jones, but actually I squealed like a little girl and jumped up in the air, tripped, and fell over. I looked back expecting to see the snake coming directly for me, but instead I saw a local school boy (probably about eight years old). He smiled at me, picked up the python by its tail and gently threw it into the jungle. Then he proceeded on his way, squealing and jumping in the air with a broad smile on his face. It wasn't even 9 am yet and I had already had an adventure! It was a beautiful morning as I approached the little fishing village of Maugmagan on the Andaman coast of central Burma. The bamboo railings on the beach (used for repairing fishing nets) were all empty so I assumed all the fishermen were out at sea. I watched a small dog run into the ocean, catch a fish in his mouth, and run back up the beach to finish his breakfast. Five minutes later he did the same thing. I wondered where he had learned that trick. I had been told to look out for the blue and red boat for my snorkeling trip. The problem was it seemed that all the boats were blue and red! Then suddenly someone called out "Snorkel?" I assumed that was my captain so I climbed aboard. There was a crew of six or seven Burmese, a German student plus a Swedish couple. For the next eight hours English would be the common form of communication. I am so lucky; I have always been useless at languages. We set off and were given a very interesting breakfast of various fruits, rice balls, small red fish, chilies, and (I think) a quail egg. You wouldn't get this kind of extravaganza at a five-star western hotel. That's why I travel "Taylor Adventure Tours!" It turned out that the boat serves a multi-function role. It takes tourists, if there are any that day, and also delivers supplies to the islanders and returns produce to the mainland. The captain and first mate allowed me to cast the anchor at one of the islands. I don't know how those little guys were able to lift it let alone throw it out. We dropped off supplies to some islands and snorkeled at others. At each stop it would take the crew four or five minutes to unload then they would stop and have a beer. If the continued on following page continued from previous page

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