Well, I've just turned 29, so now I'm 29, going on 30. Don't know if that's a good thing or not. ;P

I didn't feel so much in a celebratory mood, but I still followed the custom to treat my friends and colleagues. Just didn't have a big party. As for the members of Myanmar Youths in Action, I treated them ice-cream after our volunteering at Kasone Banyan Tree Watering at Shwe Phone Pwint Pagoda on May 5th. On May 8th, the day of my birthday, I treated 25 of my colleagues with Shan noodles and donuts (those who didn't want to eat shan noodles had donuts). In the evening, I had a small gathering of 5 people: my boyfriend, an American friend whom I've incidentally known because of my blog here in Xanga - and have been friends for some years now, his friend, and Khin Myat, who is a friend and also an active social worker.

So that was that for my birthday.

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These days, I've been feeling kind of under the weather. I don't feel so enthusiastic about anything. There are things that I kept worrying about, things that I know I am lacking in, things which I am unsatisfied with, but haven't taken any action to change the situation. So many things on my mind.

My love life is suffering a tiny bit from my moodiness though. Not that he is complaining, but I feel guilty about it. He sometimes says that I don't love him as much as he does. I feel sad when I hear that - I do love him as much as he do, if not more. I just think it is the age talking (for me) - I'm much more calmer these days and just don't feel the same as I did about love 3 or 4 years ago. 3 or 4 years ago, I was more or less obsessive about my one-sided love, and that person was all I could think of, cried about, etc. When I read back my older entries from back then, I can't really believe myself that I wrote all those things. haha. It feels weird that I don't have any of those feelings for that person anymore, cos he was supposed to have been the "love of my life" back then. Now the love of my life is a different person! ^_^

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My boyfriend is practically the kind of man I've always dreamed of to be my boyfriend. He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink, he doesn't even hang out with other girls, much less cheat on me, is caring, texts me everyday, a family man, you know the type. Probably the only things that he doesn't fulfill my dream man criteria was that he doesn't know how to play a (acoustic) guitar (I've always dreamt of being serenaded by a guitar-playing boyfriend), and doesn't like Lord of the Rings... hehehe :P

When I first met him, it was during a Myanmar Youths in Action meeting at Mya Sabai cafe in August, 2010. We held a meeting there for our 1st youth conference. I remember that it was a rainy day - I had came in a bit late, almost all wet. I was a bit distracted and tired because of the rain and didn't even take any photos that evening to record the meeting. I just remembered that he first attended the meeting that day cos I had never seen him before. I noticed that he and his friend kept looking at me - his friend thought that he's seen me somewhere before, and was asking my not-yet-bf whether he knew me also, and I remember he shaking his hand and saying no. (Later, it turned out that his friend used to work at a company that I used to work for). But sadly, back then, I hadn't noticed him that much. :P

The next time I met him was on tree planting workshop at Hlawgar Wildlife Park. He told me later that he first noticed me during this trip because of the way I was not afraid of dirt like many other girls were, and were planting 4 or 5 trees. But for me, I just noticed that he was quiet and looked kind of handsome.

We met again at the Myanmar Youths Conference. I didn't know his name at that time, and I designed all the name tags and was handing them out to the members and I remember calling out the name of the card and he said it was him. (I think it was him :P) Then we met again at the Meet the MDGs workshop the next week.

Then he disappeared from our activities for awhile. I think I added him in Facebook, but put him in limited profile during that time, cos I didn't really know him and didn't want him to see beautiful (*cough*) photos of me. hehe :P It was because he was visiting India and Thailand during that time, so he disappeared from our activities.

In early November, he came with us to our Small Education project at an orphanage. That's when I really really noticed him. Haha ... Because he seemed so happy hanging out with the kids. He seemed a bit watchful for me also, because I always lagged behind taking photos at the orphanage.

In late November, he joined our youth camp at Chaungthar Beach. Cupid must also have been vacationing at Chaungthar cos that's when he struck me (us?). hehehe

And then.... the rest is history :) You can see how fast things developed in a short time if you can read the dates of my entries. :P It was like lightning! ;)

It's fun when we walk down the memory lane of how we came to be together. We'll talk about how we felt during those times, and compare what we were doing at so-and-so time when we didn't know each other.

As time went by, I became more and more sure that he will be the man I'm going to marry someday. That day is not too far away now... ^_^

(Brace yourself! A Photo-Flooding Post is Coming!! :P)

One of the places I visited when I was in southern Shan State was "Htam Sam Cave". It is a place that I've actually never heard of before. I didn't visit there the last time I went to Taunggyi either. So we rented a car from our hotel in Taunggyi to get there.

Htam Sam Cave is located on Hopone - Loilin Highway, near Htam Sam village. It is 26 miles from the city of Taunggyi, and 12 miles from Hopone.

"Htam Sam" is a Shan/ Pa-O word meaning "Elephant Cave" - Htam= Cave, Sam= Elephant).  It is a cave that was discovered not too many years ago.

Don't be alarmed if you see soldiers there. The region is controlled by Pa-O Army, who just safeguards the area.

On the road to Htam Sam Caves

The Hopone - Loilin Road was still under construction, but it is still drivable, (at least in Myanmar standards :P). The drive to the cave from Taunggyi took about an hour.

We can see the stalls of the Htam Sam cave from the road

If you continue on the road, you will reach "Maing Pon"

The entrance road to the cave

A solider on the way from the restroom :P :P

The stream you see in the photo flows out from the cave.

The Burmese Griffin?

Entrance to Htam Sam Cave

When we first got there, there weren't a lot of people. But when we came out, there were so many!

The cave has been renovated to make as a Buddhist shrine by a Pa-O monk called "U Pawritha", otherwise known as "Hopone Ko Yin Lay". So you will see many Buddha statues in the cave.

A man-made landscaping of a natural spring lake

Renovations still going on under the huge mushroom stalactite

Huge hanging stalgamites

The area of the cave is quite big, isn't it? In Myanmar, most of natural caves, like the famous Pindaya Caves, are turned into Buddhist shrines like this.

On the way back to the entrance, many people just entered the cave

A Donation Place for the Cave

Pilgrims paying respect to U Pawritha (Ho Pone Ko Yin Lay)

A huge wave of Pa-O people just got of a bus when we were about to leave

Beautiful scenery near the cave area

You can eat a free meal here - which is a vegetarian meal. Anyone can eat as much as you like, but not waste them.

I also ate some, just to taste, but not to a full extent. The curries were Shan traditional food, so it was a bit weird taste for me.

Since I was hungry, I bought these fried tofus at the vendors

Also these vegetable fried fritters

I just love the traditional clothings of the Pa-O people. Very simple and colourful headdress!

I wanted to walk up to that hill to take a photo of the surroundings from a higher altitude, but father said it was time to go back home. :(

If you want to read more about Htam Sam Cave, here are a few links:

Nine Nine Sanay's Blog Entry (in Burmese Language)

Royal Myanmar's Photo Blog about Htam Sam Cave

Things Asian's Article

P.S: I have also shared my photos of Htam Sam cave on Myanmar Times' website since 3 months ago. Just got around to writing about it on my blog now ;)