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260

Visit to Syriam.
Sun. Feb. 6    
[[strikethrough]] September 16 [[/strikethrough]]

floor of the boat - as did most passengers. They were all dressed in their finery, most of them going to the Buddhist fair being held in the town. The music, everyone talking at once, people crowding each other & us - the children crying, the laughter made it all festive. Again, when we docked, it took half an hour in the stifling heat to get up the gangplank, people laughing & breathing garlic in one's face, the smell of the perspiring bodies was difficult to take. Finally we made it & took a deep breath in the shade of the first tree we saw.

Baird hired a pony cart (which I had wanted to ride in since I came to Rangoon) to drive us around the town. Our first stop was a Burmese Village Restaurant, where we had a hot, spicy curry in the dark stone interior behind the



261  

Syriam. 
Sun. Feb. 6. [strikethrough]] September 17 [[/strikethrough]]

shop. Little sad faced big eyed children watched us silently & curiously while we ate. A Mr. Henly, whom we met in the restauran (an Anglo, Burman, Indian) helped us to order our food. He is with the American Mission hospital of Rangoon. 

Meanwhile, as we were jogging along in our cart, after lunch, a jeep passed by, with a Burmese friend of Baird's U Hla Tun Lwin of 13 Coronation Road, Syriam, Burma. He insisted on our leaving the cart & showing us the town. Our first stop was the Buddhist fair & their Pagoda, which is very fine. 

At a tea house on the fair grounds, we met U Chan H Toon, former attorney general, now a Judge in Rangoon, who has a collection of Buddhist art & is considered one of the more cultured Burmese.

From the fair we drove