I am getting used to the area where I will be living for the next six months.

It feels like a close knit community situated between the pagoda and the main road. Some residents are getting used to me being around and I exchange a few handshakes.

Across the narrow lane in the evening, I enjoy hearing schoolchildren reciting their lessons. it is a school provided and run by the NLD (National League for Democracy)

The dogs are docile and are often asleep during the day. I hear some barking during the nightime on occasions.

There has been a small earthquake in central Myanmar which has damaged a number of pagodas near Bagan. It is a place I intend to visit at some stage of my travels. I receive some messages from concerned friends who have heard the news from back in the UK but life goes on in Myanamar as normal. Earthquakes are quite common and this is the fourth quake of more than 6 on the Richter scale since 2008.

When I sit on my balcony in the early morning, I enjoy obserrving life quietly getting started each day and listening to the birdsong. I less than five minutes, I will be in the hustle and bustle of Kwaik Wine Pagoda Road as people head off to work,