Short Cuts

ONE FOR THE ROAD Aside from tourism, Pagan's main industry is the confection of jaggery, or palm sugar. Hundreds of small palm plantations crowd the Pagan Plain, each tended by a family that taps its livelihood from high up in the fronds. The thin, sweet sap is boiled down in large vats to make a dark, flavorful sugar sold at roadside stands. But for the real treat, look beyond the woven palm baskets filled with the golden lumps for the flask bottles of potent palm toddythe sap that is collected in the afternoon, after fermenting all day in the sun....

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