4 January San Diego –
We enjoyed a day running around
8 January
Flew to
9 January –
We spent the afternoon driving around in the villages east
of the city. We saw a woman tossing beans in the air so we stopped and wound up
photographing the entire extended family as they came out of nowhere. They grow
a number of crops on their small amount of land, one of them being coffee. She
tossed the beans to clean them. She was very self conscious at first but then
relaxed. The family’s aunt appeared and could speak a bit of English. She was
quite a ham and made us all laugh. When she asked where we were from, we told
her
The open air street market in Myitkyina is
mostly illuminated by candles at night, there are few florescent lights. It has
a very nice atmosphere.
10 January – Myitkyina. Visit
MANAO
festival.
The Manao festival participants assembled after
We were so lucky! There were fewer than 20 tourists and we
were allowed to be in the dance “ring” with the participants. We could go
wherever we wanted as long as we stayed out of the way of the leaders. There
was a group of eight from
Six local teens came up to me before it started and
insisted on having their photo taken with me. They kept telling me I was
beautiful (it must have been the only English word they knew!) and they
wouldn’t let go of me. They loved seeing the digital displays Juergen showed
them of the photos he took of us. We talked with a beautiful Myitkyina-Lisu
girl for a long time. Her English was extremely good, and as she traveled back
and forth to
We tried to guess the number of participants: our guide
guessed 1000; our regional guide Myint U guessed 1500. The cement circle that
is used for the Manao Festivals we guessed to be about 500’ in diameter.
Participating were seven groups of Kachin: Jingphaw, Lawngaw, Kekkho, Lechat,
The participants grouped themselves by their ethnic subgroup
(the ethnic outfits are different for each) and formed four lines. The lines were
led by men who wore bright, very colorful silk robes and hornbill-shaped,
peacock feathered hats. They started out slowly encircling the ring then spent
the next few hours making patterns of all types. The tall colorful poles in the
center of the ring were painted with the patterns that were involved. Sometimes
the lines were walking side by side, either 2x2 or all 4 lines in one line. At
other times the lines were merging in all directions, or coming together then
moving apart again. I don’t think anyone made a “mistake” in those hours!
Imagine, over a thousand participants and no practicing. It would have been
difficult just to line up in the right order into four lines at the entrance to
the platform. At the end of the line were couples representing other minority
groups in
The dance pattern changed and the lines crossed. Later I
was moved up in the line between some beautifully dressed Kachin women (with
their permission). It was great fun. It was a totally different experience to
be part of the swaying line than it was watching it. When our line faced other lines
as they came toward us, I got so many very nice smiles, “thumbs ups”, and nods.
One studious looking male teen (he wore round glasses) whom I thought would
disapprove of my participating, said “You’re looking good!” just as he went by
me! There are so many nice memories of this day. My smile muscles ached when it
was over. After seeing all the smiles, we’d say that the Kachin take care of
their teeth. There are few dentists here so their teeth are naturally straight
and white. It’s interesting; we think their teeth look far healthier than a
group in the states or
After the festival we went to the
11 January – Myitkyina – LONEHTO (also called Lon Ton) by
car
By
We arrived in Lon Ton about
12 January – Lonehto–
Indawgyi – Lonehto by boat
With our breakfast we had our favorites: both black and
white sticky rice. We also had regular rice and tasty local papaya. The morning
was very foggy and the sight of the boats at the shore in the fog was
memorable. About
The rest of the morning we motored along the lake’s eastern
shore (16 miles long, 8 miles across) looking at birds.
We boated up the
As we walked back to our long boat we passed a bunch of
middle aged women squatting on the shore by a fence. They wanted their photo
taken with me, so I squatted by them. They wouldn’t smile, even when I said
“Yee”, which when pronounced correctly means laugh. Finally I led a cheering
section and they all went crazy laughing. It was fun. The lake’s citizens are
mostly Shan, with a few Bamar and Kachin.
As we cruised along the shore, Juergen spotted 6 gorgeous
kingfishers in an hour. We got so we knew where they’d be: in bushes, not far
from shore, about 5’ from the ground, so we just kept our scan at that level.
They have brilliant blue backs, intense orangeish-tan on their shoulders and
white breasts. We also were entranced by large orange-tan ducks with
black-tipped white wings.
Myint made sure we got to the pretty Heibo(?)
village around during sunset. It was lovely and peaceful. A woman was sitting
on a small stool outside her gate cooking food in a wok. She was surrounded by
customers. She made a 4” round rice flour bottom, and then topped it with a
rice/toddy palm sugar mixture. The base was very crispy; the top was not too
sweet. It was good.
Again we ate in the restaurant next door to the guest house
(we were the only customers). We tried a little peko (pronounced payko) that is
a bean from
13 January – Lonehto – Myitkyina by car
The
guides fixed us an incredible “sampler” breakfast. We had black and white
sticky rice “cakes”, loose black sticky rice, noodle soup with dried shrimp, 4
inch “chip” topped solid with 1” shrimps (making it appear orange), 4 inch “chip”
with chickpeas, deep-fried clusters of thinly sliced onions, tempura gourd,
chickpea tofu, Chinese tea, 3-in-1 coffee mix, and bananas! We don’t starve in
14 January – Myitkyina
– Bhamo by public boat
Myint U picked us up and took us to the public boat we
would take to Bhamo. Myint U had saved the best seats for us – the
only row where you can stand. That good as it was a 6-hour ride. Ahead of us were
two tiers: the lower tier was ok for sitting but it was necessary to stoop to
walk down the aisle, the upper tier was for people sitting cross-legged (like
Monks). The toilet on this public boat was “interesting”. It was a square
enclosure off the back of the boat with a hole in the floor. To get there
required walking the narrow foot-wide rail along the entire side of the boat
past all the seats. It was a little scary as the boat traveled about 20 mph and
the rails were wet as they were only a couple of feet above the water.
The government does not allow tourists to go by boat at
this time of year because the river is too low and there are dangerous
whirlpools, rocks, rapids, and shallow and narrow places. Thuzar, of
The boat filled up at the first stop. We stopped very often all day and people got
on and off. Many people had shopped or were merchants carrying large bags of
goods. The boat stops were all interesting. Mostly the boat just “coasted” up
onto the sandy shore and people embarked/disembarked off the front. But as we
got down river where it was more dangerous, the passengers were picked
up/delivered by hand-rowed flat bottom boats and then climbed boat-to-boat midstream.
The flat bottom boats are not very stable and the entire operation looked a bit
iffy.
Shwe provided our favorite lunch of the coconut sticky rice
grilled in bamboo. About
Juergen and Shwe were standing at the back of the boat
looking around when Juergen spotted an elephant swimming across the Ayeyarwady!
Every once in a while it lifted its trunk above the water like a snorkel. He
quickly opened his camera case, got out his camera, and actually took a photo
before the elephant was too far behind us (we were traveling 20 mph)! The guys who
work on the boat had never seen an elephant swimming before. They claimed that there are
many work elephants along the river and that the elephant was probably a work
elephant possibly going to visit some wild ones – and they expected that he’d
return! Earlier in the day we’d seen two
elephants suited up for work.
We arrived in Bhamo at
15 January – Bhamo –
Kungdaw by charter boat K1
The poor manager was bored as we were his only guests in
two days. He sat with us. I thought he was Chinese (it is a Chinese hotel) but
he let me know he was Karen. He is homesick for
Jackie and Lwin (
Our boat was beautiful, too beautiful, and we had the
entire thing. We found out later that the boat’s owner/captain Myo Yee is
We had a very special lunch on the boat of very meaty river
prawns in a red sauce. We tried something new to us: a vegetable/root that had
been boiled. It had a hard dark skin – like a water chestnut and fleshy white
meat inside. It looked a little like a hard dark fig. It was good.
We went through the 2nd defile today and saw the
“famous” painting of a parrot beak on a rock on the cliffs at the side of
the river. When the water reaches the beak the river is unsafe for boats.
We boated 34.8 miles averaging 9.5 mph from Bhamo to
Kyundaw.
We were excited about visiting Kyundaw as
it is covered with more than 2700 ancient pagodas; no one knows how old they
are. It is very rarely visited by tourists. As we had spent so much time at our
“unplanned” stop, we arrived at Kyundaw Island too late to see
very much – it was nearly sunset. It was difficult to
find a place for our boat as the river level is very low and the beach didn’t
slope enough. We wound up tying up to a small long boat, using it as a “spacer”
to put us in slightly deeper water. Our boat draws only 2’ (?) but that was too
much on this flat beach. It was interesting that the young family with the long
boat not only didn’t complain about our big boat but even aided with our tying
up.
As Shwe walked with us across the wide sandy beach, we
looked back at a memorable brilliant Asian gold/red sunset silhouetting our
boat. We walked completely through the island on a covered passageway that separates
the pagodas into two sections. The Buddhists have been busy here making “merit”
unfortunately, and many pagodas/stupas have been destroyed and replaced with
new pagodas, brightly painted white and gold. In the center of the island stands
the monastery complex and temple buildings, most remade. Fortunately for us,
there are still many pagodas covered with weeds and dirt. We wandered over and
around the ruins until we needed our flashlights to go back to the boat. We
said we wanted more time on Kyundaw and were told we would have to be back on
the boat by 7:30 AM the next morning as we had several stops to do and miles to
go. So we set the alarm early.
16 January – Kungdaw – Inywa by charter boat
We started off with Shwe to see the Kyundaw
pagodas again at first light. The fog was so thick that we had to concentrate on
walking east to the pagodas and not just wind up walking down the beach! There
was no sunrise due to the fog, but as it got lighter and lighter the ruined
pagodas started to appear little by little and it was magical. They were
covered with spider webs that sparkled with dew. We climbed and peeked into the
niches for Buddha images and found many Shan-era ones. It was like a treasure hunt
trying to find special carved pieces or beautiful old images. We reluctantly
headed back to the boat.
We had breakfast while the boat crossed across the river to
Shwego, a
famous pot making center. We rode in a horse cart to two different pottery
places. The first used potter’s wheels to make vases for worship. They’re used
for both Buddha and nat worship, both in homes and in temples and shrines. These
foot high pots are fired by burying them in sawdust, getting the fire really
hot and then letting it smolder for two days. Our boat has a Buddha shrine in
the corner of the cockpit area that has flower offerings. We later noticed that
the shrine in the boat is in honor of Shin U pagoda, the monk famous for
helping travelers, like St. Christopher to Catholics. The shrine in the cockpit
is the reason that we had to leave our shoes outside the area. The second pottery
center made charcoal and wood stoves. They had designed presses they then had
made in
After 70 miles, averaging 8.8 mph, we stopped in Katha,
which stretches for a long way along the river bank. The view from the river is
very nice, with pagodas visible here and there. Everywhere are massive and
beautiful rain trees that were planted a hundred years ago. Our boat tied up
directly at the ramp to town where we watched labor at its most physically
demanding. Four-guy teams were shoulder-carrying on poles 50-gallon drums of
tar up the very steep concrete ramp. Watching them, it was impossible not to
feel the weight they had to carry. At the bottom they had to lift the drum up
on a concrete ledge, and it always looked like they wouldn’t succeed because
the drum would try roll back down on them. These guys were shorter than I am
and didn’t weigh much more. When they
got to the top they’d put the drum down, and then TROT back down the ramp to
line up for the next barrel. They really worked together as teams and didn’t
seem unhappy at all.
In Katha, we took a horse cart to find sights from George
Orwell’s book “Burmese Days”. As stated in the Lonely Planet, locals don’t know
anything about the old buildings mentioned in the book. Shwe had to ask many
old timers before finding the major sight: the British Club where most of the
book’s action takes place. It is now the headquarters for an agricultural
co-op. The old tennis courts have been refurbished and can no longer be used to
find the other buildings (in 1999, the Lonely Planet used them). We also saw
other large buildings from the colonial times.
Notes on Katha:
George Orwell was posted here in 1926-27 as a colonial police officer. He used
Katha for the setting of a book that was so harsh about British colonialism
that his
17 January - Inywa– Thabeik Kyin by charter boat
The morning broke so foggy that we couldn’t travel. It was
windy and very cool all day. The crew climbed the bank and got permission for
us to visit a sugar cane farm. The men and women were all bundled up against
the damp cold but were already working hard. There were all sorts of
interesting activities for us to watch. Nothing is wasted. The sugar cane
waste, the “stalks,” are either burned to fuel the fire for cooking the sugar
or fed to the animals. One man shoved the waste into one end of a 15’ long pit
to stoke the fire. At the other end of the pit was a 10’ tall brick chimney
that sucked up the smoke. Along the length of the fire pit were six 3’ diameter
woks boiling cane syrup at varying degrees of thickness. Large ladles are used to
scoop the syrup from one wok to the next as it cooks down. Their final product
is hard cane sugar that is shipped in barrels to
We had a very interesting breakfast on the boat: black and
white sticky rice, dried fish (it’s like bacon), pounded sesame, gourd tempura
and tangerines. Lwin cooked everything
for our lunch. She cooked pork curry in a pressure cooker, eggplant salad,
squash and cauliflower. We had sliced apples for dessert.
We stopped in Tagaung to see the famous Golden Nat Head, which
is really a Boh Boh Gyi! Boh Boh Gyis are upscale nats, and
are usually responsible for a certain area, e.g., temple, or town. This
is a very interesting sight because it is made of wood and said to be 2000
years old! The face is very different from the forms of most Boh boh gyis
(which usually look like people) and is shaped more like a tiki god. This head was
worshiped for a thousand years before Buddhism was introduced (about 1000 years
ago). We see it is still worshipped. There was a nat house next to it. Jackie
and Lwin paid homage to the Golden Head, made their prayers, then made a money
offering to the very friendly old woman medium. She made prayers for them and
gave them chrysanthemums and snapdragons from the crown that is put there for
that purpose. They later offered these flowers to the Buddha shrine on the
boat. Two months ago archeologists from Bagan started excavating here and have
areas delineated with cords. They expect this to be a very interesting site.
Note on Tagaung:
It is involved in the story of the Mahagiri Nat (brother and
sister) who have a shrine on Mt Popa. For 700 years (before 1057 when Buddhism
was installed as the state religion by King Anawrahta) all kings of central
The legend begins with a
young blacksmith and his beautiful sister who lived near Tagaung in the 4C. The
blacksmith was both popular and good-looking so he posed a threat to the king.
The king’s men hounded him until he fled into the woods. The king became
enchanted by the blacksmith’s beautiful sister (now called by the
Today we went 107 miles, averaging 9.5 mph. Our moving time
was 11 hours 13 minutes.
18 January – Thabeik kyin –
We stopped at TaGaung on the east side of the
The largest pots in
Myo Yee, the boat owner is quiet,
sensitive, twinkles when he smiles, and really wants to please. He
enjoys it when people are having fun. He told us that the boat, his third, was
built in
We attended a cultural evening in the beautiful garden
behind the hotel. The performance showed dance styles and costumes from eight different
dynasties in
19 January –
We left the hotel at
Myo Yee’s wife finally rented a wooden-bodied small WWII “bus”.
It was newly painted with wild designs on the outside. We were told the owner
plans to fix it up inside to be used to take tourists to the dam and we were
the first to use it. The bus was totally without springs and the tires looked
to be the originals. In the inside, the flooring over the left front wheel was
broken and there was a large hole so the wheel was visible. This was a
convenient hole for the guys who sat there to spit their betel nut juice. It
was also one of the many places where dust poured into the bus. The
transmission shifter was to the left of the driver and went into an open foot-square
hole in the floor where all beneath was visible.
There were only four seats inside the bus. One, opposite
the driver, was about 3’ long and was attached parallel to the left side of the
bus. Another was about 6’ long and was attached parallel to the right side of
the bus at the back. There was a rickety 2’ wide bench directly behind the
driver that faced back. It was held in place by one angle brace underneath – a
second one swung free. We sat on the only forward facing bench. It was just
long enough for the four of us (we and Jackie and Lwin). It was rather like a
park bench, but they had put colorful flowered cushions on the bench and it
looked fine, if a little out of place.
The road was as advertised, unbelievably rough. We traveled
about 5 mph because the potholes were so deep and close together. It wasn’t
long before there was a loud bang and Myo Yee and the driver’s helper were on
the floor. Their bench (opposite the driver) had collapsed and down they went.
We stopped and checked it out, but it wasn’t possible to fix it. Myo Yee
switched to the wobbly bench (really a board) that was behind the driver and
held on. About 15 minutes later, Lwin gasped. The slats under where she sat had
broken (and she is very light). She sank down a few inches. We adjusted the
cushions and were off again. Then it was Juergen’s turn to sink. Much laughter
by all of us accompanied each of these events. Then Lwin managed the “repair”
of our bench. They first moved the big spare tire under it and put the first
seat that had fallen over the broken slats and it looked pretty good. When Lwin
plopped down on it to test it, the bench slid around. So the next step was to
use ropes to tie the arm of the bench to the opposite window jam. Finally, it
was stable enough and we all sat back down and were off again. Every so often
we’d all burst out laughing, the entire uncomfortable, dirty experience being
overshadowed by how incredibly funny and outlandish it all was. We rode like
this for an hour and a half (each way). The radiator leaked like a sieve (we
could also observe that through a hole in the dash) so we had to stop for water
at any place there were people. Every time we stopped lots of people seized the
opportunity for a free ride. They got on with bundles and traveled to where
they were going then got off. At one point we counted 26 people, 10 of them in
the front area to the left of the driver, all riding “on our dime”! At one
point we came across a jeep by the side of the road. It had had a second flat
tire, so we also gave the two government employees, one an engineer, a ride.
At a village near the dam we had to pick a man who was responsible
for the Neolithic (13000 years old) cave paintings we were going to see. We
called him “the archeologist” and he was also our guide. We had to climb down a
rather rocky dam to get to the boat. We had a 45 minute hour boat ride down a
part of this very large reservoir (used for electric power generation). The
shores are full of monsoon forest which at this time of year is in “fall”
foliage which was lovely for our hiking. The very large and dry leaves sounded
like bamboo wood chimes as they floated down and bumped into branches and
leaves on their way to the ground. We walked through a fire area; at one time
it was burning on both sides of the trail. The flames were rarely higher than
2’ and were consuming the dry leaves and bushes but not bothering the tall
trees. But it was still weird to walk on the trail with a fire burning on both
sides.
Yvonne had a very nice experience on the hike. We were
rather spread out on the trail, with the archeologist and two porters in the
lead, Yvonne with them, Juergen and Shwe further back taking photos, and Jackie
and Lwin (who don’t exercise) far behind. Yvonne became fascinated with the
archeologist’s walking. He is a very slim man about 5’ tall who was wearing rubber
thong shoes. He seemed to float over the rocks and ground; it was as if he was
meditating as he walked. He walked very quickly and without effort. Yvonne put
herself about a dozen feet behind him and tried to match where he put his steps
and to try to internalize how to walk in his relaxed way. This had a secondary
effect. After about 10 minutes he looked back to see where we were and Yvonne
was the only one there. He looked very surprised. That happened every so often.
Finally, he smiled, and with his very few words of English and sign language,
indicated there were 3 men and Yvonne was first. When we were almost to the
cave and the situation hadn’t changed, he called Yvonne “Auntie”. She decided
that was a compliment. On the hike back to the boat, Yvonne was standing in the
shade of a big tree with the archeologist and the porters waiting for the
others when he told her that she was “Big Sister” and pointing at himself, said
“Little Brother”. So Yvonne decided she’d gotten a big promotion and an even
better compliment!
We had a nice picnic when we arrived at the first cave. The
archeologist told us that not a single tourist visited the caves last year and
only a few in the years before. The first cave we visited didn’t have the
pictographs; we found out later it’s used for meditation by the
After emerging from that cave we hiked a bit further and
came to the cave
with the pictographs. There was a high brick wall there and a
locked gate which the archeologist opened for us. These caverns are
On the two hour “bus” ride back out to the main road, water
dripped steadily out of the radiator causing us to stop for water at each and
every place along the road where there were people (some being little more than
camps). After dark we were aware of
people in the back of the bus and at a couple of points we took flash photos so
we could see later how many were on. Not only was the bus full of people mostly
sitting on the floor, but there were also people hanging on the outside by the
back door. All of a sudden there was another loud bang and the long bench
attached to the right side of the bus broke and half a dozen people (including
Shwe) found themselves on the floor.
We got back to our hotel in
20 January –
We flew to Heho. Our driver from 2002 recognized us and
came over to say hello. He has finished is BA in English, is now 21, and is
still working as a driver. He was waiting for his clients. We saw him again
when we flew away from Heho on the 25th. He remembered Juergen’s GPS always
telling him exactly where he was.
We arrived at the Conqueror Hotel and it looked even better
than we remembered. The entire compound is like a botanical garden. Our room,
part of a duplex, was conveniently the first one near the main building.
21 January – Pindaya – to YASAKYI village by trekking for Overnight at MONASTERY.
Shwe hired three guys who acted as cooks/porters/trek
guides. San To was the lead guide; he decorated our chicken curry with four
beautiful tulips with the “flowers” made of carrots, stems – including curled
leaves - of green onions, and stamens of very tiny red peppers. Go To was another
meditative walker like the archeologist; Yvonne tried to copy his walk as well.
The entire hike was on trails too rocky and steep for any wheeled vehicles
(even carts). All of the villages were only reached by foot. The villages we
went through were far more prosperous than we’re used to as they all grow tea.
Most of the area contains Danu villages. The monastery (Ya Sa Kyi) where we stayed, is in one of the few Palaung
villages in the area. Our host Abbot U Za Ga ka joined a monastery when he
was 7. He studied in
After dinner we talked with the Abbot with Shwe translating.
He sat on cushions on a slightly raised platform that ran along one end of the
room. In front of him was a small brazier with a wood fire. We sat on the floor
around the fire and all held our hands over it. The temperature was in the 50s and
the doors weren’t closed so it was pretty chilly. He allowed us to leave our
hiking socks on because we were cold. He also agreed to Yvonne taking one of
the heavy quilts provided to visitors for bedding and putting it over her legs
while we were talking. We had Shwe ask him if anyone had ever done this before. He laughed and said no, but that it was all
right. Two Palaung villages use this monastery; each village has a head man.
The Abbot is above both head men and is responsible for solving all conflicts
and making decisions. We asked him what the most common problem and he said there
was none because they all get along. He said that if a Palaung marries a
non-Palaung they must move away.
Juergen used DEEPS (digital camera) to show the Abbot many
photos he had taken of pagodas and Buddha images and the Abbot guessed where
they were. With every photo, the Abbot’s head dropped back, he gasped, his
mouth dropped wide open in a wonderful smile and his eyes opened wide and sparkled
like a child’s at Christmas. And then, with every photo, the most amazing thing
happened. He gave an audible ah-h-h-h-h-h-h, released all the air, and totally
relaxed again, retaining an interested, pleased expression. Yvonne decided
after watching this repeatedly that he was her favorite Abbot. His ambient
state is one of incredible calm, so peaceful, so friendly, and so different
from anyone else we know.
We slept on the floor after preparing it with about 4 mats
each. The monastery can accommodate about 15 people all lined up against the
wall. We were the only guests so we could use all the mats. We still used our
own self- inflatable mats we had brought from home on top. They provided heavy
blankets/quilts and we used them with our own sleeping bags. It got down to 45
degrees during the night, so we were glad we had all of the warm things. The
guides were able to string a large piece of fabric between the ceiling supports
so we had privacy. Shwe and the guides slept on the other side of the room. They
have built toilets for trekkers behind the monastery. They were made of
concrete, had porcelain bowls, running water, and were cleaned often (our shoes
were muddy, so we know).
Today we trekked 6.1 miles to the monastery in the village Yakashi. Our
total moving time was 3 hours to Yakashi. We trekked 3.4 miles before lunch.
Our highest elevations were 5600’ at lunch and 5850’ at the summit (which was a
little bit higher than the monastery). Our moving average was 2 mph. Sunset was
at
22 January – Trek back to PINDAYA.
Our guides prepared breakfast for us in the little
monastery kitchen. As we left, we saw the Abbot slowly pacing back and forth
above a retaining wall, oblivious to us as he softly chanted and walk-meditated.
After only about 15 minutes we came to a Danu village
(our trek guides are Danu). Shwe asked and found out that the Danu can’t
understand the Palaung in the next village, but that the Palaung can understand
the Danu a bit.
As we trekked down the rocky/dirt trails we could hear the
sound of hoes being used to weed the tea trees – before we saw the people. If
we said “mingalabar” (greetings) it took a long time before they recognized the
word. Then they’d say it back to us and go into convulsions of giggles (Yvonne
too). Even in our hotels, the staff did
double takes if we said jesu-ba (thank you) or mingalabar.
The stats for today: We walked 8.48 miles with a moving
time of 3 hours 56 minutes. Our maximum elevation was 6050’.
23 January – Pindaya – KEKKU – Inle by car
This is our third trip and still the only gas stations we
see are the black market 5 gallon “bottles on stands” along the roadways.
Between Heho and Taungee there are miles and miles of road construction under
way. Hundreds of men and women are being
used to carry the stones in baskets. The men, and boys often, break the stones
with sledgehammers and it is painful to watch. There are a few trucks that
carry the large rocks and dump them in piles along the road for the others to
break up and place on the roadway. There use very little road equipment.
Before the treaty was signed between the PaO and the
government, this was a major insurgent area. Not only were the PaO fighting the
Kekku (Kam
Ku in PaO) has been called an “orchard” of 15-16C pagodas. Until the last few
years these pagodas had steadily decayed but were left untouched. These pagodas
are very holy to the PaO and once a year there is a festival here. They come
from miles around by ox cart and on foot, and weeded the entire area. The same
We stayed on
24 January - Inle - SAKAR – Inle by boat
We left the cottages in a long boat at
We stopped at a 5-day PaO market on the shore below a field
of large pagodas. The market was large and interesting, with most of the PaO
women in their orange towel turbans and smart tailored navy ethnic dresses. The
methods used by the PaO to attend were interesting. There were the usual ox
carts used by the people in the surrounding hills. But, truly amazing, was the
spot on the shore where we poled our long boat into position among a hundred
longboats used by the people who live on the lake. There were so many! We had
to climb over several before we got to shore. Everyone was friendly and helped
hold each boat steady for us as we climbed over. There were people busily
offloading their products, with heavy products being moved onto ox carts for
the ride up the shore to the market.
Then we went on to our biggest treat this trip: Samka (Sakar). Our
PaO guide told us that we were in the first 1000 visitors to
the site since it opened only 6 months ago,
it was a first for Shwe also. This was a very major insurgent area and can
still have problems resulting in the area being closed again for some time. We
were lucky. Only 2 other couples (different tours) were scheduled for the day.
Sakar is right on the lake’s edge and is a lovely sight. We
were alone except for the caretakers. Very little has been restored, much less
rebuilt. The guide told us that the PaO will not even restore Sakar, much less
rebuild it. They will only try to preserve it. We sure hope so. He said all
tourists get really upset when they see changes.
What an adventure we had crawling into niches and finding
13C-16C Buddha images! Some of the pagodas had the most incredibly preserved
carvings of all sorts of figures. We really felt like adventurous explorers who
had made a fantastic find! Kneeling down
to look into a niche in a pagoda far in a corner we saw a Buddha image almost
completely covered with a termite nest. Only its sweet face and part of its
chest were left uncovered.
After we had looked in every nook and cranny and allowed
them to pull us away, they took us to a house where a family made rice liquor.
It was a real operation with pots boiling and the fumes siphoned off and
dripped into a double pot – the inside pot full of cold water, the vapor going
in between the two pots, and then dripping into a bottle. Rice wine and liquor
is drunk in this area by all ages, and is consumed in great quantities during
festivals. They sold the liquor in used (they looked clean) drinking water
bottles, and we bought one. It lasted nearly the entire trip. Just one
thimbleful of that stuff had its impact!
By the way, plastic drinking bottles are not trash in
commodity-starved
The
25 January - Inle – Heho – BAGAN by air
We flew from Heho to
26 January - Bagan – MINDAT by 4WD car
Our car was a small 50-year old “Land Rover” that looked
like a little jeep. Everything about it had been changed except the frame so it
could keep the same registration. We traveled all day on bad roads, often at
the amazing speed of 8 mph. We ate lunch in a very local “stall” in a roadside
stop. They were incredibly friendly, always putting more peanuts (they call
them ground nuts) on our table and stopping to stare at us. We were glad Shwe
and the driver entered the kitchen area and poured boiling water over
everything. We were only a few hours underway when the jeep stalled. The driver,
Tin U, was poking around the engine compartment when we noticed several loose
wires hanging on the handhold above the dash and asked about them. Tin U
connected two of them by winding them together and we heard the tick tick of a
British fuel pump and we were soon off again.
We went off to dinner at a restaurant that was full of
locals. We were joined by our driver Tin U, whom we liked very much. It was
like the scene in the
27 January - Mindat – KANPATLAT Mt.
In Mindat we looked at the different kinds of Chin
homes and were taken to several homes where people put on their ethnic dress
for us. The Chin women are famous for their face tattooing, but it is getting
more difficult to see the tattoos because young women won’t have it done. The
women were tattooed when they were between 10 and 15 years of age. The Chin
claim they don’t know why tattooing started, but they believe it was to detract
from the women’s beauty so the men in the neighboring tribes wouldn’t kidnap
them – which is the same reason the Padaung believe they started wearing the
brass neck rings.
Each Chin woman we visited was from a different Chin
sub-tribe and therefore had a different face tattoo pattern and different
ethnic dress. The Chin are rightly famous for their
fine weaving. The woman of first Chin couple we visited wore navy blue; her
hip-hugger pleated skirt was knee length and showed off her very thin but curvaceous
legs. It was held up by a belt of metal coils that were rapped around cords with
one of the strands being little bells. Her blouse had white trim in the front
and that was topped with a cape that dropped down to mid-calf in the back. She
wore many strings of beads of all sizes and colors that were so long they
dropped to her skirt top. Her earrings were made of bamboo and beads and were
about 6” in diameter. After posing, she requested to take off the earrings
because they were too heavy and hurt her. Her tattooed face pattern was of
small swirls of larger dots than the others and her skin appeared black to the
jaw line. She smoked a gourd pipe. Her husband wore a red and green tartan longyi.
Very, very attractive.
Another woman’s tattooing was designed in bold dots,
separated into vertical stripes down the front with “B” like patterns on the
cheeks. One thing that was true of every man and woman who posed for us: they
stood side-by-side stiffly and self-consciously like American Gothic. No
smiles, staring straight ahead. When we looked at the photos on the walls of
their homes that was the way they posed. AFTER a picture was taken they would
relax and smile – all of them had wonderful smiles. It took Yvonne jumping up
and down and being silly to break them into a smile when Juergen was pointing
the camera at them! Those photos are the best ones because they are more
natural.
We drove switch backs from the mountain to the Bamar
people’s lush farmlands – beautiful green pastoral lands with rivers flowing
through. Somewhere along the way the car acted funny and Tin U found the
generator wires had come unattached. He attached them again with his tool kit
and we were off.
We then climbed high to the Chin
28 January – Kanpatlat –
We trekked up Mt
We arrived at the “top” of Mt
29 January - Kanpatlat – BAGAN by 4WD car
After breakfast our lady guide came back and took us to two
different Chin couples who all put on their ethnic clothes for us. Both women
had tattooed faces. The first woman noticed a ring Yvonne wore and made a
beeline for her to look at it. Shwe said she really liked it. She had interesting
earrings so the admiration was mutual. She and her
husband both bright red longyis with a wide bright red violet stripe. She wore
a “stole” of purple, green, white, and red violet thin stripes. Her face was so
tattooed that she appeared black down to the chin line. She was beautiful, with
high cheekbones and nice nose. Unfortunately, she was very ill (maybe cancer?)
and was very thin and weak. We felt sorry for her. The second couple had eight children.
All of their daughters (and some of their sons) have graduated from college and
they’re really proud. Unfortunately, there’s no work in
The plan was to drive down the mountain (sometimes reaching
the blinding speed of 10 mph) from Kanpatlat, cross a wide hilly area and the
Ayeyarwady River to Chauk, then 30 miles north back to Bagan for the night.
Sometime in the beginning of the day one of the engine mounts broke and the
engine leaned against the oil filter. The oil filter started leaking and every
hour we’d stop at a village, if there was one, and get oil to fill it again.
Sometimes a commercial truck would provide oil – from the most unexpected
containers. Things got worse and worse and the jeep started running badly and finally
stopped in the middle of the dirt road in the middle of nowhere.
Tin U worked under the back end of the jeep for a long while; we couldn’t guess
what he was doing there. It turned out he tried to level the engine by messing
with the springs at the back wheels! Well, it didn’t work.
Juergen and I wandered around the area or sat in the shade.
We were on a wide, very dusty dirt road that was lazily winding its way around
little hills on its way across an area that floods in the monsoon. We were
trying to decide where we’d put our sleeping bags for the night as we’d only
seen a few trucks all day long. The funny thing is that we felt safer there in
that situation than if it had happened anywhere else in the world, including
home. We knew that nothing would happen to us or the jeep. We knew that for
sure. So it was a matter of inconvenience only. That’s the problem with freedom
(freedom, but no safety) and dictatorships (no freedom, but safety).
A public bus came by going in our direction, and people offered
Tin U suggestions. We were sitting on a large rock by the side of the road a
little bit away from the jeep, and Juergen commented that he wondered how long
it would be before we’d be on that bus, and soon after, we were on that bus.
Our luggage was thrown on the roof and one of the only three seats in the bus
was vacated for us. The floor of the bus must have been nearly 4’ above road
level and there were piles of plastic sacks of chickpeas on the floor on which
everyone was sitting. It was really a “climb” to board the bus! There were
comments then lots of laughter and when we asked Shwe about it, he said the
Soon the bus started running badly so the driver stopped
(we were directly behind him). He turned around to move the plastic from our
backpacks from the air intake that we had unknowingly plugged. That caused even
more laughter, even from the driver. He was a very small man who chewed betel
nut so his mouth was red and his teeth were largely missing. The state of the people’s teeth in
In front of us and to the right of the driver was the
platform for the monks; one sat cross-legged just behind the windshield. They
sit separately, in part because they can’t be touched by women. He was also
chewing betel nut and his mouth was in the same state as the driver’s. The monk
let Juergen place his backpack on the monk’s platform by him. Later the driver
stopped again and reached down the hole where the transmission handle went and
adjusted something. It was wild.
We then stopped for guys with another five big sacks of
chickpeas and they were accommodated. There was a net-like contraption at the
side door at the back of the bus that kept a couple of the chickpea sacks that
had slipped out of the bus from falling out. The bus experience was a living
one. Even with all this happening, the bus was more comfortable and faster than
our “land rover”. At the first village we had come to we left a very unhappy Tin
U off. He hadn’t only been our driver, he had been an
enjoyable companion with his ready smile and energy. He was to spend the night
there, then the company would send help the next day.
The bus made a “tea” stop at a village and we all piled out
and stretched. The driver and the two loudest (and funniest – at least the
others always laughed at their jokes) guys sat by him in the shade and smoked.
They always gave us friendly smiles and posed happily for Juergen. After
crossing the
It was so late and we wanted to eat quickly so we went back
to the same Chinese restaurant. The waiter remembered Juergen’s need for hot chilies
and my 50 cent rum sour (because it’s made of local rum – regular drinks are
$4).
30 January - Bagan –
There
are so many more tourists here in Bagan than there were two years ago. We saw
three German guys in their 30s who were “dressed” in baggy shorts and loose
tank tops showing off arms and chests covered with tattoos. Yuk! When we were leaving we overheard a very nice
looking 20-something US couple talking with a local. The tourist kept saying
that the
31 January -
After the long ride to Golden Rock, we took a new truck up
the mountain and as Shwe had paid for the entire truck (otherwise we’d have to
wait for one to fill with pilgrims/tourists) we got to sit in the cab. We
stayed at the Golden Rock Hotel again and it’s even nicer now. The rooms are
spacious, airy and quiet. Quite a
contrast to some places we’ve stayed!
We walked up to the Golden Rock shrine for sunset and
stayed there for several hours. There had been a bad fire just the week before
and we viewed the devastation just down the hill behind the shrine. Thousands
of pilgrims can rent places on the floors of large rooms. Some of these places caught
on fire and hundreds of people were killed. We saw the UN Red Cross jeeps there
to ask questions.
1 February – Kyaik
Hti Yoe –
Since our first trip we have requested to attend a pwe, the
traditional
On both sides of the area about a hundred people were
sitting on the ground, most of them small children. They were fascinated with
us as well. The pwe orchestra was at the opposite end to the nat arrangement.
It was amplified beyond belief – it took an effort to find a place to watch
that was not near a speaker. A man and a woman took turns singing. The pwe
orchestra consisted mostly of several kinds of drums and large cymbal sets. We
were lucky to be able to watch, right over his shoulder, a man play the
circular drums that are so much a part of
The medium was a 60ish man dressed in satin, a green
flowered longyi and a white tunic with red belt and head sash. His assistants
handed him a symbol of each nat he was supposed to be possessed by (e.g., fan,
sword, or veil) and he danced a slow dance up and down the area in front of the
nat display.
The two young male assistants wore heavy makeup and
lipstick and looked like girl dolls. When we photographed them, one would
really ham it up by hugging the other. Shwe told us that gays have to maintain
a very low profile in
As the medium made “contact” with the nat, he began to
quiver. After a few minutes break and after donning the symbol of a different
nat, he’d take on the next nat. Sometimes they’d do a little act, where the
woman singer would try to donate money to the medium and the male singer would
snatch it away, and then suddenly, the woman would toss fruit to the kids in
the audience. The children would squeal with delight and all would reach to
grab for whatever was tossed. We thought it was a little like our Santa Claus,
except here they’re never told there is no Santa Claus. Juergen noticed that
the money that they were “playing with” was of very low denominations. We knew
how rare it is to be able to see this so we stayed and watched a long time. It
was quite an experience. The impact on the children was intense.
We stopped in Bago again and revisited the beautiful
Shwemawdaw pagoda. As we walked around it we were amused with all the different
fortune devices they offer. One sign in English stated “Horary Astrology &
Palmistry, Biorhythm System and Combination Scientific System”.
2 February – Monday - Explore
3 February – Tuesday -
Dinner with Kat, the our OAT Thai
guide that we’ve kept in touch with.
4 February – Wednesday –
Kat and her friend Susie took us to their friend Pam’s
beautiful palm plantation just a couple of hours outside
5 February – Thursday –
We flew