More of Yangon and then on to Kyaingtong

Sunday Feb 2

We did laundry in the morning and then headed out with 'taxi John' whom Jeff and Ann had introduced us to. We wanted to see some of the rural area outside of Yangon. We first visited Thanlyin about an hour south east of Yangon. We visited Kyaik-khauk Paya, a small temple on a hill top with good views of the area. We had an interesting spontaneous conversation with a woman from India and her guide.

  

After a simple lunch we headed further south to Kyauktan where Yele Paya, a small temple, sits in the middle of the river. We decided to avoid the crowds ferrying across and take photos from the bank. We opted to walk through town where we were met with warm smiles all around. Since we were 90 minutes out of Yangon in a rural area I doubt many tourists come here. Neither of the temples are architecturally or historically significant so I wouldn’t think there is much of a draw for tourists.

While driving through the countryside, we saw a number of very humble abodes built of bamboo with outer walls made of woven rattan panels and either metal roofs or roofs of reeds. The major 'public’ transportation in this area wasToyota trucks. The bed the truck had bench seats along each side, a canopy overhead with open sides and a tailgate in the open or down position. We saw up to seven people sitting on each side squeezed in tightly and up to nine men standing on the tailgate hanging on for dear life. Oy!

We arrived home around 4:30 and later that night the four of us wentMyanmar dinner.

out for dinner to House of Memories, a former colonial home that had served as General Aung San’s office. He was the father of Aung San Sui Kyi. He was assassinated when she was two. We sat outside on the lawn and were served another fabulous Myanmar dinner.

Monday Feb 3

We left Ann and Jeff's around 8:30 arriving at the airport at 9:00. We discovered that our plane would be two hours late. Later in the morning we were told they had moved us to a different airline. We arrived at Kyaingtong 90 minutes ahead of schedule because we had a direct flight instead of a stop on Mandalay and Heho. We decided to take a taxi to our hotel rather than waiting for our prearranged guide to show up.

While we were waiting for our luggage we saw a man whose legs had been amputated being carried into the luggage area. He had been our plane. No wheel chair, just an employee of the airline carried him in. Later he was carried outside to the taxi stand.

We checked into hotel which was quite nice and much better than I had expected. Our guide met us a short while later with a driver. It was now 3:00 and we had not had lunch so our first stop was a nearby restaurant. Off we went for a tour of the town. We visited a park with a tree that had been planted about 200 years ago as a memorial to peace among China, Thailand and Burma who had fought a war in this region. Next we visited a lacquer ware studio where a family made various items from bamboo. We then walked around a lovely natural lake in town. After resting for about two hours we walked down the street and had a bowl soup before retiring for the night.

February 4 Tuesday

We were picked up at 8:30 and headed out of town to see some of the hill tribes in the area. Before leaving town we stopped and David, our guide, picked up some noodle soup for our lunch with three plastic bowls on loan from a roadside noodle shop. We drove for about 90 minutes, mostly on rough unpaved roads. It was slow going but the scenery was superb. On each side of the road were rice fields and workers. Men prepare the soil and harvest the rice. Women plant the rice. This requires them to stand in water in rubber boots and to bend over as they take the rice starts and jam them into the water and soil. Oh my aching back!

Water buffalo were in the fields that had been harvested searching for

something to eat. After about 70 minutes we pulled onto a single lane road that was even rougher and slower going. Zhou parked the car and we were in the midst of about six-eight Akha women in their traditional dress complete with the ornate head dresses covered in beads, silver ornaments and engraved metal pieces. I found two pieces: an ornate cloth belt with beads, shells, coins and silver and a needle point panel.  Note how I tower over these women.

We left the driver behind and started our trek uphill for about 45 minutes. I was grateful that part of the path was shaded. We arrived at a village on a steep hillside of the Ann tribe. We sat with a family of multiple generations. The traditional women in this tribe blackened their teeth to make themselves more beautiful. It didn’t work…sorry that is judgmental on my part.

The Ann marry at 14 years of age, they become mothers at around 16,

grandmothers at 30, great grandmother at 50 and by the time they are 80 there are six generations. Most of the women in this family were sitting on the 'deck'. We sat on the shaded part of the deck with our host; she served us tea from a battered plastic thermos in tin cups that were stained. We are not supposed to drink anything but bottled water here but took a couple of sips since the water had been boiled on the fire in a large cast iron kettle in the house. She also served sunflower seeds. She offered me some green leaves to chew (it was tobacco) and she also chewed on a small stick at the same time. I declined her offer. We were also offered rice wine which we declined. I bought a small weaving from her with an asking price of $5.00.

We were invited inside her home which was one large room. Placed near the walls were pallets for sleeping, five or so children of various ages were watching TV. There was a small fire in a small cement brazier which is where she had boiled the water for tea. Corn cobs hung from the ceiling. It was quite dark with no windows and I don't think there was any source of light other than the front door. The house is built on stilts and we entered by climbing stairs and passing through a raised door that would be closed at night preventing any access from animals or...who knows what. David told us they do not value education so their children do not go to school. There was no furniture in the house. Outside there was a low bench for us, a small rattan table made by our host's husband which was used for serving the tea. Some of the other women sat on the deck or very low stools about four inches off the ground. After about 45 minutes we said farewell and took a different route back to the parked van. We encountered several women along the way who were set up to sell their needlework and woven crafts.

We ate our fabulous noodle soup with veggies and pork balls at the little shop where we had parked. David also offered us chips, fried peanuts and sweetened rice in three colors/flavors: curry, bean (Brown) and black. We couldn't eat all the food he had brought for us. There was also wood apples and mangosteen, one of our favorite fruits. As we wee eating, a group of children came by carrying bags of manure (buffalo dung).  They seemed to be having a fun time of it.

We then drove to a Lalaung village next. Here the families are prosperous due

to their rice production. They get $1,000 per ton of rice and some of them grow up to ten tons a year. So the houses were wooden and there was some cement in the foundation but again they all seemed to live on the second story. The Lalaung women do not use buttons on their clothing and instead are noted for their silver belts. Our host's daughter who was 17 years old was dressed in full traditional dress with silver, bamboo and some other kind of belt. Some of the women had very wide silver belts, probably a sign of their wealth.

Our host was widowed in the past year and David said he couldn't believe how she had aged. She was using a back strap loom for weaving while we chatted. I bought a colorful table runner from her for her asking price for four dollars.









On our way back to town we got stuck when we had to go around a

road construction site. A huge truck loaded with what we assumed was large bags of rice had gotten struck and everyone had to go around him and some got stuck so we went around the other side and got struck. The ground was saturated as on either side of the road due to the irrigated rice fields.

David, our guide, is a true entrepreneur and currently is working on a remodel of a school, contracting with the government. When he found out we had been rehabbers, he was excited to learn what he could from us. Our first impression is that this is a prosperous region as we had good roads in town and saw some nice homes. All the side streets are unpaved which means there is dirt on the main roads as well. This is common in undeveloped countries but it makes it necessary to wash our feet when we get back to the hotel. There appears to be a lot of construction going on here.

Because we are so close to China, many of the products at our hotel are Chinese. The world’s smallest roll of toilet paper, good for about three visits to the toilet. The soap was the size of a mint you would place on someone’s pillow but hey, we survived.