Feb 5
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| Fried Bamboo Worms |
David and Zhou picked us up after breakfast and we went to
the town
market. We have seen markets everywhere we travel. They are always
fun, filled with locals mostly and some tourists and everything you can imagine
is on sale. My least favorite parts are the fresh meat/fish sections where
un-refrigerated products are on sale. I really dislike the dried fish section as
the smell just about turns me green.
For the first time ever, I saw two sections of traditional
tribal clothing. I even tried on a magnificent Lahu jacket covered in silver
ornaments but alas my large framed western body is no match for diminutive Asia tribal women. If I were staying longer I would have
a garment made to fit but alas we leave today. The black cotton jacket with all
the silver was all of $30. As we were wrapping up David took us to his
construction site and we got to see his work in progress and talked about his
plans for the project.
As we drove around town we spied women and men road crews
hand building a road foundation, one rock at a time. I saw this in India as well.
Afterwards we told David we wanted to rest before our
flight. So returned to the hotel and walked across the street at lunchtime for
a quick bite. Off to the airport. We flew a short flight to Mandalay. It was dark by the time we arrived
so we just hung out at the hotel, again a pleasant surprise. There was a pool
with lots of tropical plants around the patio areas.
Feb 6
We got up early to make a Skype call to our credit union as
we discovered both our accounts had been frozen. Talk about being vulnerable.
We had enough cash to get through Myanmar
but none for Thailand.
Our problem was easily fixed with the call. We had checked our accounts in
Yangon using Jeff’s computer and he had a VPN (virtual private network) so it
looked like we were checking our accounts from the US and we had given a travel
notification to our credit union that we would be in Thailand/Myanmar so they
thought someone was trying to get to our accounts. Whew!
We checked out and drove for a few hours to a former British
hill
station Maymyo, now called Pyin Oo Lwin. We stayed in a former 1921 British
residence that is now a small hotel. We loved the room, a high ceiling room
with lots of windows and a large bathroom. We visited a wonderful botanical
garden established in 1915 and my favorite part was the aviary with great
birds: several species of hornbills, rosellas, pheasants, egrets and cranes. It
was a thrill to see the birds flying around and being so close to them.
We went to lunch and had another "point and eat" meal, not
quite as good as the first one but still good. We rested in the afternoon which
was great because neither of us had slept well the night before. The weather is
divine, cool mountain air and not so hazy. We were taken to the town market and
it was not as busy as most we have been to.
Our guide Soe Moe had arranged for
us to ride in a horse drawn
wooden stage coach vehicle that are popular with
tourists. These must be a hold over from the British era. Most are painted
bright colors. Ron and I are not big on touristy activities and this would be a
good example. Neither of us fit into the coach well. We had to slouch as we
couldn’t sit up straight without hitting our head on the ceiling. Given the
structure of the carriage, we couldn’t see out as our view was blocked by the
top of the door. Did I mention how uncomfortable the ride was? Oy! I guess I
sound like a crabby old lady but really folks what is the point? We ended up at
another grand former British residence that is in the process of being
converted into a hotel. There were about eight grounds workers planting grass
starts! I had never heard of such a thing but sure enough they were putting in
small sprigs of grass, one at a time. Eventually there will be a lawn.
Next we drove to a small picturesque waterfall and on to
walk through
a small village where there are many small farms growing veggies
and fruit: carrots and strawberries and wheat of all things. Most flour here is
rice flour so to see wheat was quite unusual. We walked by some of the modest
homes with no running water or indoor plumbing. We ended the day on a hill
above town where Ron could take some sunset photos. A lovely ending to a great
day.
Feb 7
We had a good sleep and drove to Hsipaw about four hours
away. We asked Soe Moe about salaries in Myanmar and discovered that
elementary teachers make about $150 a month while high school teachers make
about $300. While we were en route we spied numerous small piles of sand and
gravel then we would see a 50 gallon drum that had been cut open from the side
and here they were heating tar with a wood fire underneath to apply to the road
after the gravel and sand had been laid down. All of this was done by hand. Small
flat baskets are used to distribute the sand and gravel. Construction workers
make $10 a day, a decent wage here. Soe Moe pointed out sandalwood being grown
for incense for export to India.
We went through multiple tolls booths during this trip. Each
town collects tolls to pay for their roads. This is the main road to China from Myanmar so it was quite busy with
large trucks hauling goods in both directions. The tolls were usually 50 cents
or less for a car. We frequently saw trucks carrying watermelons in boxes to China which I
had never seen before. Sugar cane and rubber plantations are here in abundance.
We saw dragon fruit being grown as well. The roads had no markings for lanes
and no shoulders. It made the trip through the mountains a wee bit hairy.
We learned that primary schools are free and required in the
villages but usually students drop out after primary school to help on the
farm. Farm families are still quite large by our standards as the farmers need
all the free labor of family members. Next year the government plans to make
middle school free. University studies are by correspondence mostly. Only the
wealthy can attend classes in a physical institution. I cannot imagine what the
quality of a correspondence degree is. We saw huge banyan trees here that are
truly incredible with the trunk girth and area they shade. We noticed that the
spare tires of many of the trucks were completely bald. This is a very poor
country after 50 years of military rule and complete isolation from the rest of
the world.
We had to descend a gorge and then climb back up the other side. It
took 30 minutes to reach the bottom due to the steepness and how slow the large
truck had to go. If a truck lost its brakes there would be no surviving the
accident as the gorge sides were incredibly steep. And forget guard rails. I
feel sure in the future there will be funds to build a bridge across the Gokteik
gorge.
China is so hungry
for the resources
Myanmar
has.
Another odd sight was seeing a motorcyclist carrying a new
motorcycle on the back of his cycle which was mounted perpendicular to the
rider. It looked very dangerous and is illegal according to our guide. Did I
mention that most vehicles are right side drivers and that they drive on the
right side of the road? Think about it. If you want to pass a truck or another
vehicle, you must pull into the opposing lane of traffic to see if you can make
your move. Holy Crap Batman! Because of the danger of this, we noticed the big
trucks would use their left hand signal when the road was clear for a car to
pass them. Brilliant! The soil here reminded me of Georgia: red clay. The natural gas
company here has built a pipeline to China and now sells gas to them.
The farmers grow GMO corn under contract to China. China furnishes the seed and feeds
the corn to their animals, apparently.
One farmer told us he wouldn’t feed his animals that corn but
unfortunately we aren’t sure that he understood his corn would be cross
pollinated with the GMO corn if they are grown near one another.
 |
| Soe Moe, our guide |
We visited a pagoda near town and the four of us had lunch
together. Ron paid for all of us and the bill was $6.50! Our hotel is great.
It’s called Mr. Charles Guesthouse and has three main buildings. Some are set
up for foreigners like us who want a double or queen bed with an ensuite
bathroom. Others are for back packers who require fewer amenities. It was a
great place with a good breakfast. This is a place that has been around a long
time and it owned by a Myanmar
family. After being let off after lunch we walked through the small town and
ended up in a coffee house. The owner is Australian who has lived in Hsipaw for
14 years and opened the place about three years ago. We sat out back and had
Americanos with a muffin. The coffee was way strong and somewhat bitter but at least
it wasn’t weak or instant. The patio was lovely with lots of plants and
umbrellas to shade us from the hot sun.
Soe Moe next took us to a farming village and we walked
along a
small dirt road and talked to families about their way of life. One
grandmother was preparing broccoli for the market. It turned out she and I were
the same age. She still had black hair and had 10 children, all grown now.
Next we went to a historic home of the last Shan prince. We
are in the Shan state which is the largest in Myanmar I think. The Shan people
are the second largest ethnic group after the Bamar. This was a very British
looking mansion but in disrepair. We heard a talk on the history of the Shan
princes. The man who had built the home died in prison in the 1960’s after a
military coup. The woman who gave the talk is related by marriage to the last
prince. He was married to an Austrian woman whom he met while studying at the
Colorado School of Mines in the US.
Afterwards we went to another hill top to take sunset
photos. We ate dinner by the river in a lovely restaurant. This place was
expensive by Myanmar
standards and definitely was catering to tourists sense of esthetics. We had
beer, bottled water, fried rice with chicken, and sautéed broccoli with garlic
for the price of $6.00
Feb 8
This morning we were treated to a boat ride up the
Dutawaddy River.
We saw women washing clothes in
the river which is where they bathe as well. We saw small boats that are built
from a single log that had been hollowed out as well as the kind of boat we
were riding in which was a wooden boat built from numerous lengths of lumber.
We rode for an hour then disembarked and walked up a steep bank.
We were warmly
greeted by a woman who lived alone in a simple hut. She had no teeth, was 73
years old and grabbed me and put her head on my arm while stroking my arm. It
was a very touching moment. Apparently her children check on her a couple of
times a week. There is no water source visible other than the river, no
electricity nor an outhouse in sight.
We continued our trek to the 100 year old
Khone Monastery about 30 minutes away. Here 23 village
boys come to study as
novices with the two resident monks. We drank tea and ate peanuts but didn’t
have any interaction with monks or the novices.
We hiked back to the river and the woman who had greeted us
so warmly repeated her endearing behavior. Back onto the boat we continued up
river to the confluence of the Nantu Ma River and the Duttawaddy River.
We headed back down river and stopped at a village where there was
a ‘Burmese
wake’. Someone had been buried a day or two before and now people from all
around had come to express their condolences and there was a large gathering
with lots of food. We were invited to join in. Another one of those very
special moments when we were included in an intimate cultural event.
We were
served fermented tea leaf salad, our favorite new dish. People were giving up
their own cutlery for us to eat. It was humbling to say the least. Our guide
told us everyone brings food for several days and many will attend to offer
love and support to the family members of the deceased.
Here everyone washes
clothes in the river and bathes in the river but
they had wells for drinking
water. There was no indoor plumbing but we did see outhouses and some of the better
homes had concrete floors on the ground floor which is an open structure with
the living quarters on the second floor. Some roofs were metal and some were
thatch. At the outer edge of the village were train tracks. As the train nears
the village it will slow down. If someone will be taking the train a flag will
be set out to let the engineer know to stop here. Soe Moe said it stops for one
minute.
There was a shrine for good crops. It consists of bundles of bamboo
pieces about eight inches long each. Each bundle represents a village family.
If someone dies they will take one bamboo piece out of the bundle. The bundles
were stacked around an unseen vessel that holds peanut oil. See photo. Each
year before planting the family will take a cup of the oil and pour it onto
their plot of land to ensure a good crop. There is an all day celebration with
a monk sitting on top of this shrine structure chanting to ask for good crops.
This village had about 85 families and a population of 500. Families are large
and kids drop out of school after primary to work on the farm.
As we traveled down river back to town we saw banana trees,
sour peach trees, oranges, mangoes, papayas, tamarind, coffee, and pineapples
along the river banks. And of course there were banyan trees. GMO corn is grown
for export to China.
After the corn is dried and striped off the cob for export, the cobs are saved
to use as fuel for cooking fires.
Back in town we had a Shan noodle soup and Shan noodle salad
for lunch. Both were delicious. The soup was a rich broth with rice noodles
crushed tomatoes, greens (cilantro?) and seeds that tasted like anise. The
salad was similar but had tiny bits of something chewy, perhaps bacon or some
other meat. Soe Moe joined us and the bill for the three of us was $1.60
We are staying in the heart of a very small town with a
visible Muslim population. In the Buddhist traditional the monks learn a dead
language. I think it is Pali. Near our hotel the monks recite chants in Pali
that no one understands 24 hours a day over a loudspeaker. I thought I would
jump out of my skin. I asked Soe Moe if this didn’t disturb people,
particularly the Muslims. He said ‘This is Asia.
We are use to a lot of noise so after a while you don’t hear it anymore’. Well
it kept us awake nightly and woke us up quite early daily. It seems insensitive
to me to think that non Buddhists would want to hear that all day but I often
am offended by what I view as impositions of religions
Hsipaw is a small town of 5,400 people with one main road and
two other main streets. Most of the roads are not paved so there is dust, sand
and dirt everywhere. I watch shop owners dusting all day. Most shops in this
part of the world are small, maybe 6-8 ft wide and 10-15 ft deep. They have a
metal retractable door that lifts up into the ceiling area so that the shop is
completely opened to the street. So when a motorcycle, car or truck passes by
dirt flies everywhere and right into the shops.
A very sweet surprise was the dress here. As we ate lunch
our first day numerous women passed by on the sidewalk with sarongs with
multiple bright stripes of color and matching blouses. They wore wonderful hats
made of woven material, probably bamboo. Some were colorful and some plain but
they were such a variety of shapes and colors. It was a treat for the eyes.
In the afternoon we rested then went out again for another
village visit. I don’t know if I have said this but last year we visited Burma and did
what I think most tourists do. We visited Yangon, Bagan (a temple city), Mandalay and Inle
Lake. This year we
specifically wanted to visit small towns and villages to get a feel for how
people lived in Burma.
So we set off on a two hour walk. We visited a sculptor who carves wooden
horses for temples. They were always done in pairs: one white horse and one
back one. They are ½ life size. He gets $300 per horse and probably makes about
$200 after expenses. He can carve one horse a week. After the carving he paints
them with a lot of decoration.
As we passed through the village every child would call out
‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ to us. We only
encountered warmth in Burma.
This was a prosperous village with every house having its own well and
outhouse. They had bamboo fences where they grew peas and beans. We passed a
chedhi where a large number of villagers were volunteering to help the monks
rebuild the 600 yr old structure that had collapsed in a recent rainstorm. When
it collapsed they discovered 19 Buddha statues inside. After photographing
them, they were put back into the new structure.
At one point our guide said
‘Chinese water buffalo’. I looked around
China.
Many men still use a manual plow with a water buffalo. See photo. It was dusty
everywhere and we felt pretty dirty after two hours.
and saw a mechanical plow…hence the
name as it was made in
An, our local guide, is a member of the Palaung tribe. He said
the UNDP had piped water to his village. Before this the villagers had to get
up at 4:30 to go to the water source and carry it back to the village. His
village is 16 kilometers (about 9 miles) from town. He walks it in 5 hours. If
it is dry season he can go on motorcycle. He spends half the year working on
his family’s tree plantation and half the year guiding. The high season is
Nov-Mar and April-Oct is the rainy season.
This year we saw something we had not seen before:
motorcycle vendors. They load their bike with numerous veggies or fruits and
drive to a neighborhood and sell directly to the people in that area. This is
brilliant since many people do not own any form of transportation. We also saw
small pickup trucks doing this. One disturbing sight was motorcyclists who
carry their helmets instead of wearing them or wearing them but not fastening
the strap to hold the helmet on. DUH!
We ended the day with another sunset shot.
Feb 9
We drove back to Mandalay
today, about five hours. When in Mandalay
we drove on the newest road in the country which is mostly empty because it is
a toll road and people are still quite poor after 50 years of isolation. But
the road was substandard by our measure. There were frequently dips requiring
cars to slow down. We were not interested in doing anything in Mandalay other than relaxing as our schedule
had been quite busy the past few days. I didn’t have any appetite at dinner so
ordered watermelon and ate a few bites of Ron’s fried rice.
Feb 10 - 19
Neither of us slept well due to rock hard pillows. I woke up
feeling a bit nauseous. Today we are to fly to Bangkok. At the airport I got light headed
just when we were supposed to go into the passport control area. Poor Ron he was
first in line but I had to lie down on the bench and he had to get out of line.
I got through the baggage screening but at passport control I gripped the desk
and hung my head below the desk. I was asked to stand up for the photo that is
required. I got inside the next part of the terminal and immediately sat on the
floor and put my feet in the air trying to get the circulation to my head. Ron
went in search of the bathrooms and gate. I went to the bathroom and seemed to
be better. I didn’t eat anything until 3 or 4 in the afternoon in Bangkok. Those that know
me know I get low blood sugar and never miss a meal so this didn’t bode well. I
ate a bowl of soup and went to bed. In the middle of the night I got diarrhea.
Have I ever mentioned what a saint I am married to? I didn’t quite make it to
the toilet and was about to fall off the toilet in a faint when Ron came to the
rescue. I took some medicine but still was having trouble the next morning so
we got a doctor to come to the hotel. He prescribed four meds and I was
encouraged. However my system was so irritated that nothing could stay put long
enough to take hold.
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So the next morning still having trouble we called Dr.
Krishrat who owns a private hospital and whom we have known for six years. He
told me to come and spend a night. I was a wreck to put it mildly. I met with a
doctor and told him how long I had been having symptoms, showed him the
medicine I was taking and he immediately said I needed an IV to get the
medicine to take effect. So I stayed overnight and had two IV’s. I cried with
relief when he told me I needed to stay overnight. I haven’t been in the
hospital since 1989! For about 18-20 hours I had audio and visual
hallucinations. Nothing scary but it was weird and took me a while to figure
out what was happening. Every time I closed my eyes I would see what looked
like really lovely flocked wall covering in beautiful colors. The audio was
soft music and low voices which I couldn’t distinguish what was being said or
sung. Trippy! I checked out at noon and took a taxi back to our hotel where I
rested. Somewhere prior to the hospital Ron went to a restaurant that we
frequent and asked if they could make some chicken soup for me. They actually
delivered it to my room and refused payment. It was such a kind gesture as they
don’t serve chicken soup at the restaurant.
We had tickets to fly to Chiang Mai but I was too sick. We
had a doctor’s letter saying I couldn’t travel but the airline wouldn’t honor
it so we cancelled our trip. Because Ron had a meeting the next week in Bangkok we decided to just hangout in Bangkok rather than go to our house and turn
around and come back to BKK then turn around and go back to the house.
We had to change hotels the day I got out of the hospital
but there was a room right across the street. Ron got us moved before I got
there. Have I ever mentioned what a swell guy I married? I won the husband
lottery!!!!!!!!!! Because it took a few days before I could eat solid food and
because I had so little appetite we decided to delay Valentine’s dinner until I
was back to normal. So a few days later we went to our favorite place, Once
Upon A Time, a lovely restaurant where we always eat in the garden outside. We
ordered a favorite dish that Larry Brown introduced us to in 2005 I think. It
is called Seafood soufflé and is cooked in a young coconut. It is quite rich
and absolutely delicious. We also ordered a fried fish with garlic, a dish we
discovered last year.
Nothing else of significance happened while in BKK. We
shopped for some friends back home. I had planned to get them a table runner in
Chiang Mai and was lucky in that organization has a small shop in BKK. I found
the perfect item in the color combination I wanted. Once we acted like tourists
and walked around the old ‘farang’ area (foreigners). This area had some old
colonial buildings and beautiful shops. Ron and I find BKK too frenetic for our
tastes. There are 14 million people in the city. It is crowded almost
everywhere you go and it wears us down pretty quickly so we really just cooled
out jets mostly. I made a daily trek to the internet café for email. I did
observe how casual people in BKK dress. You will see women in very short
shorts. Everyone wears sandals, mostly flip flops. There is no traditional
dress in the big city. All the malls are crowded. I decided since I was going
to be in BKK for a week I might as well take advantage of the tailor next to
our hotel. It was the same tailor Ron and I used in 1997 on our first trip to
BKK. I had a couple pair of pants made and three silk blouses at a great price.
We walked through a city park and Ron took some photos
Ron had his meeting with someone from Thammasat University
about him possibly teaching there. He is encouraged after the meeting though
nothing definite has been decided.
Feb 20
Today we hired a private car to bring us back to our home.
We usually take a van but we had so much luggage and I just didn’t want to
schlep it through the sky train to the place where you pick up the vans. It was
so much easier. It feels so good to be back here where we hear a variety of
birds throughout the day. We have some noisy neighbors but they rarely bother
us.
Ron worked on
his report until 3:00 and we went to town to get some cash, 400,000 TZ
schillings is a bit less than $200. Makes one feel wealthy walking around with
that kind of cash. Not much is happening on Sunday in downtown Iringa. We came
back to our room and Ron worked on his report some more. Tonight we are going
up the Sunset Hotel where we had lunch earlier this week. Ron will get some
photos of the grounds and the sunset with any luck.
Only a few
photos were possible as there was a large cloud on the horizon. We met Nathan
whom Robin had met on safari. He joined us for the evening. He works for a
Canadian NGO. We sat on the deck and as the sun went down it got quite cold so
the staff brought out the charcoal terra cotta heaters and placed them on each
end of our table. We ate starters on the deck then went inside for our meal.
