Exit... A few last words on Burma.

February 23, 2012

As I ride to the airport in this well worn taxi I am craning my neck to see out the dirty and scratched window which is further obscured by various layers of wind guard and laminated sunshade.  It is uncomfortable, and in this early pre dawn light the figures are difficult to see.

This is Myanmar (Burma).  It is beautiful out there, but it takes effort... real work to see it.  As the sun rises and the worm light replaces the darkness I see all that is in this country.  Monks and Nuns making there way, Monks in there usually in single file nuns in groups of two or three, alms bowls in hand. Street sweepers picking up trash and moving the endless dust from one part of the street to another.  Business men and woman going to work, kids on there way to school.  Shop workers opening there shutters for the days business and vendors and eateries preparing for there daily customers.  We pass Stupas, Pagodas, Monasteries, Temples, Churches, Mosques, Buddha's, and any other honorary form that is imaginable.  Some old to the point of being no more that a pile of ruble, some new, all revered.  A profound respect for the sacred is the standard that this culture lives by.

This is a raw and rough country full of worthy and honorable people.  But these last several decades have taken there toll. The people of this country  have been beaten down by a soulless and repressive government that has done it's best to plunder any wealth that this land has and to squash anyone who would offer any resistance to there thievery. The effects are evident... from the people to the infrastructure it has been a struggle to survive. It effects all things but is no more evident than in the behavior of the people themselves.

What is impressive is the number of people who have been truly resilient to the oppression that they have experienced.  They are truly kind, trusting and generous.  It is sometimes difficult to break though the hardened exterior but once through it is like exiting this broken down taxi and seeing with unfettered eyes the clear beauty that is the Burmese people.

These last weeks have been difficult and being here has been real work, but I would do it all again... I will be back, and with luck perhaps some of you will be with me.

Inle Lake... Have water will travel.

February 20, 2012

Inle Lake, located in the central eastern region of Burma is a placid body of water about 13.5 miles long and 7miles wide.  It is home to dozens of villages and a wide variety of local cultural diversity.  For the few days that I was there I stayed in the northern town of Nyaugshwe.
I had only planed to be in the area for a few days and at that I was only going to be out on the water for a day but that was cut short due to health issues that required me to instruct my driver to head back to the hotel.  For this reason the images from the lake are fewer than expected.
That said, who needs photos from the middle of the day anyway...


In the early morning light the mist lays low on the water.






















It isn't long before the tourists are racing toward the lake in their hired long boats.

Goods are transported like everything else via long boats.

Fisherman have been plying the waters the same way for hundreds of years.

Locals make there way feeding the gulls as they go.

We pass water farmers harvesting weeds from the lake bottom.

Village life on the water is much the same as on land... children go to school, crops are planted harvested and taken to market.

People have jobs in much the same way that they do everywhere, I visited a textile factory where they were making lotus cloth.

Back on land there were a few images I couldn't leave out.

A field of garlic blossoms.

Buffalo boys.

Boys playing on a wall next to the road.

A uniquely shaped paggoda. The only one of it's kind in all of Burma

A road trip to Namhsan

February 15, 2012

In most of Burma it has been impossible to rent a Moto (Motor/bike or scooter).  But not in Hsipaw.  In fact, not only are we able to rent  motos, we can take them out on the open road to other towns.  Everywhere else, even if you can rent a bike, you can't take it out of town.  (Reasonably so, the owners of the motos want to keep track of where they are and most of the time require a passport to insure their  safe and sound return)

So....  Road trip!  Lao and I rented a couple of bikes and set out for Namhsan.  (Lao is the friend I met on the train)

Namhsan is a small tea town in the hills about 5 hours north of Hsipaw.  About half the trip is poorly paved... the other half  is rough gavel/rock to dirt track road.  

The road was long, bumpy and extremely dusty. Fun for the first four hours or so but that last hour I was looking forward to getting to our destination.

Namhson is a town that straddles the crest of a ridge.  There is one road that follows the ridge with buildings on either side and then it drops off from there.

The air is cold and dry this time of year. There is no need for air conditioning since it only warms up for a few hours during the middle of the day.   Our accommodation is basic... there is only one guest house in town... we share a room with twin beds and a shared bath. The bath is down the stairs and along a veranda past the wash sinks on the outside of the building.  You can find it by following the distinctive oder...  Cold water shower available if you need some distraction.  When it comes to showers... nothing says GET THE JOB DONE like a cold shower on a cold day.

In the Morning we warm our hands over hot coals in a bowl on the floor.

 The town roles up and down as it follows the ridge. Life here is simple.

Salt

We visit a tea processing plant and learn about "Pickled Green Tea"  the specialty of the region.

Only the new "green" leaves are picked.

The green leaves are packed into a special barrel that is then placed over a steam pipe.

After the leaves are steamed they are placed into a rolling machine that gives them a wadded/rolled appearance.

Ater being steamed and rolled the tea leaves are separated on a large vibrating separation table the larger leaves are then placed into plastic bags to ferment for about one or two months, while the smaller leaves are used for making green tea. 

After fermentation the "Pickled Tea" is spread out on bamboo matts and placed in the sun to dry.

Typically served as a side dish pickled tea can be found at the table of most meals.

After viewing the process we sat down to a cup of green tea and honey rice cakes.

The owners grandson

The kitchen where our tea was prepared.

In the evening we drove to the highest peak in the area to see the pagodas and the view.

We made our way back the next day, both glad we had made the trip but tired and definitely needing a shower.  I literally had to wash everything including my backpack and camera bag.