I'm going to catch up on this later - in Cambodia now...and so is Obama.
Headed due west to the Bay of Bengal on the Indian Ocean this morning. Was fascinated by the size of the teak logs heaped on trucks and barges along the shore. Heading to China no doubt and as the sanctions drop, further afield I'm sure.
People here don't have much but they make do and get on with it. Road works continue with manual labour and the odd new piece of equipment to help out. The roads out side of Yangon city limits start to fill with scooters - banned in the city to much chaos without them - and then the landscape turns to rice fields. The irrigation canal follows the road dotted with houses made of bamboo framing, woven palm leaf walls and thatch roofs.The houses are raised off the ground to help with air circulation and to provide daytime shade below. There are often kitchen platforms and hammocks...sometimes chickens...sometimes tethered pigs. The scooter is the family vehicle if any otherwise it's a bicycle. Whole families ride on a single scooter with no helmets, the ladies are side saddle. Schools are here and there, everyone has a vegetable garden.
The big basic need is access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Outhouses dump directly in the the irrigation canals which are the sole water source that I can see. I doubt if wells would be any safer in the soft delta land. Bottled water is for tourists. This, I hope becomes a priority for the new government. The land here is very fertile so it looks like the country can feed itself. Rice is sown and harvested by hand by most. It looks like they have solid communities. We continue through this delta region for what seems like an eternity but is only two hours. The bathroom stop is rustic. Burmese rustic with few tourists. The bus parks in front of lady selling a platter full of roasted whole baby ducks(?) chickens(?) The adult roasted bird draped at the edge of the platter has a burning stick of incensed placed jauntily in it's empty eye socket. Classy, I think. When I pointed this out to Marie and Lucy, I couldn't stop laughing.
Onward.
At our lunch stop were are limited choices so I tried a bowl of noodle soup which turned out to be super spicy hot and, horror of horrors, has chunks of that white chicken sausage floating in it! I ate the noodle s and left the searing broth with festering hot dog behind. Spice and temperature worked in my advantage...or perhaps it was the lingering affects of my antibiotics.
At a stop in Pathien there was a nice little respite at a parasol workshop. Lovely colours so great photo ops. Would have gladly purchased a couple if we had a back yard to shade.
Back in the bus and on to the beach. The rice fields shift to sharper hills. Green hills. Actually deforested hills. I assume that given the size of the remaining giant trees that teak once clothed these hills. A good solid ground cover had already taken hold so erosion was stabilized. It looked like a good deal of the hills had steps cut into them and been replanted.
Headed due west to the Bay of Bengal on the Indian Ocean this morning. Was fascinated by the size of the teak logs heaped on trucks and barges along the shore. Heading to China no doubt and as the sanctions drop, further afield I'm sure.
People here don't have much but they make do and get on with it. Road works continue with manual labour and the odd new piece of equipment to help out. The roads out side of Yangon city limits start to fill with scooters - banned in the city to much chaos without them - and then the landscape turns to rice fields. The irrigation canal follows the road dotted with houses made of bamboo framing, woven palm leaf walls and thatch roofs.The houses are raised off the ground to help with air circulation and to provide daytime shade below. There are often kitchen platforms and hammocks...sometimes chickens...sometimes tethered pigs. The scooter is the family vehicle if any otherwise it's a bicycle. Whole families ride on a single scooter with no helmets, the ladies are side saddle. Schools are here and there, everyone has a vegetable garden.
The big basic need is access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Outhouses dump directly in the the irrigation canals which are the sole water source that I can see. I doubt if wells would be any safer in the soft delta land. Bottled water is for tourists. This, I hope becomes a priority for the new government. The land here is very fertile so it looks like the country can feed itself. Rice is sown and harvested by hand by most. It looks like they have solid communities. We continue through this delta region for what seems like an eternity but is only two hours. The bathroom stop is rustic. Burmese rustic with few tourists. The bus parks in front of lady selling a platter full of roasted whole baby ducks(?) chickens(?) The adult roasted bird draped at the edge of the platter has a burning stick of incensed placed jauntily in it's empty eye socket. Classy, I think. When I pointed this out to Marie and Lucy, I couldn't stop laughing.
Onward.
At our lunch stop were are limited choices so I tried a bowl of noodle soup which turned out to be super spicy hot and, horror of horrors, has chunks of that white chicken sausage floating in it! I ate the noodle s and left the searing broth with festering hot dog behind. Spice and temperature worked in my advantage...or perhaps it was the lingering affects of my antibiotics.
At a stop in Pathien there was a nice little respite at a parasol workshop. Lovely colours so great photo ops. Would have gladly purchased a couple if we had a back yard to shade.
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| Umbrella workshop in Pathien |
The ocean made an appearance over a replanted hill. Fifteen minutes later we were headed down a a dusty village road then into a very manicured, very modern resort. The open lobby stepped up into a dining area that opened out over the pool, a pristine beach and the ocean. You could feel the collective sigh of relief from the group..except for Lucy. Somehow her bag never arrived. Nyi Nyi miscounted the bags and things got complicated by the fact that Lucy had an old luggage tag that matched a tour group that was heading out of our hotel at Yangon that morning. She was understandably livid but given the locale, graciously adapted. Two-for-one happy hour helped.
Peg and I had the nicest little teak cabin - very peaceful. I was up early the next morning and spent a couple hours hanging out at the breakfast balcony. Finally we had complete control over the toaster and actually got brown toast instead of warm bread. Woo Who!
Had a walk through the dusty town. Nice and low key - no hard sales pitches. Went for a dip in the ocean later with Peg who was keen on body surfing - you go girl! The waves were a bit much for me. I'm used to being under the ocean away from the crashing waves. There are about a dozen resorts along this 7km beach which is clean and pristine. No high rises, they are all set back from making beach completely accessible to all. Horses and motor scooters occasional zip by.
Next day Watched the local fishermen bring in their catch. It's a community effort to set the net off shore just before the waves start breaking. They run it about 150 metres parallel to shore, anchor it and secure each end on shore. They leave it for about 6 hours and then reel it in. Sales are made right on the beach. A number of locals just haul a basket back to their shops balanced on their head and sometimes while on the back of a scooter. Mid afternoon Lucy got her bag back but no apology from the company.
Heading back to Yangon the next morning we had a stop at an elephant camp. We were told by our guide that the elephants were all "retired" from hard labour but the mahouts told us the elephants were only 16 years old. Hmm doesn't quite add up. In any case they looked healthy and didn't seem to be mistreated so I decided to go for a ride. Pretty cool after you get positioned correctly. They are very sure footed.
After that fun it was a long slog back to a grey overcast Yangon with a quick "tour" around the British colonial buildings. It was such an after thought on the part of our guide that I just snoozed. Wanted to go to Shwedagon pagoda in the evening but we had an obligatory meal together at a nice restaurant that I couldn't miss. It was a delicious meal in a lovely garden lit with balloon shaped lanterns - put on by the tour company no doubt to make up for some of the scheduling and hotel blunders.
In the morning it was time to say good by to Peg and head off to the next stage of my adventure. It was nice to not be tied to some else' schedule but I did miss my travel mates - a very interesting and fun group of people.
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