Myanmar/Burma

My good friend, Paula Hirschoff, her husband, Chuck Ludlam, and I traveled 28 days in Burma/Myanmar in January. Paula and I were celebrating 50 years of friendship since freshman year at Macalester College. We had a fantastic time; it's an amazing country, with lovely scenery and very sweet and gentle people. They are friendly and welcoming,  have beautiful smiles, and they all work very hard. I was again reminded that Southeast Asia is my favorite part of the world. The country finally seems to be opening up a bit as you all have been hearing. Aung Sun Suu Kyi is actively campaigning, political prisoners have been freed, and there have been cease fire agreements made with most of the ethnic tribes.

We went to the most popular places: Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay, and Inle Lake, plus a few other places: Kengtung in the northeast, Patao in the north, and Mawlamyine in the south, and we did three different treks visiting villages of minority tribes. We were on a tour arranged by a travel agent, a new experience for me, and were met by local guides and their drivers in the different places. All the guides were excellent and did their best to accommodate our interests. We stayed in a few very nice hotels, but we also stayed on the floors of monasteries and in trekking houses that were smoky and cold. We took six domestic flights so we could get to the various places easily. The roads are awful as is other infrastructure. There are few private cars on the road, but many bicycles and motorcycles, often carrying three to four people.  People ride in the backs of pick ups, in tuk tuks, which are motorcycles pulling a trailer with benches for people to sit on, plus other contraptions. There are also many bullock carts on the roads.

The highlight in Yangon was the magnificent Shwedagon gold stupa, a solid cylindrical cone 325 feet high, which has many temples and covers a huge area. Around the main stupa there are many smaller ones. We were there on a Sunday afternoon and it was a very busy place.

 In Bagan we saw endless temples and stupas spread out over the plains. Bagan was in its glory from 1057 until 1287 when the Mongols overran the city. 1044 was the beginning of a time of transition from Hinduism to Buddhism and over 4000 temples were built at that time, of which over 3000 remain. We watched the sunset and the next morning, the sunrise, very dramatic and almost otherworldly. From Bagan to Mandalay we took a tourist boat for two days on the Irrawaddy River that is wide, shallow, and muddy. The boat trip was very relaxing and the food was good, especially a fish called butterfish. We visited two villages; the most interesting was the pottery village where many of the families are involved in the pottery business. We watched as people made pottery on wheels, and then decorated them with a patterned paddle, or by drawing a design. The whole process was very impressive because it is such a big operation that exports all over the country.

Inle Lake is a huge lake that has 17 villages built on stilts. The fishermen fish from flat wooden boats standing up and paddling with one leg.  Fishing is done with long nets, and also conical nets that are plunged into the water. It was fascinating to watch them as they efficiently curved their legs around the paddle to get leverage to move forward. People also tend floating gardens built up with soil on top of water hyacinths, primarily growing tomatoes, but also cucumbers and pole beans. We were in a motor boat that took us to different places on the lake where there are villages with small workshops, such as silk weaving, a silversmith, a blacksmith making brass objects, and cigar making.

We were very impressed with the three treks we did.  Our first trek was a three-day 36-mile hike, going from village to village. We went from Kalaw to Inle Lake. The terrain was hilly, but not particularly steep. Our guide was very good and had a number of friends in each of the villages, people he had helped in some way, for example, assisting with a house or roof, or a medical problem, so we were invited in for green tea and sometimes treats, such as popcorn or peanuts.  In three of the villages we visited schools and brought pencils for the children. Since it was the dry season the rice fields were brown, but there were other crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes, wheat, black sesame for oil, ginger, beans, and peanuts. Hot red peppers were drying in the sun in one village, and garlic in another. Houses are thatched and have woven bamboo mats or wooden planks for siding, and they are on stilts with the cows or pigs living underneath the houses. The ethnic groups in these villages were Pa’O, and Danu. We stayed in monasteries and met the novices (young boys) and monks, and we heard their chanting at 5:30 am. Between the chanting and the roosters it was noisy early in the morning. January is the coldest month and one morning there was frost on the ground. The daytime was very pleasant, however, and usually short sleeves were sufficient. From lack of light, exhaustion, and the cold, we were going to bed at about 8:30.  We just crawled under the well-used quilts on to mats with pads on the floor and fell asleep. We carried small day packs, but we passed people laden with heavy loads of wood, or agricultural products.

We visited the town of Kengtung in Shan State and did our second trek nearby. It is near the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Burma, and Laos come together. It used to be a major poppy growing area and was the center of drug trade, but this is no longer true.  Because of landmines, tourists are only permitted to trek to a few villages on day hikes. We visited two villages one day, in the second village we spent a long time talking to a former schoolteacher, and learned about her village and her family, and she in turn asked us many questions.  Her husband was a Baptist priest and was involved in AIDS prevention. The next day we hiked up to two Loi villages, one especially was very disturbing because there was no school and the children were acting out for the tourists. There was no adult supervision whatsoever, even the young novices from the monastery were running around and speeding recklessly on a motorcycle. Approximately 100 people live in large longhouses where families live side-by-side and have their own cooking fires, so the buildings become filled with smoke; asthma is a problem here.

The third trek of five days was definitely the best, the most remote and the most fascinating. We started out in Putao, near the Chinese border, and we trekked for two days, stayed in the “Last Village” for a day and then returned.  We could see the snow-covered foothills of the Himalayas in the distance.  We crossed rivers and streams, on bamboo planks and trunks, on rocks, and on rickety bridges, fun, but at the same time rather scary. We hiked up a steep hillside the first day and through rain forest with tall trees, palms, vines and other thick vegetation (The orchids appear in the rainy season). In the distance the hills were all covered with trees. We heard monkeys and birds; one time there was a real monkey convention with all sorts of commotion. We passed through several villages and then stayed in trekking houses in villages, but it was very cold at night, especially because of all the open slats in the walls and floors. There was a fire in the middle of the room, but it gave off more smoke than heat. Again we were going to bed early just to be warm.  One noteworthy person we visited was a delightful 104-year-old woman. She was very small, but very agile and aware, and she was very pleased to meet us.  We had porters and cooks and we ate quite well. One morning we had chicken clubhouse sandwiches for breakfast, and crepes another day.  The majority of these tribal people are Christians.

On our return trip we were welcomed to a wedding. We were greeted with a bamboo cup of sweet rice milk, and then sticky rice steamed in a banana leaf, and later black Chinese tea.  We greeted and shook hands with many people. The whole town was there and the festivities would obviously continue long after we left. We took pictures of the wedding party and the people, and the people took pictures of us.

The final part of the trip was spent in the South. Chuck was especially interested in this because of the western terminus of the Burma-Siam Railway, called the Death Railroad, built by Allied POWs (British, Australian, American, Dutch) and local laborers as a supply line from Thailand to Burma for the Japanese during WWII. 16,000 POWs died and 100,000 Asians because of the brutal treatment by the Japanese. The 260-mile railroad was started in September 1942 and took 16 months to build through extremely difficult terrain. We visited the nearby cemetery with 3771 allied graves maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, very sad indeed. The third largest city, Mawlamyine, in Mon state, has many Muslim Bangladeshis and a very different atmosphere. We stayed in bungalows on a river and attended the opening celebration of a new hotel with many traditional dancers. Paula and I stood on the sidewalk with student nurses who we attempted to converse with.

Then we visited the town of Hpa-an in Kayin or Karen state and visited several villages. I had wanted to visit this area because I have taught many Karen students in Minnesota.The government for many years has persecuted them with deadly attacks by the Burmese army. Apparently a cease-fire agreement has been reached now, however. Here the Karen are mostly Buddhists, while in the refugee camps in Thailand and in the States they are primarily Christian. It is through the nearby hills that many escape into Thailand and to the refugee camps there. (When I went to Thailand I would visit a refugee camp very close to the border near the town of Mae Sot.) Again we were lucky to attend weddings in the area. It was an auspicious day because there were many weddings taking place on this day (2/2/12). We were warmly welcomed to two of the parties and we watched dancers perform.

Burma is a very Buddhist country and there are Buddha statues all over the place, big and little ones, massive and miniscule ones, standing, reclining, sitting, rows and rows of them in the countryside near temples and monasteries, and caves filled with them. There are temples and monasteries all over the country and it is very common to see the monks and novices out with their bowls asking for food early in the morning.

Burma is definitely changing. Parliamentary elections will be held April 1 and everyone is expecting Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s party to win the open seats. Most people we talked to were “cautiously optimistic” about the political situation.  The country is opening up for tourism, but has a long way to go to meet the needs of tourists. We met people who have been coming to Burma again and again for years. We now understand why: the smiles, the warmness of the people. The children all know how to wave and say bye-bye. One little boy won our hearts as he said, “I love you.”