Posts filed under 'Kalaw'
It?s 7:30am in this small village in the hills of Myanmar. It?s me, Hadas, Mirit, our guide Mr. Tun, and our cook Mr. T. Yesterday we hiked into this village from Kalaw and today we will be going back. We?re all a little tired from yesterday since we didn?t get here until 8pm, in the dark. But we had such a great day yesterday that even after 11 hours of hiking we were still laughing and joking at the end.
It started early yesterday morning when the 3 of us went to the five-day market in Kalaw. Then we met Mr. Tun at the guesthouse at 9am and began our trek walking south out of the village. It had rained the entire night before and it was still misty when we left. Along the way we met up with Mr. T, the cook. Going out of town the 5 of us walked along, following a road and then going along the railroad tracks through the hills. Since it had been raining so much Mr. Tun suggested the RR tracks for the morning, worried that the trail would be too wet and muddy. It was probably a good thing because when we finally veered off the tracks we came to a creek that had a bridge that was completely washed out. We had a good time deciding whether or not to cross; in the end we forded it no problem.
The amazing thing about it all was that after about 1 hour into the walk, the sun came out and for the rest of the day we had blue skies and sun! None of us could believe it. It?s been either cloudy or raining every day since I?ve been in Myanmar.
So we had good weather and good company. Our guide, Mr. Tun, speaks English fluently and is such a good-natured guy. He?s 49 years old and has done various work over the years including working with foundry techniques and doing environmental work for the Burmese government. We were able to ask him so many questions about the people, the food, the culture, the government, everything. And the Israeli girls were so excited about being here and learning about everything that it made for a really fun time.
We had lunch at Ywar Pu Village at a house with a beautiful view of the valley and fields below. In that area they grow rice, cauliflower, peppers, mustard, beans, pumpkin, and potatoes. The lunch was made by Mr. T but we ate in the house of a local family.
After lunch we continued to walk through the hills, stopping to have tea with a monk, enjoying the views, taking breaks in the villages, and meeting some of the locals. The people here are so friendly and genuine, completely unspoiled by tourists (yet). The women and children are so beautiful ? such nice features and good skin. It was just so relaxing to sit with them, drink tea, and talk with Mr. Tun about life in his country. Mr. Tun was having a good time with us too and enjoying our enthusiasm and having laughs with us, so much so that he took us to a few extra places and then underestimated the time it would take to get to our destination for the night. The big joke became ? how much farther Mr. Tun? 45 minutes. We went through that for more than 3 hours!! We thought we were going to walk all night. We even renamed Mr. Tun to be Mr. 45 Minutes or Mr. Dark since we wound up walking in the dark for the last 2 hours. Still a great time had by all.
Leaving the town of Kalaw for trekking
Enjoying the scenery
A novice monk curiously watches us
July 17th, 2002
It’s funny how quickly things can change while travelling, from good to bad or bad to good. Yesterday I was ready to get out of Kalaw and move on to the next town. Then I met some cool people in the afternoon, plans were made, and I’m now staying here another 2 days. The best thing about it though is that I feel excited to be travelling again!
Yesterday afternoon it was raining and I was sitting at the guesthouses doing nothing, just watching BBC, when 2 Israeli girls arrived (from Yangon) and started asking me about trekking options, etc. We decided to talk to the owner of the guesthouse, Lily, and her brother about guides, routes, and prices. They were interested in doing an overnight trip (2 days) and it sounded great to me because I had wanted to do a trek but didn’t feel like doing it on my own. Also, I was expecting some of the people I had met at Inle Lake to show up and I was going to see what they were doing and then decide to stay or go or what. The Israeli girls were so nice though and the more we were talking the more I thought yeah it would be good to go with them.
A little while later the Inle Lake crew showed up - the Australian girl, the Spanish girl, the Portugese girl, and this Irish guy who I had met my first night in Yangon. That is really one of the nice things about travelling in Myanmar, that there are not a lot of people going through and the circuit of places to see is pretty limited (mostly because the government won’t allow tourists into a lot of places), and so you wind up seeing the same people over and over again.
Anyway, it was good to see some familiar faces. And it sounds like I fared out a bit better on my pickup ride if you can believe that. The four of them also took a pickup from Inle Lake and not only did they pay more than me but it rained the whole time AND they had 2 flat tires! Even worse, their backpacks were on the roof and someone opened the Portugese girl’s backpack and stole her shampoo, soap, and toiletries bag. What a bummer. I had my bag on the roof for my ride as well but my bag was locked, luckily. It just sucks because you can’t replace things like a toothbrush or face cream with the kind you had before in a country like Myanmar. Mostly it’s just frustrating because it gives you a bad taste for the people and that’s really a shame. We were all happy for her that it was not passports or money of course.
Last night I went out to dinner with the 2 Israeli girls and some other people from our guesthouse - a Slovenian couple, an Israeli couple, and a Canadian guy. Good time.
In the end the Inle Lake crew decided to do a 3-day trek and I decided to join the Israeli girls on a 2-day trek. We decided to start our trek tomorrow and today the three of us went to see the 8,000 Buddhas at Pindaya Caves.
This morning we got up early, had breakfast, and set out for Pindaya Caves at 7:30am. We hired a private taxi for $17 for the day. Well deserved after the pickup ride. The ride to the caves was breathtaking, rolling hills covered in farmland, locals riding bicycles, children on their way to school, clouds hanging in the valleys. It took about 1.5 hours to get to the caves. The Pindaya Cave is actually a temple built inside the cave, which houses more than 8,000 Buddha statues. As the guidebook says,’the Buddhas are made from teak, marble, brick, laquer, and cement, and have been put there over the centuries and arranged in such a way as to form a labryrinth in the various chambers.’ Well that just about says it all. Except that the cave itself is up on a mountain and from the road you can see all the stuppas around the outside and it looks like some kind of magical kingdom. And, we were the ONLY tourists there! As we walked around the caves, there was a Burmese woman who came in and sat in front of one of the main Buddhas and she started chanting and praying. Her voice echoed through the walls of the cave and it sounded incredible, really magical, as we looked at all the Buddhas around us.
The cave was the best part of the day. We saw another market on the way back; this time we decided to buy random local food and try it. We got some jack fruit and then tried about 10 different sweets - crunchy things, chewy things, balls, squares, who knows what they were, but it was interesting to try.
Then, back at the guesthouse, the three of us had tea with Lily the owner and discussed life as a woman in Myanmar. She told us about her family and the town and her personal experiences and it was all fascinatling. Then we asked her if we could try this mud-like paste that all the women use here as makeup. Turns out it’s actually a type of sandalwood, called thanakha, which is a very commonly growing wood in Myanmar. The women grind the wood on a stone with some water and use the paste to apply on their faces. We were so excited to try it! Lily and her sister were kind enough to grind some up and put it on for the three of us.
Tomorrow we leave for the trekking!
View of the stuppas from Pindaya Caves
3 of the 8,000 Buddhas
3 more of the 8,000 Buddhas - Mirit, Hadas, and me!
July 15th, 2002
It’s raining and cool here in Kalaw but I am warm and dry inside the Everest Restaurant and am enjoying a hot Nepalese coffee. I arrived yesterday in the afternoon after a somewhat adventureous journey. I was supposed to take a bus here, but first I had to get a pickup to the junction where the bus comes through. No problem. Well, sort of. After about 45 minutes of being told different things - you take that pickup, 500 kyat, ok 200 kyat, no pickup- must take taxi, I finally got someone to show me the right pickup and give me the 100 kyat normal price. The pickup ride wasn’t bad even though there were over 25 people stuffed inside and on top. t took about 30 minutes to go 7 miles. Whew.
At the junction I asked where to wait for the bus and found a nice cafe run by 2 women where no one bothered me. (I was the only foreigner both on the pickup and at the junction). I waited, and waited, and waited. I had a soda, ate some cookies, wrote in my journal, read up on the guidebook, and still waited some more. After almost 1.5 hours, I asked the woman where was the bus and she said, oh it’s coming, be patient.
See, there are no times for the local buses here, they just leave when they’re full, so you never know what time it’s coming. Well, I told her that I was a little nervous about getting stuck there for the night and I guess they figured they better help me get on SOMETHING, so they flagged down the next pickup and motioned for me to get on. When I saw the pickup, my first thought was surely they can’t be putting me on THAT. It was CHOCK full of people with about 10 men on the roof too. I didn’t have any time to rationalize the situation with a full pickup of Burmese people staring at me though so before I knew it I was jumping on and the pickup was off. Hang on!
My God, what chaos. I could only fit 1/4 of one butt cheek on the end of the bench and the rest of me was dangling off the back of the truck, my arms gripped to the steel bars of the frame for dear life. I really wasn’t sure how long I was going to be able to hang on like that and I knew it was a long ride, over 2 hours, and I just kept thinking screw this pickup, why didn’t I just pay $15 for a private taxi??
The pickup was PACKED, mostly with women in the bottom, one woman breast feeding her baby, other women eating corn, all looking at me sypathetically because they all must have been in my seat before and knew how badly it sucked.
Well, I got lucky. About 40 minutes into the ride some people got off and I managed to move in and comfortably sit both butt cheeks down. Ahhh! I was so happy with my perserverence and accomplishment! I’m actually going to enjoy the rest of this ride, I thought, smiling to the other women. Then, about 5 minutes later, it started to rain. HARD. It was spraying through both sides of the pickup and everyone was getting soaked. Plus my one bag was on the roof and I though well there go all my dry clothes.
As a team we worked to pull plastic down around us and managed to keep some of the water out, better than nothing anyway. I suppose this could be labelled as My Bonding Experience with the Locals.
2.5 hours later we finally got here so I immediately took shelter in a store and got out my rainjacket while trying to get my bearings. Just then a funeral procession went by - first about 20 monks in a row with a big brass gong - going slowly GONG (pause) GONG (pause) GONG (pause), then the casket carried by about 10 or 15 men, then a whole mob of people all holding umbrellas in the rain. They slowly turned the corner and followed the main street out of town. It was beautiful.
Anyway I found a place to stay and mainly spent the afternoon relaxing and recovering from my morning adventures. I wanted to go to the cave with 8,000 Buddhas today but I couldn’t find any travellers to share a taxi and after yesterday I wasn’t ready for another pickup excursion. (That 2.5-hour ride, by the way, cost me roughly 20 cents).
Instead I went to the big market at the next town over, Ang Ban. Yes I had to take a pickup, but it was only a 20-minute drive, and luckily it was not overpacked nor did it rain. The market was nice, people selling fresh fruit, veggies, flowers, slabs of meat, etc, etc, but I think I’m a bit marketed-out because I was bored after half an hour. Actually I think I’m a bit Asia-ed out at the moment. Everything is starting to look the same to me - the guesthouses, restaurants, bus rides, other travellers, only the scenery and languages change slightly. I’m tired of being ripped off all the time, having to bargain everything from hotels to taxis, always looking for places to eat where I won’t get sick, using dirty toilets, worrying about malaria, and being hassled in general just because I am white and everyone knows I’m a foreigner. I’m looking forward to a one-month break in Australia.
Will probably head north to Mandalay tomorrow.
The Pickup, national form of transportation in Myanmar
The main bustling street of Kalaw
At the market
July 14th, 2002
