From Mandalay to our next destination, Hsipaw we exchange luxury for Burmese reality: a 6.5-hour journey crossing the mountains on a local bus, with frequent stops when the engine is sprinkled with water to cool. We sit in the front seats from where we can watch the driver sitting on the right side, driving on the right-hand side of the road. A young guy assists him, standing at the open left door, with occasional instructions and gently waving with his hand to the other vehicles when the bus is advancing or turning. It is how traffic is organized in Burma. We arrive to Mr Charles' guesthouse quite exhausted and take a nice double room (USD 22 inc. breakfast).
At 5 am the next day we're at the market to see how the farmers of nearby villages sell their goods by the light of candles and the stars. We buy tasty local strawberries. After that we have a huge breakfast at the guesthouse: watermelon, Shan noodle soup, rice with yellow bean curry, pancakes and more.
During the day we visit a rice noodle factory then trek through paddies (soy beans, corn, long beans, peas with coriander) and with the help of two kind local fellows we end up at the base of a stream starting under a huge rock.
Évi needs to spend a day in bed, the first time in Asia getting sick from some not properly made food.
Next day we go trekking again to a waterfall which has no water being the dry season. To our surprise, there are even more spectacular limestone formations and caves next to it.
The next morning we join an organized 2-days trekking tour with a British girl, one Swiss and a Czech couple, guided by a 66-year old local. He not only keeps up with our speed but also has great knowledge of the area.
After some pine forests in the beginning, the landscape becomes scorched with only a few spots of remaining trees. Much of the land is already used for producing crops, others are already burnt or being burnt to give way to new plantations. Our guide says that trees have been disappearing gradually since he started to be a guide (16 years ago). People need firewood and more and more new land to feed their families. Locals can only rent the land from the state; illegal logging is a serious problem here, although much of the valuable timber had been sold to China already. We hear edgy comments about the Chinese from other people: "they're like termites, they eat up everything”, and, "we say, where there's smoke, you'll find Chinese”. They're also held responsible for introducing unsustainable and harmful crop cultivation methods (covering the soil with plastic; heavy use of chemicals). Other resources, such as oil and gas are also exploited by China, pipelines are going through the country transferring the materials. The money goes to the (military) government, not to the people.
We meet several motorbikes also travelling to our destination during the trek, and in the afternoon our group arrives to a Palaung village where we’re accommodated in a homestay. Villagers still live a traditional life, cultivating crops and working with buffalo.
The wooden houses have the fireplace in the middle of the room. There’s one well in the centre of the village to get water from. Electricity is provided by small solar panels in most houses thanks to a UNDP project.
We’re lucky to catch a ceremony the next morning. It turns out that people from nearby villages had come here to celebrate the completion of a new part of the monastery.
The crowd walks and dances around the Buddhist monastery to the beat of drums, then eyes are fixed on the monks climbing up the pillar and setting the crown at the top.
Walking back to Hsipaw takes 3 hours. There we sleep in a dorm room and next morning get on a bus at 5.30 am to Mandalay.
No comments :
Post a Comment