Mixing it with the masses

Currently I m sitting by the side of the pool at the Governor's Residence Hotel with  some of my fellow travellers bobbing around very slowly and noisily in the pool awaiting the arrival of the G&Ts. It's about 5pm and for the first time a few raindrops are falling to cool us down.

We have been out and about since 8am getting a better sense of the life of the local people. Although I have to admit it is a little difficult to blend in and be unobtrusive when there are 24 large white women travelling en masse. And before anyone accuses me of being rude about their size: even the smallest of our gang is larger than the very petite Burmese women.

We set off to cross the Yangon River - muddy and brown like the Yarra. That involved a boat trip on a huge ferry equipped with tiny plastic chairs too small for western bottoms and peddlers of all sorts of items from quail eggs to hats to men's shirts. We caused quite a sensation and our endless "mingalaba" (hello) to everyone was met with big smiles. We got caught up in the masses of people getting on and off the boat and also the live chooks, TVs and bicycles which were also being transported.

On the other side we were met by chaos on the dock and caused major traffic jams as we piled into tri-shaws for the trip from the Dala township to a village about half an hour away.

Not many tourists visit this side of the river apparently and consequently the tri-shaws were not designed for the size of our bums. I managed to manoeuvre myself into the seat but was jammed tight and had great difficulty extricating myself elegantly (which my FRIEND Kerryn managed to photograph!) at the other end. As Sue pointed out I could have ended up like a hermit crab with the bike permanently attached, so I was somewhat relieved when I managed to squeeze myself out.

On the way to the village we stopped at the local market which was fascinating. It's interesting to see the different reactions to the sights and smells: I love the pungent smell of the herbs pastes, chillies and unrecognisable fruits - but some found it rather confronting.

I decided to buy some limes to try and make the new taste sensation of gin and ISOtonic even better. I did a great job of bartering (actually didn't even try!) and ended up with 6 limes for the princely price of 150 kyats (about 25 cents). And judging by the amount of giggling going on I still paid more than I should!

The sad thing was the amount of plastic rubbish at the front of the market. In days gone by all of the rubbish would have just rotted away, but now with the number of plastic bags the rubbish remains and turns into a horrible quagmire.

I squeezed back into the trishaw and we headed off down the rocky potholed road. (I felt positively at home as it was much the same as the driveway at Orygen: even Anne noticed the similarity!)

We passed a couple of small medical clinics apparently staffed by a doctor,
usually trained in Myanmar

After quite some time travelling through expansive rice fields we arrived in the village which has a population of 3000.


Even this small villgae had an NLD ( National League for Democracy) headquarters in a tiny building with a large billboard out the front with photos of Aung San Suui Kyi and her father Aung San

We spent some time wandering through the village: neat tiny wooden houses, all of them with large pottery urns for water, and small spirit house for offerings to the local deities. A mix of animism and Buddhism.

We walked around the tiny lake, past the local pagoda and ended up at the school where we really caused  sensation.

We were apparently the first tourist group to ever visit the village so everyone came to see us and greeted us warmly. However, the under two year olds were not so keen: when I got too close to one of them she took one look at me and screamed! In fact most of the babies we saw were perfectly content until they caught sight of these strange white faces and started to frown or cry.

At the school, controlled chaos reigned: there were about 6 classrooms with huge numbers of kids in each, all dressed in the Myanmar school uniform of white shirt and dark green pants/skirt. The prep class had 72 children in it and were learning English! Although they were very distracted they all behaved very well. The older boys were cheeky and posing for photos just as they would anywhere. The school routine went out the window and they giggled happily as we took photos.

Their resources were scarce: not every child had their own exercise book and there were no posters or teaching aids to see. So we did a quick 'whiparound' and gave them about $300. The head teacher was insistent that we present it to them formally and take photos as she said everyone in the village would know by the time we returned to the bus and she needed to be accountable.

So we did a group photo of all of us and the teachers (whilst all of the kids amused themselves and didn't misbehave!).

 By the time we had a look around the local monastery and its cats, and had a chat to the local monk we were exhausted. The humidity and heat were high and we were wilting!

But the news had spread and we were greeted at the headman's house where we were having lunch by a reporter from 'The Light of Myanmar' who insisted on taking a photo - just when we were looking our gorgeous best!

We were also photographed a number of times whilst we were travelling in the trishaws by a man in a uniform ( whom somebody decided was using a speed camera: very amusing!). He was apparently from the Tourism ministry and keen to show that we were having a great time to potential tourists.

The lunch was a very traditional Burmese meal with spicy chili and tamarind paste to liven up the stirfries and rice. Red bean cakes, pickled green tea, and peanuts served with green tea completed the meal. The loo proved a challenge for some (and their thigh muscles) as it was the squat variety, but we were in a Burmese home.

With some relief we jumped on the cool bus and headed back to the dock for the ferry trip back to the other side. A short walk brought us back to the Strand Hotel to collapse gratefully in the cool on comfortable cane lounges. When we revived we had a browse in the Beautiful Gallery and shop. Then it was off to the Gallery of Min ...Aung famous for his pictures of the local monks. Kerryn and I then realised that we had bought copies in the market the day before(which was fortunate as we couldn't afford the real thing).

Then it was home for a much-needed swim and a G&T: hooray! A quiet night will be had by all as we have to be up for meditation at 6.30am.

Your relaxed and much cooler correspondent

Dianne