More resources and reflections.......

Obviously the impact of our adventures will continue as many of the 'sisterhood' have been mulling over the enxt steps and sharing of insights and resources.

Here's some additional resources from Sue H.

'Edible Gold leaf tips

http://www.goldleafsupplies.co.uk/acatalog/Edible_Gold_Leaf_Transfer.html

http://candy.about.com/od/workingwithchocolate/r/How-To-Apply-Edible-Gold-Leaf.htm

 

Meditation/ guided relaxation on Forgiveness- I can highly recommend this. It was released for World Day of Peace last year, and I have found it profound and worth revisiting.

http://www.monroeinstitute.org/resources/downloads/cat/forgiveness-meditation

 

The words of Wisdom for Kim from the Head Nun;

For Unity- to be united at work-  you need patience & forgiveness of mistakes, and understanding each other.

Understanding, patience, unity, forgiveness- work hard at these.'

 Thanks Sue

And from the other Sue (Ieraci): A beautiful and insightful article that merges the themes of courage and forgiveness: themes that emerged from Kim's session and the words of the head nun at the Nunnery School.

The article is on MJA Insight at http://www.mjainsight.com.au/ - but you need a log-on to read it. Anyone can sign on if you want to access the site.

The last blog...maybe

We all managed to survive the 3 hour flight to Singapore where we revived ourselves with coffee and Dunkin' Donuts before making a mad dash to catch the midnight plane to Melbourne.

The question remains : how did Kate and Jan manage to get a lift in an electric car to our Gate (which of course was the furthest away!) when the rest of us had to do high speed walking to get there in time?

I was met by an airline official who informed me that the plane was full and my seat no longer existed, but I would have a seat. To which I replied "Does that mean I have to sit on someone's knee all of the way home??" He found this very funny and we finally sorted out that I did in fact have my own seat. Thank God!

So this is the last blog as we have now safely navigated our way through Myanmar and Vietnam and have returned home in one piece.

Firstly I am sorry about the lack of photos but I will insert lots over the next couple of weeks so it will be a complete blog soon. I have also updated a lot of the recent posts especially the Tips and Slogans ones so feel free to re-read them.

Secondly, if you know of anyone who is going to Myanmar and you think that the blog would be of use them, feel free to give them the blogspot address.

Thirdly, here is a list of all of the books I own about Myanmar. For those who travelled with me, if you're interested in reading any of them post the visit just let me know.

Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads (published June 2012): Benedict Rogers
To Myanmar with Love Edited by Morgan Edwardson
The Piano Tuner: Daniel Mason
Burma Chronicles:
Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma)
Burmese Days: George Orwell
Finding George Orwell in Burma: Emma Larkin
Flame Tree: Keith Dahlberg

Fourthly, I will sort out a Photo book on Snapfish at some stage and will let you know when it is done. You can print a copy if you want a hard copy ( it's a very easy way of showing people where you've been) or you can modify my version with your own photos and get it printed, or you can just have a look at it online. I will email everyone and give you the logon details when I have finished it.

So that's it, except to thank all of my fellow travellers whose enthusiasm, resilience and humour made the trip truly memorable,

 

I particularly love this photo as it sums up the courage and the contentment of Mynamar for me.

 A young man sitting meditating in front of a huge golden buddha, many centuries old, wearing an Aung San Suu Kyi t-shirt.

 

 Honouring the old and hoping for the new.

 

May we never forget Myanmar.

Dianne

Homeward bound

I am writing this waiting for the plane to take off from Da Nang Airport on the first leg of the journey home. By the time I am able to download it into the blog we will probably be home.

We've had an interesting last day, which commenced with significant rain overnight heralding the arrival of the predicted storm.

It didn't deter Jan and I from one last swim in the pool with occasional rain and some rather odd looks from the security guy wearing a large rain jacket. He probably thought we were mad.

So amidst the last mad rushes to various shops to collect orders of jewellery, shoes, bags and clothes we had to navigate the rain which occurs quickly and heavily for short periods of time. Often with bursts of wind, just enough to turn the umbrellas inside out.

The locals suddenly appear in matching plastic pants, hats and ponchos in bright colours. Sandbags on roofs and work on drains seemed to imply that it would be a serious storm. Some of the local stallholders were praying too.

At some point we all managed to congregate at The Brothers cafe for a last iced coffee and a view of the turbulent river.

The last task was to work out whether we needed to post our new purchases home: fortunately we had a 30 kgm baggage allowance. Some people headed for the Post Office or had clothes posted home from A Dong or Yaly. Kerryn's travel scales were a huge hit as we had no idea!

Then more massages and facials and last Vietnamese banana flower salads, and finally we jumped on the bus at 3.30pm to head for the Da Nang Airport

We were hopeful that our flight wouldn't be delayed and when we reached the airport some flights had been cancelled due to bad weather.

Despite some lightning and the world’s slowest check in process (and my luggage weighing a mere 30.5kgms!) we finally boarded the plane and here I am.

At the same time, sad and delighted to be going home.

Your weary traveller correspondent

Dianne

The complexity of massages in far off climes.....

It has been suggested to me that the topic of massages requires a blog all of its own.

It would be fair to say that we have used all opportunities to avail ourselves of a range of massages and here are the outstanding experiences:

• The unexpected nature of the massages commenced with a few of our number booking in for a session with blind masseurs and the full essential oils on skin experience. In fact they were deaf and dumb masseurs and our colleagues were fully clothed whilst they were massaged. Somebody had their wires crossed!
•  Several forms of massage were outstanding until the unexpected moment when the masseurs actually crawled up our backs applying pressure through their forearms and shins. It felt great but the concept of someone balancing and crawling and pressing all at the same time was quite a surprise.
• There was also some disregard for private parts: it would be fair to say that everyone had a moment when they just thought...really?!
• Ursula enjoyed the experience of her caesarean scar being massaged, although that almost verged on the realms of too much detail!
• Kim risked life and limb when, in the depths of heat exhaustion, she wandered into a massage place on the street (after persistent nagging by the masseur and chatting to her dog),  and reluctantly agreed to a foot massage only. Her comment is that " A foot massage is not always a foot massage."  She was a little suspicious when her face was covered with a towel and the massage moved from her feet northwards to her hips. Eventually she decided she'd had enough and left. I think the overzealous masseur was going to give her a complete massage in the hope that seven of her friends  would book in too.
• Yesterday, a couple of us went for a peppermint foot reflexology massage, which, whilst fabulous , involved no peppermint and no reflexology. Interesting...!?
• When themasseurs ask you to go and have a shower after you have been exfoliated make sure you spend some time in there scrubbing yourself, otherwise you will be ordered back and/or you will have an assistant helping you shower properly!
• Our skins have never felt as smooth and silky as they did after the Thanaka massages: we may have all looked slightly yellow, because of the fine layer of thanaka powder left on our skin, but we kept stroking our skin enjoying the feeling of it being as smooth as a baby's bum!

The Thanaka seller at the market in Heho: the pieces of the lemonade tree are ground on a stone and mixed with water making a fine smooth paste that is a cream/pale yellow colour. The Burmese just rub it on their faces for sunscreen but sometimes apply it in careful patterns to make them more beautiful. We had leaf designs painted on our cheeks but on our pale skin it was difficult to see.

On the whole we highly recommend trying out all available forms of massage as the outcome is that you feel cool, relaxed and chilled out: although sometimes a bit bemused!

Slogans we have loved in Myanmar

Many a time we were very taken by the Myanmar version of English that we saw on billboards and signs: So here's a few:

1. Warmly Welcome and Take Care of Tourists

This one was everywhere and clearly put up by the government to encourage tourists - or was it designed to direct the Myanmar people to be nice to us!!??

2. Open Happiness

This was a Coke billboard depicting two people made of coke looking happy.

It's a lovely sentiment and my personal favourite, but it also has political significance as Coke has only just reentered the country, preceded by Pepsi a few months ago. Both companies withdrew from Myanmar due to the trade sanctions.

3. All respect All suspect

Above the security machine at Yangon Airport

4. Wear the crash helmet, save your life

Bright coloured helmets everywhere but often not done up securely.

5. Project for Afforestation of the Very Dry Zone

A worthy project in the dry Manadaly region

6. Make a Sweety Home with our Nice Furniture

Not exactly aspirational is it?

7. Your's Dream Near Place

This somewhat confusing slogan was for the Hotel near the Airport in Yangon.

8. Airline slogans:

Flying Beyond Expectations

Flying Beyond Your Dreams

or the more practical:

 We'll get you there safely

9. Outside every police station in Myannmar there is a large sign saying

May we help you?


And in Vietnam:

8. Taxi Exploitation prohibited

How exactly does one exploit a taxi??? We saw this at the Da Nang Airport.

9. Let's ease the pain of Agent Orange together

This was attached to a Donation box. It's sad how echoes of the War remain.

Still shopping and we really are dropping.......

 One would expect that we would soon despair of shopping in the extreme heat and humidity ...but one would be wrong!

For the past two days it has been an endless round of fittings at tailors where they now know us by their first names, eyeing off everyone else's purchases and dashing off to new shops,  ordering jewellery which are beautiful genuine fakes, trying on yet more clothes that stick to us in the heat, getting feet measured and shoes copied, buying silk lanterns we don't really need, and least of all visiting cultural sites. Well, some of us managed a visit to the famous Japanese bridge and a free Museum.

Of course these important activities were punctuated by frequent stops for cold drinks and refreshments to keep the flagging energy levels high: Vietnamese stuffed pork rolls on crisp baguettes ( thanks for the Secret Garden recommendation Ursula!), crispy Hoi An pancakes with peanut sauce, papaya salad with prawns, and beef wrapped in lot leaves....

We have devoured a number of iced coffees made from Vietnamese coffee and sweetened condensed milk working on the principle that the caffeine will keep us going.

Then when we stagger back to the Hotel we indulge in baskets of hot chips and fabulous passionfruit daiquiris. Oh, it's a hard life!

Of course various massages of feet and other body parts have helped lift our flagging spirits, and pedicures and manicures have helped us look more glamourous.

The only fly in the ointment is the weather forecast which is predicting heavy storms and a possible typhoon to hit sometime in the next couple of days. We're a little undecided as to whether this would be good or bad as we fly out tomorrow afternoon. Perhaps a few days stranded here would be OK? Or maybe not!!

Tonight we are off for a farewell dinner at the beautiful Red Bridge restaurant.

Your bargain shopper correspondent

Dianne

Tips for surviving and thriving in Myanmar

 
Here's a few tips for surviving in Myanmar: some serious and some ridiculous!

• Forget the hair products. Any aspect of your hair that you hate will be multiplied by a factor of 10 in the humidity. If you hate bushy hair that's what you'll get here. If you love straight hair your hair will go curly, if you want your hair sleek and shiny it will turn into straw and so on. If you quite like the colour of your hair, it will definitely go blonder. Get over it!! Who cares???!!
• And, as Kim has just pointed out, the results of copious wallowing sessions in the pool is green hair. Great! Also forget the natural bristle hairbrushes as they smell like something is dead in the bathroom
• Elmo face wipes: highly recommended by Kerryn
• Toddler sunscreen: as above (I think she got stuck in the babies aisle in the supermarket)
• Zip-lock bags with anti bacterial hand-wash in it: this applies to those travellers, like Kim, who bought the hand-wash in bulk and have had to decant it into something smaller. Mind you the security guys at Yangon Airport didn't mind her waltzing through with the huge pump pack, well over the required 100 mls! 
• DON'T DRINK THE WATER! Clean your teeth in bottled water only. There is very healthy e-coli in the water apparently.
• To keep your personal levels of good bacteria high take the new probiotic capsules and eat yoghurt EVERY day. I hate to boast (and touch wood!) but I have done this religiously every day and I am the only one out of 25 of us who hasn't been ill with some sort of gastric bug at all.
• Whilst on this theme: use antibacterial instant handwash before you put anything in your mouth including your fingers.
• And if it all goes to hell, travel with multiple GPs and/or copious amounts of Imodium, and two sorts of antibiotics (which you will need if the Gastro Stop is not doing the trick). Do go to a Travel health GP rather than a local GP who goes nowhere. (Fairfield Travel at the the GP practice on the ground floor of the RMH is great). 
• Bring Vegemite for replenishing the salt supply and Vitamin B  (not because you are homesick!) or salt tablets if you prefer. You perspire a lot! Lee has perfected the art of spreading Vegemite on Pringles:: soon to be seen on Youtube.
• Bring face mist for those times when you are sure you probably smell: clementine and basil from L'Occitane is highly recommended ( Thank you Kerryn : good to see that she did get past the babies aisle!).
• Damp face washers in a zip lock bag can also revive you at desperate moments
• Drink huge amounts of bottled water.
• Learn to say "Topi!Topi!" in a very firm voice : very useful for persistent peddlers, who are relatively few and far between in Myanmar fortunately.
• Learn to say a few words: thank you sounds like 'jesu-bay' and hello is 'Mingalabar'  (although if you get the wrong inflection you end up saying Indian instead of hello). Ask the locals as they will be happy to correct your appalling pronunciation. And a lot of giggling will happen too!
• Give up your coffee dependence as the coffee isn't great. Instead you can learn to love the '3 + 1 + 1 Coffee mix sachets': 3 parts coffee with one part creamer and one part sugar all in one sachet for your convenience. Fresh milk is not easily available. Or you can drink the local Burmese sweetened tea - not bad at all.
• Do travel with people you like because you can be sure that a as soon as you fall over, trip up a stair or look inelegant getting into the pool they will fall about laughing. Kerryn described a fall and slide on the slippery tiles coming back from the pool as her "imitation of a wet seal" whilst I laughed. SO helpful of me! In other words, best not to be too sensitive....
• Whilst travelling do remember that you can sound like a flock of seagulls and the Alan youtube clip with everyone yelling at each other and ignoring the presence of others: "Anne! Anne! Anne! Anne!...Jan! Jan! Jan! Jan!....." and so on. Particularly at the tailors we seemed to completely lose our social graces and just up the volume until we got the attention of one of our fellow travellers.In other words clear out if you see us comng!
• In lots of places if you are separated from your fellow travellers all of the stall holders and the cyclo/trishaw cyclists will be able to tell you exactly where they are so feel free to ask.
• Bring a decent hat that stays on your head in breezes from boats, monsoonal downpours and horse cart rides. It also prevents the peddlers trying to get you to buy one.
• Be prepared to use and enjoy a range of forms of transport. We had some very funny times piled into decrepit taxis  and being bumped around in small passenger trucks.
• A good sense of balance is also helpful particularly when climbing into and out of boats and other precarious forms of transport.
• Get fit before you come as I'm sure it allows you to handle the heat and humidity much better. And it will be hot, believe me.
• Bring DEET repellent : it will dissolve the leather in your shoes and is very toxic but if the mozzies take a shine to you, you will need it.
• Get a great tour guide: Omnahr was invaluable in getting us absorbed into the history and ways of Maynmar life. As we spent more time with her she felt more confident to discuss the political issues with us too, which we really appreciated. (She works for Exotissimo Tours which has a very good reputation.)
• Despite the changes occurring in Myanmar it's still a little dubious to ask challenging political questions too openly. Check out who you are asking and who is around you before launching in.
• As the guide books say: bring very new uncreased US dollars: old ones will not be accepted and there are no ATMs (yet). 
• Get temple shoes (ie any shoes that you can slip on and off easily), as when you are visiting multiple pagodas and temples in one day you will get tired of doing up buckles etc.
• Don't rely on the Internet working consistently as it won't (see previous blog). 

And did I mention don't drink the water?!

And bring your sense of adventure and your sense of humour - this is a country emerging from some dark times with comparatively few tourists so be tolerant and find the funny side of things that go wrong! Because they inevitably will!

As Kerryn says whenever somehting slightly dubious occurs " It's all a travel experience!"

Shop till we drop

After yet another substantial breakfast (banana pancakes, yoghurt with rambutans and giant passionfruit and 10 sorts of pastries!) we packed up our washing and our clothes to be copied and headed for the tailors.

First stop was to decide which of the persistent laundry ladies, clustered around the gate of the Hotel, we would give our laundry to. We chose Miss Anh and for the princely sum of $8 she washed, ironed and made my bag of clothes smell nice by the end of the day. Even ironed my undies!

The washing done we continued on our mission to order clotehs to Yaly, the best-known of all of the tailors. When we arrived we were surrounded by girls all dressed in identical Ao Gais: purple and white.

For the next couple of hours chaos ensued with lots of "Have you got that top you wore the other night - it would look good in this material!" and "Jan, these colours would be great on you!" and " What do you think of this on me???". As we know each other so well there was a lot of useful criticism and a lot of frank and honest judgements provided.

Then there was the measuring up process. Who knew that there were so many places on one body that could be measured? We even had photos taken in front of graph measurement boards so the tailor could have a look at our shape. There's a frightening thought.

The problem in ordering clothes for other people like my daughters is getting the measurements exact. I'd brought items they wanted copied, but I found myself squeezing into my youngest daughters dress so that they could decide on the best length. This process wasn't helped by the heat and Kerryn, who commented that I looked like George Jetson's wife whose name we couldn't remember! In other words I think we were losing the plot a bit! (her name was Jane by the way!)

Off to Brothers Cafe for an iced coffee which turned out to be an iced Moccha with both chocolate and coffee. Absolutely delicious and managed to revive us for the second onslaught, this time at Ah Dong, another fabulous tailor.

The score was about 42 items at one point although that doesn't seem much for 8 women!

We staggered back to the Hotel, getting distracted by DVDs, jewellery, and T-shirts on the way.

I managed to get the ATM to spit out 7,000,000 Dong which sounds and looks horrendous but is about $300. It's very tricky working in so many thousands, and we keep getting the 5000, 50,000 and 500,000 notes mixed up.

More pool time,quiet book reading, poolside snacks - superb Vietnamese prawn and banana flower salads, rice paper rolls and of course hot chips - followed by massages for all.

We clustered on Anna and Jan's front porch for G&Ts, and too many of them, before staggering off to the Mango Room for cocktails and dinner.

At one point following passionfruit mojitos (which we ordered by the jug!) and chocolate duck, Jenny sat back in her chair and said " Life is good!" with a big smile on her face.

That summed up the day for all of us!

Your somewhat poorer correspondent

Dianne 

The pre-shopping preparation

 We spent the first half of the day getting from Hanoi to Da Nang and then to Hoi An.
The bus trip from the Hotel to the Airport was the usual exciting noisy and perilous journey: horns honking, last-minute lane changes and an array of vehicles.

The flight to Da Nang took just over an hour and was completely uneventful. It's interesting to note that both at Hanoi Airport and at Da Nang there still remains some of the semi -circular aircraft hangars leftover from the Vietnam War ( or the American War as it is known here).

Then it was on to another bus and an hour drive to Hoi An.

The first time I did this trip over ten years ago there was barely a small hotel along the palm filled beach road. Now the beach is dominated by HUGE resort hotels with thousands of rooms. Probably very profitable for the developers (many of them from China, Singapore etc. I would imagine), and they no doubt provide employment opportunities for many of the locals, but very ugly and although they are right on the beach, stuck in the middle of nowhere.

We arrived at last at the Life Resort on the river in the middle of the town of Hoi An. Big old colonial style buildings with lots of rooms (not unlike the ones I've just criticised!) but within walking distance of the centre of town and the old Japanese quarter.

After all of this travelling we were exhausted - it's such hard work being a tourist! - so we decided we'd have a swim, massages and a bit of down time (which for me means updating the blog!). Fortunately the pool is about ten steps from our front doors so in the heat and humidity that will be great.

After reviving we headed off to The Brothers Cafe for a riverside dinner, sitting in fragrant jungle gardens looking out over the river. Vietnamese food is really wonderful as it has lots of fresh ingredients and interesting sauces - we avoid too many chilies and then we all do fine.

We wandered back to the Hotel which seems to be full of Aussies (which was a bit of a shock for us after Myanmar).

I decided that the best way to cool down was a quick dip in the pool but as I was about to get in I realised that there was a line-up of large frogs ( about the size of my fist) sitting on the edge of the pool croaking away. One of them had a baby on its back.They looked to me as if they were going to plunge in at any moment and, as I wasn't sure I wanted to share the pool with them, I hesitated. They didn't move so I had a dip at the other end of the pool without any company - human or frog!

So, with a bit of R&R we were ready to roll - the onslaught on the shops could begin!

Your refreshed correspondent

Dianne

The post Post Conference Tour

Waking up in the very lovely Silk Path Hotel we were most impressed with its location: right next to Hang Gai ( Silk Street) and only a couple of blocks to Glasses Street as we call it. Clutching our optometrist prescriptions for our spectacles we were on a mission.

The result was:

-29 pairs of glasses purchased (and collected by the end of the day!). Not a bad effort for 8 of us!

- two credit cards lost in the local ATMs. Interestingly enough the one swallowed by the ANZ bank ATM was very difficult to retrieve, and the one swallowed by a local Bank extremely easy. (I think a few letters might be going to the ANZ complaining about their poor response - heaven help their complaints department!).

We also managed a trip to Koto restaurant for lunch. It's a training program for kids off the streets set up by Vietnamese- born Australian Jimmy Phan. Fabulous food which we really enjoyed.

Then a wander around the Temple of Literature which was decorated with all sorts of garish delights - flags, topiary , flower beds with messages etc to celebrate the Birthday of Confucius. There is a huge statue of him in the Temple and the Temple honours 72 scholars all of whom have their achievements recorded on large marble tablets supported by a turtle. The turtles all have different faces and expressions which I loved.

More wandering the streets of the Old Quarter shopping and trying not to get mown down by the traffic every time we crossed a street. There are more motorbikes and cars and fewer pushbikes than I remember from 4 years ago, and still the compliance with the traffic lights is minimal.

The state of the electricity wires appears to be worse than ever and is now immortalised on a T-shirt with a photo of tangled wires and the words : 'VIETNAM TELECOM'.

We soon faded in the heat and noise as we weren't accustomed to it, and had a quick dinner, followed by some illicit G&Ts and Grand Marnier on ice before bed.

Your be-spectacled correspondent

Dianne

Farewell to Myanmar and hello Vietnam

We all reluctantly dragged ourselves out of bed and caught the plane from Heho back to Yangon, arriving at an airport near the hotel before midday. we were booked into some day rooms ( is that suspicious?) so we had a base and a place to throw our bags whilst various groups of us headed off to the Airport during the day to head home or onwards.

Some of us decided to go to Sharky's - the fantastic delicatessen/cafe that Geoffrey had taken me to on the first day. For those of us used to lattes and coffees at regular intervals, we were pining for a decent cup, as it had been difficult to find elsewhere.

The fabulous Omnahr organised a decent taxi for us: one that was in reasonable shape at least. We arrived at Sharky's and ordered a coffee fast. Fabulous. We had time to fill so we ordered their gourmet version of a hamburger which looked too good to resist and tasted great. They specialise in slow cooked food, cheese made by the owner, ice cream made by his brother, crusty bread, and of course, great coffee.We spent a couple of hours enjoying the ambience and some superb photos on exhibition. We couldn't resist the temptation to try the ice cream and my chocolate hazelnut was as good as I've had anywhere. After buying a packet of bright coloured macaroons for Jenny who's stayed behind the doorman managed to get us a taxi.

So that's how we ended up with 4 of us squashed into a tiny - and I mean tiny! - 'cherry' taxi imported from China/Korea. From the outside it looked OK; shiny yellow duco, relatively modern. Inside the door panels were held together with contact, the seats were lumpy , the windows rattled and Anne and I, who were squeezed into the back with Jan in the middle, had to endure the door handles pressing into us: we locked the doors so we wouldn't fall out in the middle of the road! Quite a trip, with Kerryn in the front seat taking photos or our discomfort.

At one point we pulled up next to another taxi diver who grinned from ear to ear when he saw us all jammed in, and had a great chat to our driver probably along the lines of " How did you fit so many fat foreigners into that taxi?........

Eventually after we had revived ourselves with  a swim and repacked our bags we farewelled various groups of the others as they set off for home and the 8 of us set off for Vietnam , arriving at the Hotel in Hanoi just in time for bed.

Omnahr didn't seem to think we could get ourselves through the departure process at the Airport so she hung around for ages waving and smiling like a maniac every time we achieved another step. We were so sorry to leave her as she had been such a wonderful companion, full of information about every aspect of Myanmar. Without her we would not have appreciated the history and development of the country.

  I wondered whether we will ever be back but I really hope so.

Your sad-to-be-leaving correspondent

Dianne

The joys of blogging in faraway countries

I am sure you have noticed the lack of blogs whilst we have been touring Myanmar.

Now that we have safely arrived in Vietnam I can speak honestly about our suspicions about the non-functioning blog.

The arrival of 25 westerners will not have gone unnoticed by the 'authorities' in Myanmar. Our arrival in Dala when we crossed the river in Yangon was noticed within 5 minutes as a man in uniform kept pedalling past us, stopping to take our photos. It turned out that he was taking photos for the Ministry of Tourism so by the time we arrived in the small village there was a reporter from 'The New Light of Myanmar' ready to take our photo and interview Omnahr about our trip. A few days later we appeared in the paper which is a daily Burmese newspaper. Apparently Omnahr's mother spotted us.

Once we left Yangon the internet connectivity was admittedly erratic and incredibly slow, however even when it was working, and I could connect to other websites etc, the connection to the blog deteriorated to the point where over the last few days I couldn't post anything. I have spent hours trying to get it to work and eventually gave up in disgust.

Omnahr's explanation is that they don't have their own satellite and so they use the Chinese and Singaporean satellites. The Chinese are particularly strong about censoring anything that they consider dubious so it may be that the concept of women and power doesn't appeal. Omnahr suggested that the Myanmar internet is more like an intranet because of the influence and interference of China.

Kim's explanation for the deterioration of internet access was that when we reached Bagan she googled "Who owns the Aureum Palace Resort?" ( the huge expensive resort we stayed at). The answer was some of the Generals - the leaders of the military regime, who would not be impressed by her asking the question! She's sure that was the problem!!!

The broader context is that for many years  the military regime in Myanmar has deliberately isolated the country from outside influences: for example the cost of a simcard for a mobile phone was about $5-6,000 dollars in the past few years. However more recently, as a part of the changes taking place at a rapid rate, the cost has gone down to $2-300 dollars. This is still not a possibility for the average Myanmar resident though.

Anyway, I have really wasted a lot of time contending with the Internet and the blog: it's a pity I couldn't insert any photos as endless descriptions can be very boring I know - sorry about that, and the spelling and grammar mistakes! Often I was too exhausted to be too bothered!

I will insert lots of photos when I get home so it may be worth looking at then!

It's fascinating to see how we all remember different aspects of the same experiences. When I asked questions like: "And then where did we go..?" to my fellow travellers the facts, memories and descriptions were unpredictable, and occasionally caused arguments! They were along the lines of "No! We went to the Buddha with the smiling faces before went to the umbrella makers......!".

Not the most reliable informants my fellow travellers!  

Your happy-to-be-back-online correspondent

Dianne

Life on the Inle Lake

Beautiful and expensive scarves made from woven lotus fibres

A wondrous day at Inle Lake.....

“One of the best travel days I've ever had!” was the comment as we glided into the jetty at Viewpoint Lodge in the pitch black of the night.

We had spent the day touring around Inle Lake in 35-foot narrow curved long boats powered by a small engine perched on the back. We sat like queens on padded wooden chairs with the added luxuries of a bottle of water, a life jacket and an umbrella: 4 of us to a boat. They are a beautiful sleek shape and the prow lifted out of the water when our boatman increased our speed.

 

The boats appeared on the river right next to the Hotel in the early morning, so we only had to walk a few steps and climb aboard.



As we headed out of Nyaung Swe at 8.30am (how nice not to be up at the crack of dawn!) we passed lots of longboats loaded with tomatoes, other produce and people. As the canal opened up we realised the lake was immense. For the rest of that day and evening we sped along in our 5 longboats stopping to alight at wooden and wonky jetties to visit some of the businesses along the lake's edge. We became very adept at elegantly grabbing a post on a wooden jetty and dragging ourselves out of the boat – one person at a time of course, so they didn't capsize.

All of these cottage industries and businesses took place in villages on the lake with the houses perched high above the water on long poles: some of them compounds joined by wooden walkways.

These included:

• 

  Boatmen demonstrating the unique way that the Burmese propel their small boats: standing with one leg wrapped around the paddle. Looked very precarious to us! They also demonstrated some traditional ways of fishing which we saw in practice around the lake: a large conical net and wood structure placed on the bottom of the lake when they could see bubbles on the surface indicating a fish, a craypot shaped bamboo structure , and long fishing nets thrown from the back of the boat.
    
• A cheroot cottage industry with young teenage girls producing vast amounts of these local green cigarettes/cigars at a rapid rate (up to 1000 per day)

• A boat building business where some of the longboats were being constructed from teak and being waterproofed with a mixture of black lacquer, sawdust and sand. Great craftsmanship.

• A blacksmith business which produced all of the local knives and scissors, and the rakes for the farmers to extract weed from the lake.





When the weavers become too old to operate the complex looms
 they are given other simpler tasks



 

A large silk industry that specialises in weaving not only silk but lotus root which grows locally. The lotus fibres are extracted from the long roots and rolled into thread which the women working on the looms wove into all sorts of garments. At $100 for a scarf it is more expensive than silk but is considered very special and had a beautiful texture.

Rooms full of looms exist above the water and are linked by wooden walkways

 

Silk dyes ( some imported from Germany!)

Huge tomato plantations floating on beds made of reeds, weeds and river mud. After 10 years of loading the beds with kelp/weed from the lake for fertiliser, the beds almost touch the bottom of the lake and they have to be pulled apart and new ones built. Tiny narrow canals are created between each row for easy access by boat. A very impressive 70% of all of Myanmar's tomatoes are grown in the Lake!

 

 

 

 

With great anticipation we wandered around the silversmiths and watched the talented workers make fine chains from tiny links, and beat silver to make stunning figured bowls. Quite a few purchases were made including some local gemstones and rubies.

 

We lunched at a place called Burmese Cat House: not my idea of heaven as it had a huge number of Burmese cats in a large cat house. Some of the cat lovers were most impressed and Ursula was first in to give one of the cats a cuddle. They seemed to be living a more comfortable life than many of the boatmen we saw.

A boatment loading his boat with reeds to use as fertiliser on the tomato crops

• At the request of one of the aforesaid cat lovers we headed to the Jumping Cats Monastery which appears to be in every tourist book (and was not the choice of Omnahr our guide!) When we arrived we discovered that the cats no longer perform, as the current senior monk has decided that the values and precepts of Buddhism were being overlooked by the hordes of tourists descending on the Monastery to see the cats. I can't say I was too upset to miss out on seeing cats jumping through hoops!
• The great thing was that the Monastery specialises in antique Buddhas (not another Buddha I can hear you say! As some of us did initially!) But these were really lovely old Buddhas and very different to others we had seen. I was very taken with one that was green and wore a crown like a king.

• Finally we visited Inlay Shwe Inn Twain, the place of 1000 pagodas, which sounded rather daunting but was truly wonderful. The local Pa-O people had allowed the pagodas to deteriorate when they wanted to deter foreigners from visiting, and by the time they changed their minds the pagodas were derelict and lost in the jungle undergrowth. Now many of them have been restored, but the old ones look beautiful with their intricate stucco work, exposed bricks and leaning stupas. There were 400 pillars along a covered walkway leading to the pagoda at the top and it was filled with stalls selling antiquities ( or were they really?!) mother of pearl spoons, lacquer boxes, tatting, and so on... A few of us got rather engrossed in purchasing some treasures and completely lost track of the time. So by the time Omnahr ushered us onto the boat it was starting to get dark.

 

One of the best aspects of the day was being able to be in the floating villages and to see the lives that people lead and the hard work they need to do in order to survive. Experiencing the compounds and houses, their everyday kitchens, their garden pots, their washing hanging out to dry above the water, children being bathed, and most of all the friendliness of the people we met, really made the day.

As we sped back to the town in the spray of the boats the air was cool, the sun was setting over the misty mountains surrounding the lake, and the moon was rising: a very magical time of day.

By the time we set foot on terra firma, carefully lit by Lizzie holding a torch, we were all tired but exhilarated about what we had seen in one day.

Our last full day in Myanmar!

Your fascinated correspondent

Dianne

The cool of the mountains at Heho

Flying away from the flat plains of Mandalay, the hills finally merged into mountains and as we stepped out of the tiny Air Mandalay plane there were sighs of relief all round as we breathed in the cool mountain air.

Straight on to a very interesting bus designed for the Japanese, so three separate rows of seats with two aisles so narrow that none of our Australian backsides would fit. We became expert at the sideways crab shuffle over the next couple of days!
 

Heho is at 1200 metres above sea level and is a tea, coffee and opium growing area: it's part of the dreaded Golden Triangle consisting of Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar famous for opium. There have been lots of attempts and government programs to persuade local farmers to grow other produce, but with varying success.
 

First stop the local market, which occurs every 5 days and had the usual enormous array of every type of food, much of which we couldn't identify, and an array of rope, second-hand clothes, and everything-a-person-needs stalls.

The local cheroots made from a range of local herbs wrapped in leaves: very cheap and very popular 

Pickled ginger I think!

 Some of the snack foods looked delicious – slabs of caramel coloured crunchy corn with sesame seeds coconut and nuts for example, and cans of hot roasted peanuts – but my common sense took over and I resisted the temptation of buying any, in order to stay healthy. I did buy some tiny peanuts in little packets which cost about 20 cents, as they looked safer.

I would have loved to try some of the delicacies on offer all the same!

Some of the customers were dressed in the traditional black embroidered long tops and black pants, with bright red scarves wrapped around their heads.

Kim pounding the mulberry bark to make paper

Back on the bus and off to a local cottage industry that makes paper and stunning paper and resin/tar umbrellas, which are actually waterproof even in a monsoon! I was very taken with some multi-tiered huge red ones (see below), perfect for our decking, but just wasn't sure how I would squeeze one into my baggage, so gave up on that idea.
 

We watched the process of paper making using mulberry bark, pounded, mixed with water and then, using a large screen, drained to create a sheet of paper. The girl showed us how to place petals and leaves onto the paper for decoration.

They produced beautiful papers and journals: not sure how Customs in Australia will appreciate the flowers and leaves. Everywhere we shop there is much discussion abut our strict Customs laws, (and they do protect us I know!), but when you find a treasure that you can't live without it's very hard to give it up if you don't think it will get through Customs!

 

Then it was on to another monastery with a small simple white pagoda full of tiny niches, each one filled with a tiny Buddha and the name of the sponsor. Each Buddha was about 6 inches tall and most were covered in a red or golden piece of cloth as there is a special festival soon, which none of us can remember. There were hundreds of them and some beautiful lead-light glass-work decorating the walls too.

Needing sustenance we arrived in Nyaung Swe, a busy town, and had a delicious meal at the Green Chilli restaurant. Our table shared green papaya salad, minced chicken salad which we had eaten endlessly in Cambodia, pork glass noodle salad and some spring rolls. All very fresh and fabulous.

Finally we drove past a golden mirrored pagoda, over a bridge crossing a large canal and arrived at our hotel on the river bank: the Viewpoint Eco Lodge.

This is a new lodge which consists of cottages 'floating' over the water and joined by wooden walkways. It seems to be set up by the same French guy who runs Le Planteur, the superb restaurant we went to in Yangon. The rooms were very beautiful, with natural products in the bathroom made from bark, thanaka etc. (some of which didn't work quite so well! The bark had to be soaked and then rubbed into your hair but getting the bark bits out wasn't so easy apparently!). The mini bar was a huge ceramic pot filled with ice and drinks and there was no air conditioning.

Huge mosquito nets hanging over the bed alerted us to the necessity of breaking out the DEET Bushman's repellent which was used in vast quantities over the next days. Fortunately the mosquitoes here don't seem to be interested in my blood, but some of the others suffered.

The views from each balcony were lovely: watching the river traffic, gazing over the waterlilies and the ducks floating by, or watching the world go by as all forms of transport traversed the country road.

On the main building there were huge walls of vertical gardens filled with orchids: very spectacular.

A visit to the Buddha Museum was next , but really the interesting thing was that the Museum is in one of the old houses previously owned by the maharajah/prince/town leader.

A trip up the mountain brought fabulous views and wine tasting at the Red Mountain winery. It's a joint venture between the French and the local Pao tribe. The wines were judged to be 'experimental', but there was much discussion abut the fact that it had only been operating for 6 years and. like all good wineries, was on it's way to producing excellent wine.

Some weird dragonfruit trees had also been planted as they intend to produce dragonfruit cordial : the plants brought to mind 'The Day of the Triffids' for those old enough to remember that book.

Tired after another long day we were glad to get back to the Viewpoint Lodge and freshen up before a truly superb dinner. It was served on long wooden trays the shape of the boats on the river outside. Instead of the usual watermelon for dessert we ate banana pudding which was a cross between jelly, pudding and custard: I'm sure it was based on the traditional desserts we had seen earlier in the day in the market and was a local delicacy. I liked it but enthusiasm varied. The pumpkin version the next day was met with even more uncertainty: but again I liked it, but then I always like dessert!

We had a quick Grand Marnier on ice, as Jenny had purchased a HUGE bottle duty free, and went off to sleep under the enormous white mosquito nets listening to the sounds of the river.


The view from the Viewpoint dining room

 

Your mosquito-bite free correspondent,
 

Dianne