Hsipaw

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Hsipaw

26/11/08

I spend the following days relaxing, wandering town and the villages on the edge of town. The past two weeks have been tiring and I enjoy not doing much at all except relaxing. Hsipaw is quieter, cooler and less dusty than the previous places I have so far visited in Myanmar. It reminds me of part of Kathmandu. I feel better already. The following days are spent hanging around Mr Charles Guest-house, slow walks around town and I bike ride to the 'Nine Buddha' monastery where I could see the surrounding mountains and really get a feel of where Hsipaw actually is. In the distance you can see the waterfall which from here looks like something from "Lord of the Rings ", which basically means New Zealand if you are referring the film rather than the book. I watch another beautiful sunset and remind myself that the sun isn't moving at all. I am moving away from the sun!

Hsipaw reminds me of parts of Nepal except of course the altitude is higher there. If it wasn't for the barrage of heavy vehicles being diverted through the centre of town, it would be a relatively quite village. I presume this will change once the new bridge is completed.
Visiting the Buddhist temple on the outskirts of town gives you a better indication of where the village actually is...in a valley, by a river, surrounded by mountains.
I meet a Belgium woman who has a warped sense of humour and we spend some time talking about many things but especially her passion for photography and my willing less to learn more about using my first digital camera. Previously I have owned 3 SLR's. The Olympus OM20. I had there over a number years. The first one was stolen from from my car while some friends and I were in the forest gathering mushrooms. The second one I left in my back pack along with a bottle of PVA glue which leaked and glue seeped into every possible gap it could find. And then the third one I smashed against the side of my Kombi van in a drunken rage! Over the past few years I have decide to either not travel with a camera which most of the time seemed crazy because there is always so many amazing things you see and wish that you had one; or I purchase a cheap instant camera that uses film. So for the past few months I have been learning to use my 8 megapixel,10 x optical zoom, 'Fujifilm' digital camera!

Over the following few days M and I become friends. She has hired a driver and a vehicle to travel in the north of Myanmar and is going to Bagan via Mandalay. I ask her if there is room for one more and she smiles and says she has enjoyed my company so far and that if it was ok with the driver, it would be cool with her. So we leave Hsipaw the following day and head back down into the dusty, hot and flat land of myanmar.
I have my i-pop with me and the time fly's by as we listen to music, talk and laugh together with the driver on our way back along the narrow road back. We stop along the way for tea and see parked by the side of the road, a pick-up with the back stuffed full of chickens in weaved baskets. They are panting, sweating and in cramped together, piled up on-top of each other. The driver is taking out the bodies of ones that have mostly died of suffocation or heat exhaustion. This is a sad sight and I feel strange taking photos as their eyes stare deep into me. Animal cruelty is every where in the world. I imagine the cages full of people all compounded together there in the hot steamy sun with large chickens pointing out the deceased, then clucking to themselves..."..just leave 'em there for now we'll pick 'em out later!". Let's hope that if aliens came down to earth and found out how tasty we are that they don't decide to eat us! Their reply to our pleas of "please don't eat us...how can you treat us this way?" would be " we will treat you as you have treated the chicken." Woops! We're doomed!

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