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Published: April 7th 2006
Schwedagon Pagoda
Jacy and I at the beautiful Schwedagon Pagoda!So I am back from Burma safe. I had one of the most interesting culturally shocking strange beautiful and crazy and nerve racking place I have ever been. I feel like I say that a lot. But this was different. This place is different. The way that people look at you is different. The way that you talk is different because of the censorship. The whole Asian culture is something that I have never experienced before, so that was crazy. The first day Jacy Annee and I spent in Yangon going around to see the sights. Unbelievable. Huge Buddha statues, colonial architecture with nets of wire strung from decrepit roof top. Pagodas on the turnstile of streets. I don’t know. We found this man who took us around for free all day, but we bought him meals. He knew so much about the city and Buddhist religion. It was soo interesting. It was soo hot and we sat on these corner tea stands which were like playskool short tables and little chairs really low to the ground where they would bring you like the best tea of your life. I learned a trick too… you drink hot tea to raise your
Schwedagon at night
soooo beautiful!!!!!!!! body temp to cool down. It really worked. That night we went to Shwedagon Pagoda. I heard it is one of the wonders of the world and I can understand. Why I think it is one of, if not THE most beautiful places.. one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. It was like a city of gold. A world of marble and incense and candles of monks in orange and nuns in pink robes. Watching it at sunset was completely awe-inspiring. I never knew what the color gold looked like before that moment. The awe and the religious significance hit me. It was a great place for reflection. That overwhelming religious feeling just blankets you. It was incredible. So ya. The next morning Annee Jacy and I flew to Kyainge Tong. The city on the Laos, Thailand, China border. We heard that we might be the only white people in the town, and while we were there were only like 3 other white tourists from France. In the city many people had never seen a white person before. You could tell that by the way that they stared at us. The children would sometimes
Eng Village
here i am with people from an Eng village we hiked up to. run away. And not that many people AT ALL spoke English. It was crazy. It was seriously the FARTHEST I have ever been away from home… if you understand what I mean. I had read that that city did trips to surrounding indigenous villages. That was one of the main reasons that I wanted to go. It would be a full day 8am-5pm of hiking to mountain villages (we ended up going to 5). All for 15 US. That is like the best 15 dollars I have spent in my life. Considering that we were able to rent our own condo—really clean and nice with a fan and three beds and a good shower with hot water for 5 US. I figured we could afford it. The chat is the Myanmar currency. It is soo inflated that it is around 1000 chat to the dollar. Well actually the “official” exchange rate set by the awful (I’ll talk more about the gov. later) government is 6 chat to the dollar. But that isn’t where the currency is at all. And because the government would be completely effed if they let the currency float they refuse to exchange. So in Burma you exchange dollars for chat on the Black Market. It was interesting when Jacy and I went behind this alley to get our “great price” of 1200 chat to a dollar. Anyway that was a side note. So Burmese food is weird and like salty fishy and pork and I just wasn’t into it in Yangon. but when we got to Kyainge Tong a miracle happened. That miracle was Thai food. We were like 2 hours by car from the Thai border and I was able to eat glorious Thai food to my hearts content. YUM. Okay so the next morning we woke up to go on our hike. When that morning started I had no idea at all so expect what happened. That day was one of the most culturally immersive shocking crazy days. We hiked up first to the farthest up village. This is an Eng village. All the villages we went to were different ethnic groups with different cultures, religions. Most of them immigrated form China like 300 years ago because of abuses by the ruling class. Anyway the Eng village was a series of bamboo huts on stilts on the side of a mountain. The town is completely self-sustaining. They make everything their own clothes, the food is from around there, medicine. I mean everything. They were an animist tribe, so we got to meet the Shaman. This tribe wasn’t very used to seeing tourists at all because it was sooo high of a hike up most people don’t make it. They wear black longis (skirts that people in both India and Burma wear- both men and women). These are woven out of cotton that they grow and dyes that come from plants around there. They also wear black turban things with fringe and have huge gauges in their ears. Also they are (every tribe actually) are addicted to this beetle nut leaf that is kind of like caffeine, and that turns your teeth red and black. Also that is a sign of status so people had black and red teeth. I think you will have to see pictures to understand. The women wear full-length arms of aluminum bracelets. One women took one of her arm sand gave it to me. So I gave her 5000 chat for it. She could use it the tour guide said, eventually if someone goes into town—I guess they do that like once a year. I mean these things are things that are like museum piece. Ha actually funny enough, we stopped by the 5* hotel that the SAS kids all stayed in Yangon last night, and they had one of the Akha headdress ( I will talk about them in a minute) behind a glass case on display. We got a kick out of that. For lunch we ate in the chief of the Eng tribes home, on the floor. Our meal was sticky rice that was wrapped in fuzzy leaves and steamed vegetables that our guide brought. Also the tribe made us a chili, peanut sauce to eat with it. Incredible! We probably shouldn’t have eaten it, because I guess some Burmese water can be really bad for you. But we were fine. Also they had guests from another Eng village, and started to pass around the “jungle juice” which is like 50 percent alcohol, and not wanting to be impolite we had to drink with them. We had one VERY small swig. Burmese jungle moonshine isn’t really my thing. Ha. After that we left for an Akha village. Here the women wore the most beautiful crazy headdress. Once they are married the women wear their dowry on their heads. They are these elaborate silver headdress dripping with silver balls and coins, and draped with strings of multicolored bead. I will send a picture. The whole day felt like something out of National Geographic. And every place we went they would sit us down at every house and share a cup of tea. Tea grows wild around there and it is a main thing that they always drink. It was so interesting. After that, we went to a Wa village. The Wa people were the group that stood up to the government ten years ago when they came into power and tried to separate into a Shan state. It was in this village in the middle of nowhere that our nice young guide finally opened up to us about the politics of Burma. I guess he felt safe. Burma in general is a place of whisper. I feel like people can yell at you in a glance. I feel like everyone wanted to tell me something but couldn’t. I just could see the dissent in people’s eyes. I could never imagine a place without freedom of expression until came to this place. It was like a deadly snake was always in the room, but no one cold warn the person next to them. I can’t believe I went to a place like this. A place where the government is so central and just so much in control of everything. Where everyone has to live in fear of what they say and do. Actually the three of us had experiences in KT that I am SURE no one else on SAS had. The government police pretty much followed us the whole time we were in KT. Probably because it is such a big center for exporting heroine to different countries. Burma produced like 70 percent of the world heroine and a lot of it passes through borders near where we were. As soon as we go to our hotel, the govt. military guy showed up and asked for the hotel to produce passports photos and visa photos of everyone staying there. I woke up early in the morning every morning to walk through the local street markets and every morning there was a govt. military guy waiting in front of our hotel until they saw that I was awake, the they would leave. They were sitting in the back of restaurants. In the central market we would see two guys, and then an hour later see them again and realize they must have been following us. To see the village I guess our guide had to fill out 25 pages on each of us. The scariest moment came the last day when we were chilling at our guesthouse getting ready to wander around before out 3:30 pm flight when the owner of the guesthouse comes up to us and she said there is the police on the phone for us. Jacy got up and went to the phone and told her that we had to be at the airport at 1:30 sharp. No later, and offered really no explanation. We also asked the French people if they got called (they were also flying out) They hadn’t- I don’t mean to scare you guys, but I fell like I was in the move Brokedown Palace! After we got that phone call we were all really freaked out. We tore through every piece of our bags looking for heroine. I expected to unroll my pants and have a baggy just drop to the ground. We were so cautious. They ended up not really bothering us, just wanting to go through our stuff, but we were three females totally on their turf. It was a really interesting growing experience. It’s not even that I felt unsafe there, it was just that knowledge that the government was such a bad force and they are in control, and even though they wouldn’t do anything, they could. Anyway. Ya. Now that I have really freaked you out—I had an incredible time there. It was such an empowering experience and something that I know I will never forget. Seeing those villages and seeing the people in the town. Just how they live so very different from anything I imagine. Well that is it. I love you all very much. xoxo TIANA
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Momma!!
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Missing You So!
Tiana -Ya know I have read the above in an email previous to now, but the story amazes me every time I read it! I had it posted at my office and everyone so admires all you have done and are doing!! You know you'll be sandblasted with ?? when you return!!! I don't think that I would be as brave as you are and I so admire you! No mother could be any prouder of their daughter than I am of you! Adroring You! Mom