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Published: March 14th 2015
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We got up early to go to the lovely old station to buy
our First Class tickets to Hsipaw on the old train that trundles up and
down the single track from Yangon to Lasio. We went over the famous Gokteik
viaduct, designed by an American and erected in 1901.The train groaned
to a creaking crawl at the viaduct allowing us plenty of time to see how far we would
plunge should one of the steel struts go...... .Hsipaw is another town
used by the British for R and R as it has or had a much cooler climate
than Mandalay. However, under the military much of the forest has been cut down and now
locals slash and burn the secondary forest to make way for corn and tea
crops which again has affected the climate. Our hotel turned out to be the
delightfully named Lily the Home, with Miss Lily being the owner of a
brand new building complete with a glass elevator! Another rooftop
restaurant allowed us to view most of Hsipaw and the surrounding
mountains, although the view was hazy, as it has been everywhere we have
been. The town has a somewhat ramshackle feel to it with
no great sights
but we had already decided that we would like to get out to as many of
the surrounding ethnic villages as we could. We were both keen to see
villagers in their traditional dress and were told that many
come to a market that starts at 2.30 am and finishes at 5. So reluctantly
we decided to get up at 4 to go there, which we did, only to find
everyone wearing Western dress! Luckily we were able to get back to
sleep and decided we would do what we could to get out to see some off
the beaten track villages.
The hotel arranged for us to hire a tuctuc for the day and the driver
took us about forty five miles to a Lisu village, because the Lisu still
wear traditional clothing every day, which is rare now, certainly in Southern
Myanmar where the Shan and Burmese only wear traditional dress for festivals. On the way we saw vast fields of vegetables being grown in neat
rows under plastic. This was so alien to all the farming we had seen
elsewhere that we guessed, correctly, that the Chinese had moved in and
rented the land
from the locals and were now cultivating on a grand
scale, similar to how they have taken over large swathes of Laos.
The villagers were very friendly and invited us into their houses but as
our driver didn't speak much English it was difficult to communicate
with them. However we were delighted to see that not only were the women
wearing traditional dress but a number of them were sewing. They don't
do any embroidery here, and compared to China the clothes are relatively
simple, but the total costume, which Ruth modelled, is attractive. One
house we visited had a large, strange bell shaped cloth protuberance down a side alley which I
couldn't make head nor tail of. The driver kept making the gesture of a
very pregnant woman, and then the woman we were talking to suddenly put a
hot brick onto a spade and shoved it under the curtain where there was a
hissing sound as she poured on water. And then I saw a leg and realised
there was a naked woman inside! We later found out that this is a
cleansing process done by this group after a woman has given birth. For
forty five days
she will be given this steam bath with all sorts of
medicinal herbs added to help her body recover. We were shown her new-
born baby, swaddled and being cared for by the grandmother. On the way
back we saw another monastery by a lake, with young monks watching
cartoons on their TV!
The next day we set off on a two day hike into the mountains with our
young guide, Mitch Michael. Ruth and I were both concerned that we would find it
too tough going up into the mountains but he assured us that his
previous group had been even older than us! We trecked past large tea bushes,-
very different to ones I had seen before, and maize fields which had been
burnt ready for the new planting. The soil is so rich here that they can
get two harvests a year of different crops. There were women working in the fields, slashing down the old growth or wedding around the tee bushes. We stopped for a drink and
snack at a Shan village before reaching the really tough climb up a
track which was also used by kamikaze motorbikes and ponies carrying
huge bundles of wood.
It was very hot and I don't think I have sweated so
much in my life but we finally made it into the Paduang village where we
were going to stay. Apparently the Shan group are famous for their agriculture on the plains whilst the Paduang, who are mostly in the north, live in the mountains and grow tea and process timber. After a pleasant vegetarian lunch Mitch took us
further up to show us a spectacular view of the nearby mountains, which,
thank god, have as yet not been cleared of trees. He said that his own
village can be reached by four day hike but whether we could have done
that we will never know! When we returned to the village we walked around
to see the women collecting the water from the sole village water supply and
many men working on timber processing. Our homestay was in the village shop and
we soon had a group of toddlers wanting to play with us. As there wasn't
anything else to do we went through all the nursery rhymes we could
remember, had another lovely meal of rice with different types of salads
and were in bed, exhausted by
nine! Once again we slept on mattresses on
the floor in the huge room above the shop. Unfortunately if you needed to go to the loo in the middle of the night this meant a challenging obstacle course in the dark to reach the one squat loo at the end of the garden. Luckily this is not the mosquito season so at least you didnt get bitten to pieces as you squatted which is what always happened in Africa! It was lovely to wake at dawn
and hear the village begin to come to life ...a wonderful experience.
Our hike back was easier but still took six hours and we were very
relieved to still be in one piece and happy to indulge in a hot
shower and cold beer! Amazingly we later felt up to going to a huge
monastery outside Hsipaw which was having an annual full-moon ceremony.
Again we were told that we would be able to see lots of ethnic costumes but when we got there it was all being set up and was rather tacky, with
fanfares and numerous stalls selling food and trinkets, and no ethnic costumes. It was
obvious that the really big
ceremony was going to be in several days
time. However, somewhat disappointed, as we had thought this would
be the appropriate climax to our wonderful trip, our driver then took us to a place they call Little Bagan
which was rather charming, and a local monastery, this time with a bamboo
Buddha, and finally one with lots of gnats, so another really
fascinating day.
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