Myanmar 7

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We returned to Mandalay by minibus, this time with a good driver, and
spent the afternoon visiting a fascinating workshop where they were
producing tapestries, wood carvings, stone carvings and puppets. I bought
quite a few puppets as they are so beautifully made. We also
went past the part of town where all the stonemasons make huge
sculptures for temples and luxury hotels. We couldn't resist going to
the Irrawaddy hotel one last time where I had a lovely swim to cool me
down after temperatures in the nineties.
Our final day was spent flying to
Yangon, where we went round the War cemetery, very moved by the number
of young men from India, Nepal, West Africa as well as the UK who had
lost their lives fighting in the First and Second World Wars.We then went to

the Shwedagon temple, the largest
and most sacred in Myanmar and spent three hours wandering around,
watching the hundreds of volunteers who sweep the place, clean the
statues, give offerings of flowers, incense and money and pray to the
various Buddha statues dotted around. There were individual shrines for
each day or the week and as we had googled our birth days we were both
able to go and wash our respective Buddha...me Monday, Ruth Tuesday. We
had hoped to meet up with a Buddhist friend of Jnanaketu but he didn't
arrive so we went to a South Indian restaurant and had dhosa and
vegetables before another early night.
Sad to leave such a fascinating country. Some of you may have heard about "disturbances" in the North East of the country in February. We were told that the areas that are off limits to tourists are those where the opium trade is still thriving and where the majority of the precious gems are mined. Consequently the Government want to control the area to keep the assets but the people who live in the area, understandably, resent this and are fighting to maintain some control themselves. Our guide implied that the people who live there want to stop the opium trade but are being forced to continue it by the government. Obviously it is very difficult for us to be able to tell the real truth, but certainly the vast military presence would suggest that although the country is coming out of its particularly repressive period, things are still very much in the control of the military and their cronies. If any of you are thinking of going to Myanmar, go soon, as it is obvious that things are changing very rapidly. At the moment the people are really lovely and welcoming, but who knows what will happen after a few years of crass tourism? Certainly there are hundreds of new hotels being put up all over the place, they are catering for more and more sophisticated tastes - ie balloon rides over Bagan, luxury river cruises on the Irrawaddy etc. but it is still maintaining great charm and beautiful sites. Go!

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