Limestone crags and riverine towns

Friday, December 09, 2011
Mawlamyine, Myanmar
After our hair-raising descent from the Golden Rock we drove back through the rubber plantations and on to the small town of Thaton famous for being the place where Buddhism arrived from India in the 3rd century BC. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant. We were off the tourist trail here and stared at by all the staff as we ate. In fact during the afternoon Mr Sai told us that we were actually passing through an area off limits to foreigners

We were to stay overnight in the town of Hpa An . We arrived soon after lunch and drove a short distance beyond the town to a cave packed with Buddhas. The area has many strangely shaped limestone mountains and at the base of one of these we visited another cave, Kawgun Cave. Again this was full of Buddha statues but notable for the Buddha votive tablets meticulously carved into the overhanging limestone cliff.

We had time to check into our overnight accommodation before driving into the town of Hpa An to see the sunset. The town straggles along the banks of the Thanlwin River and it was a lovely spot to watch the boats coming and going, men fishing with nets from the banks and children playing in the cool of the late afternoon. The sight of the sun sinking behind the surrounding hazy limestone mountains was marred only by the smoke billowing from a cement factory.

We had imagined that our accommodation here would be quite basic but instead we found ourselves at the brand new Zwekabin Hotel at the foot of a huge limestone cliff . We had a lovely room with a balcony looking out towards Zwekabin Mountain. The only downside was that it was some distance from the town and so we had to eat at the hotel, which was pricy and not brilliant. The outside dining area was a pleasant spot however. Once again we had a chat with our guide who now insists that we call him by his christian name of Thomas. He is 29 years old, comes from the far north east of the country, where he learnt English at classes run by the missionaries, and later studied German at the University of Mandalay. He was originally registered as a German speaking tour guide. He was not able to obtain much work though as German tourists, once they found that it was cheaper to hire an English speaking guide, decided against his more expensive services. He had no alternative but to reregister as an English speaking tour guide. His girl friend who is 28 is studying for a PhD at Yangon University. She lives in a flat in the city where she and seven other students sleep on mattresses on the floor in an unfurnished 50 foot long room . They have one toilet and one wash basin.

Saturday was another lovely day with a clear blue sky. They tried to serve a Western style breakfast with fruit juice, toast and eggs. The fruit juice was overly sweet though, as was the bread. We drove into the pleasant town of Hpa An and had a walk around the fascinating market. It was crowded and we caused quite a stir as we wandered between the stalls. It was clear that they didn’t see too many tourists here. A huge variety of fruits and vegetables were on offer and an even larger variety of freshwater fish from the river.

The town is dominated by the massive limestone Zwekabin Mountain and after a brief stop at a lake on the edge of town to photograph it from a distance we drove to the bottom of the mountain. Pilgrims can ascend to the pagoda perched on the top in about 4 hours. We had no plans to join the pilgrims today but enjoyed wandering through the 1121 Buddha figures that have been placed around the base . Again we were surrounded by families staring at us and persuading their children to wave and say hello to the foreigners.

Not far away was another Buddhist shrine situated in a limestone cave. It was quite dark and dank. Rats scurried around feeding on the left over offerings and we could hear bats in the darkness above us. The smell wasn’t too good either.

The final shrine in this area was perched on the top of a limestone crag and reached by crossing a causeway over a lake alive with fish. Here we encountered groups of teenagers who all wanted to pose for photographs with “the foreigners”.

We drove to the town of Mawlamyine for lunch. Situated near the mouth of the Thanlwin River, the town was the British capital of Burma from 1827 to 1852 and today has a decaying colonial feel about it with large wooden villas on the edge of town, no end of English churches and several interesting mosques in the town centre . These were established to serve the Indian immigrants brought here by the British to work on the teak plantations. George Orwell was stationed at Mawlamyine and it was here that Rudyard Kipling is supposed to have written “Mandalay”. After lunch we checked in to the Attran Hotel. This was situated on the river bank and also had a colonial feel about it with the accommodation being in bungalows decorated and fitted out in a style reminiscent of 1950’s Little England.

We were to be picked up again later in the afternoon for what was becoming the traditional sunset drive. In the meantime we quite enjoyed having some time to ourselves and we had a pleasant walk around the environs of the hotel. The people were amazingly friendly and I can’t remember when I last said “hello” so many times.

Our sunset drive was up a hill behind the hotel where a lift took us further up again to a Buddhist pagoda. There we found the usual colourful array of shrines and stupas. We had completed a circuit of the site and the sun was still quite high in the sky. We prepared to linger for a while but Thomas surprised us by saying we had a monastery to visit before sunset. It was not far away and for once Mr Win, the driver, joined us. It was a rambling, dilapidated building and permission of the monks had to be sought for us to enter. Then Mr Win was in his element, guiding us through the dusty rooms and shining his torch on the various decaying artefacts and decorations . It was apparently built in the style of the last royal palace in Mandalay and there were paintings on the walls of Burma’s Queen Seindon who took refuge here when the last king of Burma took the throne. We felt a little guilty that the visit had to be rushed in order not to miss the sunset, as this was clearly the highlight of Mr Win’s day. We watched the sun sink behind the hills on the opposite bank of the river and then descended for a walk along the Strand, the road following the riverside. There were several fishing boats moored here and the night market was just being set up.

We decided to eat in the hotel. The raised decking by the riverside was a popular spot on this Saturday night, both with groups of locals and a handful of foreign tourists. The food was reasonable but very salty. We were treated, however, to a partial eclipse as we ate. Later we strolled along the dimly lit waterfront. Groups of youths were settled on the pavement, some playing guitars, and all, without exception, calling out “hello” to us as we passed . We came to a promising looking bar called the “OK Hotel” and enjoyed a couple of beers at a pavement table. Back in our room we were spoilt for choice for entertainment with three English Premiership football matches on TV. We had to keep flicking between the games.

After another disappointing breakfast on the deck by the riverside, we set off on Sunday for a day’s exploration of the area. The main town market did not operate on a Sunday but Thomas took us to an alternative and equally colourful market. We had already been astonished by the lack of “health & safety” precautions in the country, in particular when we watched people working high above the ground on bamboo scaffolding, usually barefoot, but near the market we watched as two men fitted extra security on top of the wall surrounding an electrical substation. Initially we thought they were working with barbed wire but on closer inspection realised they were fitting razor wire without any gloves! A car nearby fitted with a loud speaker caught our attention . This, Thomas explained, was where the householders of the town came to pay their electricity bills.

Leaving Mawlamyine behind we drove through small villages where families lived in houses built on stilts. At one such village we stopped to watch a potter at work. Next stop was at Thanbyuzayat, the western terminus of the infamous “Death Railway” built by the Japanese during World War II using prisoners of war and local Asian labour. The track which linked Thailand with Burma was completed in 16 months. Working conditions were horrendous and it is said that 16,000 allied prisoners of war died, whilst the figure for the Thais, Malaysians, Burmese and Indonesians could be as high as 90,000. We have visited the Thai terminal of the railway which has been turned into something of a theme park. Here there was simply one locomotive and a small length of track, to commemorate the railway. We were the only visitors. Similarly at the nearby war cemetery we had to wait for someone to come and unlock the gate for us to enter . It was incredibly sad to see the names and touching epitaphs of so many young British boys. Nearly 4000 are buried here.

We were close to the coast by now and drove the short distance to Kyaikkami where we visited a pagoda built on a pier stretching out into the sea. At high tide the lower level floods. A popular pastime seemed to be feeding the fish.

We had lunch on the beach at Setse. This was a long stretch of brown sand and, today being Sunday, it was quite busy. Lots of local children had hired black inner tyres to splash around in the sea with and the older more affluent teenagers were racing along the beach on their motorbikes. Unfortunately it was rather dirty. Environmental issues don’t seem to have a high priority here. The people feeding the fish at the temple had emptied the fish food into the sea and then thrown the plastic bag in too! Yesterday as we walked along the riverside at Mawlamyine we had watched a street cleaner collect rubbish from the gutter, fill up his wheelie bin and then upend the bin over the railings and tip the whole lot into the river! Nevertheless we enjoyed our stroll along the beach before heading back.

We visited two enormous Buddha’s on the return journey. One was a huge sitting Buddha which is still under construction and the other, which is not finished yet either but open to the public, is the longest reclining Buddha in the world at 600 feet . We climbed up to the reclining Buddha, from where we had a spectacular view of the area and could look across to the other side of the valley where construction of yet another matching reclining Buddha is in the early stages. Inside the Buddha were dark rooms containing tableaux of scenes from Buddha’s life. Thomas explained the stories to us but there were an awful lot and we weren’t sorry when we reached the end. We are also struggling a bit with all the barefoot walking that has to be done when visiting such sites. Our feet are not nearly as hard as the feet of the locals and we wince and grimace when we have to walk across any gravel. As this temple was still virtually a construction site it was particularly rough underfoot.

Back in Mawlamyine Thomas asked if we’d like to go to a local restaurant to eat that night. We agreed and it was arranged that he and Mr Win would collect us at 8.00pm. They drove us along the riverfront slowing down to inspect various eating establishments as we went . Before long we pulled up in front of one we wouldn’t have chosen ourselves and took us in. It was pitch dark, completely empty of customers and there was a scantily clad lady screeching away on a stage at one end of the room. We presumed that this must be the sort of place that suited Thomas and Mr Win and so settled at a table. A menu was presented to us and eventually a light brought so that we could read it. We chose some dishes and Thomas then said he would come back for us in half an hour. We had assumed that we would all eat together and so it was something of a shock to find ourselves in this deserted, dark cavern of a restaurant where we couldn’t see what we were eating and could hardly hear each other speak for the discordant cabaret act. To cap it all the food was really poor.

We were eventually delivered back to the hotel and wasted no time in returning to the OK Hotel, where we had been the previous evening, to watch Sunderland v Blackburn over a couple of beers .

It was a long drive back to Yangon on Monday. We left at 8.00am and, as usual, the men spent the first half hour discussing Sunday’s Premiership football results. Thomas bought a football paper every day and translated bits for us and showed us the pictures. 90% of the paper’s football coverage was of the English Premiership and Thomas’s knowledge was quite amazing. He was an Arsenal supporter whilst Mr Win admitted to me in private (and I shouldn’t tell Keith) that he supported Manchester United.

There were many checkpoints along the way. At some we were waved through, at others there was a toll to be paid for using the road and at one or two we had to present our passports and visas. Thomas had multiple photocopies of these at the ready. It seems that our documents have to be checked more in this region that they will elsewhere in the country.

After an hour or so’s drive we stopped at the town of Thaton to stretch our legs and have a look at their golden pagoda .   We’re getting a bit blasé about golden pagodas now. We were really impressed by Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon but we have since realised that you are never far from a golden pagoda in Myanmar. They are everywhere!

Later we stopped at a sort of service station for coffee. At least we had coffee whilst Thomas and Mr Win tucked into a big meal. We had been travelling through villages and small towns passing lines of children on their way to school all dressed in white and green with colourful woven shoulder bags and aluminium lunch canisters, and lines of monks with their bowls out collecting alms. We were in the Karen tribal region and Thomas offered to show us around one of their villages. The houses were built on stilts with livestock living below and families above. Most of the inhabitants were out working in the fields but those around were very friendly and happily posed for photos.

The roads became busier as we approached Yangon. We stopped for a snack in the town of Bago and hit Yangon just as the evening rush hour started. At the hotel we said our goodbyes to Thomas. Mr Win we were going to see again though as he was picking us up at 4.30 next morning to take us to the airport for our flight north to Bagan.

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