November 12, 2019
The Whole Mysterious Thing
From Hinthada to Ah Thoke
The Whole Mysterious Thing
We have not seen tourists since Bagan. Well, that’s not entirely true because we did see the back side of two foreigners briefly in Pyay but we had no interaction with them and never saw them again. We have definitely not seen a single cycle tourer in Myanmar, which means the route we have chosen is off the beaten track for sure. I like being off track.
I think my desire to be away from tourist areas stems from when I traveled over here in the 1970’s. I got sort of used to being the only foreigner walking the streets. It’s an acquired sense to feel comfortable with everyone looking at you. On the one hand I don’t like everyone staring at me like I just dropped down from another planet but on the other hand I feel like I’m seeing the real work-a-day lives of the people of a country that is new to me and has not had much influence from other travelers. It’s much harder to do this alone so together Andrea and I walk the streets a bit more comfortable in our general uncomfortableness.
Of course the Burmese people make this feeling much easier to bear because they are super respectful and are not gawkers. They might be shocked to see us but then they have immediate smiles and are curious about where we are from etc. There is not a bit of suspicion or animosity. They are gracious and welcoming and radiate unconditional acceptance. They have hospitality in their DNA; a lot of it. They are, in short, possibly the best people I’ve ever come across in Asia and they are experts at dispelling any uncomfortableness we might feel.
Hinthada, which must not have ever seen many tourists, was no exception. We were welcomed warmly, and with excitement. Hinthada also wins the prize. In a single day we had two of the most mesmerizingly beautiful and exotic experiences I have ever had in Asia. Two in one day: A Nat Pwe and the culmination of Tazaungdaing - the festival of light. The Nat Pwe was the more interesting and rare. We feel very lucky to have stumbled upon one.
At one point in the Nat Pwe the senior Nat Kadaw took a live catfish from a bucket of water. I was sitting nearby and witnessed the very much alive fish wriggling and flopping when the apprentice Nat Kadaw tried to pick it up. He was having a hard time and the senior Nat Kadaw grabbed the fish from him and placed it on his headdress. The fish went limp, as if in a trance. I have done a lot of fishing in my life and fish don’t just suddenly go limp after having been thrashing about. I sat waiting for that fish to flip off his head to the ground but the Nat Kadaw seemed quite certain that was not going to happen. He danced and danced unconcerned and not once did that fish move a muscle. It was then that I started to feel some other energy was happening at the Nat Pwe - something far from my realm of understanding. For starters, why was he dancing with a fish on his head anyway?
I was transfixed, mesmerized and in awe of what was before me. Even in my ignorance I had entered into the rhythm of the whole mysterious thing. I felt completely welcomed and accepted by everyone there. I feel so incredibly honored to have been welcomed in. They actually wanted US to be there and I’m quite certain THEY felt honored that we had shown up as if they had needed a couple of complete strangers to arrive for the Nat Pwe to be complete. There was no questioning in their minds why we had come down that little alley. They didn’t need to know from which country we had come. They made space for us and genuinely loved that we were there, a part of the whole.
Just as that fish was lulled by some other power into not needing to flop we two travelers have no need to complain about how hard it is to cycle in Myanmar. Because of the wonderful Burmese character we are having a blast here and we don’t need to analyze why that is but simply go with it.
That said……our ride today was hot and hard. The road surface again sucked. The road was too narrow and there was a lot of activity on the road we had to avoid mostly dealing with the massive rice harvest all around us. We were most certainly in the Irrawaddy delta region and rice paddies stretched as far as we could see on either side of the road. It was very flat.
The day was again beautiful and fascinating.
Within a few miles we came across the Shin Thar Lyaung reclining Buddha image. I had read about it and seen photos but quickly forgot about it which meant that it was a nice surprise and so close to the road that we didn’t even need to get off our bicycles to view it. It’s quite large.
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A lot of trees had been planted alongside the road but they were either not all that tall or had been hacked crudely by people who needed to use their machetes on something. The hacked limbs were high up and would have soon provided shade over the road. This is just one more thing I can’t understand. It’s as if the people do not want shade or they are desperate for firewood. But looking out into their vast rice fields there are large trees in the middle of the fields that have never had any limbs hacked off. This I don’t understand either. I could see the big trees in the fields shading so intensely that there was obviously less rice production. Why do they want big trees out in the fields at all? I’ve never seen so many big trees in fields of grain anywhere ever. These are just two of the thousands of questions I have in Myanmar as I bump along their terrible roads.
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5 years ago
5 years ago
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Rice was being spread out to dry on every available flat piece of land either right on the soil or on plastic tarps. It was alongside the road, in front of temples, and even at gas stations. Soccer fields were covered in drying rice and men, instead of kicking a soccer ball were zigzagging back and forth shuffling their barefoot through the rice grains in order to turn them. Rice was everywhere. It was being bagged and brought to large processing plants where the grain was separated from the husk. Mountains of husks were outside each plant looking a lot like piles of sawdust. We were dodging small trucks all day and waving to guys on top of huge piles of bags of rice on those trucks.
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The sun was blazing but I had to stop in it several times in order to document several unusual things along the way. There was a goat eating the rice set out to dry with nobody shooing him. A little later chickens were pecking at the rice, then ducks. A cow considered it. A procession of rag-tag kids came walking down the road with awful music blaring from a small truck. There was no explanation for us! And then there was an upside down and stripped-of-leaves banana stalk hanging from a tree limb. A group of men were around it. They had greased the stalk and they were betting on who could jump up onto it, hold on long enough to shimmy up to the top. I watched for quite some time and every person simply slipped down and fell to the ground. It, too, was accompanied by unbelievably loud and not so nice music but oddly appropriate for a greased banana stalk contest.
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It was obvious from all the people who were not working and doing a lot of leisurely activities instead that the festival was still going on, possibly its last day. We stopped in a small town at the peak of the heat completely exhausted and wondering if we were going to make it to the only hotel that accepted foreigners between Hinthada and Pathein. We were only half way to our destination. We went inside a place that looked like it had cold drinks. I never drink things like Coke but we needed something to perk us up. There were, however, no cold drinks but there was homemade ice cream. It was really good!
They also served us water that was purified - a first. Normally we have to buy water. I am certain by the looks of the people that we were the first foreigners to ever walk into that place. But we couldn’t stay long because it was actually hotter inside and I was wilting. Better to ride.
We rode directly into the sun for many miles, rice being harvested on either side of us. It was a small country road crowded with rice vehicles. The sun was low, lower than my visor and snaked into my eyes. I looked at the ground and rode. It was not pleasant but I thought of that fish going placid and a lot of other mysterious things but especially how lucky I am to be here experiencing things I could never have even dreamt of. The people were bringing in the rice but we were harvesting smiles by the bushel, waves by the truckload and “Mingalabas” piled up like mountains of chaff.
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Eventually we made it to our hotel which was a nice new hotel. The manager welcomed us and a bunch of women hustled all of our panniers to our room on the second floor as if racing each other. They would not even let us carry one bag! We were in, inside an air conditioned room about to collapse on the bed or in the shower when there was a knock on the door. The manager was bringing us some food from the festival, a welcoming to town and to his hotel. Burmese hospitality struck again and just when we needed it most.
lovebruce
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4 years ago
Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 180 miles (290 km)
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I agree. As hard as this trip has been it's still been worth every minute. At the moment I'm recovering from an intense head cold/sore throat. I get this every time I visit Myanmar. And then it turns into a vicious cough, which, in the past has turned into pneumonia! Fun and games in Myanmar but I still love it here. I mean, it's not worth it if you don't suffer a bit, right?
5 years ago
Sorry, that's more suffering than you've earned.
5 years ago
5 years ago
So glad that you've had so many positive, heart-warming, and fascinating experiences to help keep you smiling.
I'm inspired by your cheerful curiosity!
5 years ago
5 years ago
5 years ago
Besides the dysentery stories I will tell you I can also tell stories of how I nearly died several times. Also snake stories. There are about a dozen of them. Should be fun night when we get back.
5 years ago
Great photos...
4 years ago