Monday 26 January 2009

No i haven't forgotten about you

I wanted to write several times in the last weeks but somehow i have never gotten around to it. Of course, it is difficult to use the laptop if there isn't any electricity (and you have a very cheap chinese-made laptop with a battry that lasts about 20 minutes...) but it isn't much of an excuse. Truth is, i had better things to do. And of course, school has started again. So that also takes a fair bit of time. Hopefully i can write some this week. There are many things i'd like to write about. The new term, the parents who consider it absolutely normal that you can take your kid for an extended holiday without informing the school (one of my kids is due back tomorrow evn though school started again 2 weeks ago), the slowly increasing temperatures (yes, already) and more....

Anyways, i'll post this first so y'all know i'm still alive (and so are Xenne and KK ;-) )

Saturday 10 January 2009

Our trip to Moulemein/Hpa-an part 2

Ok, where did I leave off before everything got really hectic around here…

Oh yeah, the boat trip to Hpa-an. Xenne nowadays loves throw things away and then look where it has gotten to. The German couple who sat next to us (true, they sat in the only available chairs) had a small bag of mandarins. We had them too but they were in the stroller, so Xenne saw the German’s bag first. And he loves those. He wasn’t hungry so he started to play with the fruit and both the German woman and the tour guide played with him. He would roll the fruit to them and one of them would roll it back. And then suddenly Xenne threw the fruit overboard and wanted to see where it had gotten to. All at once there was a big scramble of adults going for a baby…. In the end he managed to get three mandarins in to the river but we managed to keep a fair few on board…

.Kyaw Kyaw and I took turns in keeping Xenne busy while the other would admire the view and decide whether it was possible and worthwhile to take a picture. There is a much-acclaimed boat trip between Mandalay and Bagan which many tourists take every year (at least many of the people that actually come to Burma, which in tourism standards is not a high number). I did that trip to a few years ago and found it terribly boring. But this part between Moulemein and Hpa-an is a whole different matter, that trip is fantastic. For one thing, the views are much more spectacular and the boat is a local boat and not a tourist boat (which does a whole lot to the price and for me personally, I like a beautiful view much more when I know I haven’t paid through the nose to see it). Besides that, the trip is about half the time which is also very nice since it leaves you with time to do something else (instead of getting up at 5 am in the morning to get to the boat on time).

In Hpa-an we got to a hotel that was reasonably priced (we thought) until we saw the bathroom. Ok, it was a room on the first floor (nice with a baby and a stroller) and it had a hot-and-cold shower (also very nice with a baby) but the bathroom was so yucky we asked for a different room. There we all crashed. Xenne fell asleep almost immediately and spread himself out on the bed as much as he could. KK went out to get us fried rice (we’d skipped lunch so were fairly peckish). At around 9 we were all fast asleep.

The next day we hired a yep, what shall I call this, a motorcycle with attached car? A pick-up motorcycle? It isn’t really a tuk tuk but similar I suppose. Though for me it is more a cross between a motorcycle and a blue taxi (in the back you sit facing each other parallel with the sides of the car. And off we went to see some cave outside Hpa-an. Along the road were beautiful, traditional style, wooden houses that I tried to photograph in vain. There were too many bumps in the road to get even a half-decent picture. But KK and I kept yelling at each other to turn around and see that beautiful house behind us. The cave where we got to was small but full of Buddha statues. Even the roof was decorated with small, clay Buddha figurines. Fantastic. And while I tried to take the best possible photo of that ceiling (or a part of it), I completely forgot that I was standing on a small platform. So with my eyes and camera looking upwards, I stepped into a void and sprained my ankle…. So while I sat there massaging my ankle, our driver went out for tiger balm and KK tried to keep Xenne busy AND check whether my camera was still working properly…Luckily all that was ok. And my ankle, well that has been a mess for ages…. We hang around a while longer since it was such a nice spot and Xenne liked to walk some more. On the way back our driver told us that there was another interesting place to see and it was only a short distance from our way back. Sure, we said expecting another cave of sorts. We drove through some jungle and ended up at the foot of what, to me, looked like stairs. So I asked how far up this interesting place was. The driver asked one of the women who had a teashop there. An hour’s climb was the return answer. Like that was an option with a baby, not to mention a sprained ankle…. So instead we drank some tea and enjoyed the tranquillity of the village square. Xenne was tired so after a Burmese lunch we headed back to the hotel where both Xenne and KK instantly fell asleep. In the evening KK wanted to visit the bonehealer (physiotherapist?) for my ankle but she didn’t feel well. So I still haven’t met a traditional medicine man/woman…. Instead we went straight for dinner and after that back to the hotel. We had an early bus to catch (7 am).

The bus was a little less luxurious than KK had thought (after seeing a leaflet or something like it). The aircon was a big, open window. And the seats weren’t too comfortable either (one was a little broken) but all in all it wasn’t too bad. We did start out almost an hour too late though. I assume that this is more often the case but somehow the driver got all confused about the stopping schedule so the first break was when someone yelled to the front when the bus was going to make a stop. People do have to pee and all that (cigarettes and tea amongst others). So the bus made an unscheduled stop and people scrambled over everything (the middle path was filled up with plastic stools for people to sit on) to get out for the things they needed to do. Then suddenly the driver realised that there were 4 monks on the bus and monks are not allowed to eat after 12 noon. It was already 11 o’clock. So the bus stopped at a tiny restaurant so that the monks could eat. Everybody else stayed in the bus. It took them 10 minutes before they found out that there was no food for the monks to eat. For the next hour the driver asked at every possible place whether there was food. He didn’t succeed until 11.55. The monks got out and had their lunch while the rest of us stayed in the bus, in the scorching sun. It took them over 20 minutes to finish and all this time not a single person complained. I knew that monks were very revered but I couldn’t imagine a bus in the west spending an hour and a half to satisfy the need of a religious person or anybody else for that matter).

The rest of us didn’t get a chance to eat until around 1 when we pulled up at what was obviously their usual stop. We came home at about 6 and KK’s brother who had been house-sitting for us, made us a quick meal. It was nice to be home again even if it was only so that Xenne could rest a bit again. Travelling was much fun and he loved it but it was tiring. For all of us. Maybe next time we should book hotels and things like that in advance. I say now. Knowing us, we’ll go off without anything like that again next time…


Xenne’s birthday (9-1-2009)

A quick note on Xenne’s birthday. It was busy all day with people dropping in at all times. But it was fun. And he got so much attention that he was laughing out loud half the time. Of course he also got some presents. A huge (ugly) bear which he immediately tried to chew on and our present that we had brought from Thailand (the nearest place to buy kids toys since here you only have bad Chinese quality and nothing for under the age of about 4-5).

Oh our visitors have arrived. More later (or not).

Tuesday 6 January 2009

Pictures

I have been trying for the past hour to upload some of our holiday pictures but to no avail. Since i still have to write the rest of our trip account anyway, i hope the connection will be better tomorrow.

Our quick trip to Mawlamyain and Hpa-an (05 January 2009)

First of all, I wish everybody a happy, healthy, nice, good, prosperous, and fun 2009!

Mawlamyain (also written Mawlamyine, Moulemein, and Mawlamyaing amongst others) and Hpa-an had been on our “to-visit list” for a long time. We already tried to visit here in 2007 but due to an unkept promise to cover for me by a fellow teacher in return for me covering for her one day, we didn’t have enough time in July/August. And of course it wasn’t an option anymore after October due to me being 6 months pregnant…. But finally we managed to get there. It wasn’t as long as we would have wanted but we had spent way too much money in Bangkok. That place is getting seriously expensive! And we hadn’t given the whole New Year a big thought either; at least not here in Burma where New Year is in April. But apparently the hotel sector has caught on anyway. Prices for a hotel room in Mawlamyain and Hpa-an were among the highest we have ever paid here in Burma. In Mawlamyain we still had a very decent room for that with a river view and all, but in Hpa-an we even had to tell the staff to clean the room again (and how to do it). Of course we could have changed hotels but there wasn’t a lot of choice in Hpa-an and we did require a room with private bathroom (we didn’t think it would be a nice thing for everybody involved if we had to take a baby with a big poo-poo diaper to the showers along a corridor if need arose. Hence our trip being much shorter than we had anticipated. Especially since we had wanted to go to the beach (Setse) for a few days. But when we called to check on availability we heard the prices they were charging and so decided to go straight to Hpa-an after Mawlamyain. It’ll be for another time….

It all began with an interesting train trip from Yangon to Mawlamyain. We thought the train might be easier with Xenne since it would allow him to stretch his legs every once in a while. And walking is the big thing for him at the moment. He does it every chance he gets (or just tries it anyways). The views were very nice but I felt a little apprehensive when the train, on leaving the Yangon station, started to dance all over the tracks. Now imagine a big, open window and a train that sways all over from left to right while you try to hold a squirming 1-year old on your lap. When the train also started to bounce up and down the thought crossed my mind that it was going to be a long long 9 hours. The bouncing wasn’t so bad once we got used to being thrown up in the air (literally!) every once in a while. And Xenne loved in. He positively tried to jump up and down on his dad. It was the swaying that eventually convinced me that it was a once-is-enough experience when one of our suitcases came down from the rack. And I’m not talking about a big suitcase, just a carry-on airplane sized one which did fit in the rack. So think about how much that train must have moved for a thing like that to come down! Luckily nobody got hurt. But I was glad when we finally pulled into Mawlamyain station. Xenne on the other hand had seriously enjoyed the trip. Within an hour after we had left, he had himself installed on some old lady’s lap and was happily eating cake. As I said before, he loved the bouncing and he had no problem falling asleep with the swaying. And of course, he made sure he always had someone who played with him. Even the monk who was sitting behind us couldn’t resist the temptation…

The next day we had a fairly leisurely stroll around Mawlamyain. We visited 2 nice pagodas with the second one having fantastic views of the town. It wasn’t easy getting the stroller up to the pagodas, luckily Xenne did much of the ‘climbing’ himself (read: me putting him on the next step). And we had instant baby sitters once we were on top where there were always people more than willing to keep Xenne busy while we had a look around which was a nice reward for the climbing up with baby and stroller (which we didn’t want to leave at the bottom of the stairs). The second pagoda actually had an elevator which we wanted to use but when we asked we were told that it only worked when there was electricity…. After all that walking Xenne was tired so we went back to the hotel so he could have a nap. KK used that time to buy tickets for the ferry to Hpa-an for the next day. In the evening we took a nice, relaxed stroll along the riverside and enjoyed the views of the islands, the hustle and bustle of the island ferries coming in (there are a fair amount of islands in the Thanlwin river) and every once in a while there was a nice, colonial house to be admired. Unfortunately a big part of the river front has been torn down and it is big building site near the main market (which ‘accidentally’ burned down completely a few weeks ago) where new (and in my opinion ugly) buildings are constructed.

On our second day in Mawlamyain we visited Shampoo Island. The name comes from the fact that the yearly royal hair washing took place here (or they just got the water here, I’m not really sure but it has something to do with hair washing, royalty and ceremonies. It is a small island covered with stupas and a big pagoda. There is a small community of monks and nuns that live there or who are there for meditation. And every day a few women from Mawlamyain come over to clean the place. But here the monks were working too. Something I don’t see often. Some monks were cutting wood, some monks and nuns were busy in the kitchen area and even two monks were painting the pagoda gold. Xenne played in the area near the pagoda while I had a look inside the main building to see the treasures of the place like a jade Buddha, a gold Buddha and some old wood carvings.

Later that day we took the ferry to Pha-an. It wasn’t very crowded which was nice since all you have is space on the deck to sit on. So we spread out the only blanket we had (which we had with us in case it might be a bit cold somewhere) and sat on that. After we had ourselves installed (read: marked our territory by using the stroller and suitcases as borders between which Xenne could play) KK went back ashore to do the necessary shopping because this boat obviously didn’t offer anything in the area of edibles or drinkable liquids. Xenne and I weren’t the only foreigners since we were in the company of 2 German couples. One couple (elderly) travelled with a tour guide and they had the 2 only available chairs.

Little dolls (Monday, 29 December 2008)

This is something I have seen all over Asia but it is something that keeps amazing me; little girls wearing shoes with heels. And I don’t mean a tiny little heel but really already on their way to the high-heeled section…. I noticed it again today when I walked home from the supermarket;a little girl wearing sandals with a substantial heel. She needed to run every couple of steps to keep pace with her father and it was obvious the running wasn’t easy at all since every once in a while she side-stepped her shoe. Sometimes I see little girls as young as 3 years who wear those kinds of sandals and often I seriously wonder what is wrong with their parent’s eyes when you see a girl struggling on those shoes. Or even when it is evident that it does nothing else than to give the girl a bad posture and/or bad feet with shoes worn down completely on one side. But some parents want their little girl to be as doll-like as possible. With all the paraphernalia that goes with it. Little doll-like dresses, little doll-like shoes, little doll-like hairstyles and even make-up….I banned those shoes from my classroom (and therefore basically from the school since we don’t wear our shoes in the classroom anyway) and I have tried to impress upon the parents why it is not a good thing to have their girls wear those shoes on other occasions than a festival or other kind of celebratory event. Though I doubt I make much of a dent in the Asian female population with bad backs and bad postures in a couple of years time….

The whole issue of shoes is a problematic item here (in Asiain general and Burma specifically) anyway. We tried to find decent shoes or sandals for Xenne but there was next to nothing. We finally found a pair of sandals that were not made of plastic or fabric and that would fit his baby feet. In most shops there were rows upon rows of baby and kids shoes, sandals and slippers but every single pair was made of plastic or fake leather. And as mentioned before most of the shoes for girls were heeled ones. At the Hush Puppies and Ecco stores in Bangkok they had some good shoes for kids but they only started at a size much too big for Xenne. Not to mention a price-tag that was a fair bit on the high side. Anyway, it might be one of our only options when Xenne grows up some more…..