burma

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Kiwi-Chimp Venture past trips - burma Whilst walking an ox-cart with 2 young men overtook us and they asked us in sign language (no English!) if we like a lift and so we did. After about 2 km we changed over to a tractor which came along and went another couple of kilometres on the trailer before we came over a hill and saw a little village in the valley. What a beautiful scenery. We decided to have a look at the village and walked along until we saw some young people playing with marbles. They turned their attention straight to us and surround us quickly. On of the boys spoke little English and asked us the “normal” questions: What’s your name, where do you come from etc. It was funny, more and more people turned up and we found out, that we were the FIRST Western people who have ever made their way to this village! What an experience! After a while we convinced the young people somehow to go on with playing marbles and asked them if we could join in. And so we did. Here we were somewhere in the middle of Burma, playing marbles with the locales for money! Yes, we had to play for money, that were the rules. Neither Trev nor me did well at the beginning and amused the locales. Finally our play became a bit better, but really we did not want to win anyway, because we did not like the idea of winning money form the locales. The village was a very simple villages, huts were made from Bamboo or Wood, some Chickens running around, some Water Buffalo laying next to the houses and the people were very simple and poor but really friendly!! They invited us into a hut and served tea and little biscuits. Conversation was quite difficult but finally a men turned up who spoke a bit better English and could translate all their questions and our answers. After half an hour we got asked if we would like to spend the night in the village, we where invited by the owner of the house and his family and they would be very happy if we would decide to do so. Trev and I looked at each other: What a chance! We were invited to stay in a local village, which is not allowed in Burma by the government, we could experience the normal life in a village, could eat with the locals and no Western tourists had ever been in that village before! It did not take long to decide, of course we would love to stay a night!!! Just one problem: our biked were still at the waterfall and we had to take them back to the hotel, otherwise the people in the hotel would be worried about us in the evening. We quickly tried to explain, that we would love to stay but had to return to Pyin U Lwin and take the bikes back. Two of the local boys were told to take us to the waterfalls on their bikes. What a ride!! Trev took one bike, I set on the back and two of the boys came along with us on another bike, so that they could take the second bike back to the village. It was such a funny ride along this little path, sometimes we had to push up hills and then we were shooting down on the other side, always thinking that the bikes might brake under our weight! But we made it. We got the waterfall, paid a drink for the boys and us and then quickly cycled the 12 km back to Pyin U Lwin. We packed a little rucksack and left to catch a bus back to the waterfalls. By that time it was already 3.00 pm, there were no busses to the waterfalls anymore! We were looking around and an Indian men asked us if he could help us. “Yes”, we said, “we need a Taxi”. He quickly sussed out the situation, noticed we were in a hurry and offered us to find a taxi for us which could take us to the waterfall. Indians are really clever business men, we already knew that from our travels in India and we knew this taxi would NOT be cheap when it turned up! And so it was: 10 USD for a taxi ride of only 12 km!!!!! That was a rip off!! For 10 USD you can travel about 20 hours on a train or 2 days on a bus in Burma, but we wanted to get to the waterfalls without wasting more time ... and.... paid the 10 USD quickly! About half an hour (and many swearwords about this rip off) later we got to this waterfall and we still had about 1 ½ hours walk to get to the village!! I got a bit worried because everybody was watching us walking on this little footpath at this time in the afternoon, asking themselves where we were going ..... And as it is not allowed to stay in local villages in Burma, I started to imagine that we would be picked up by the police or Burmese Army soon and we would get in big trouble. Trev tried to calm me down and told me not to panic. He tried to convince me that there was nothing to worry about, but I was not sure. I turned round every couple of meters and made sure nobody was following us. Finally we got to the village and it was around 5.00 pm, the sun was setting and it was starting to get dark. We were about 100 m from the village entrance when we heard loud voices full of excitement and some people came running towards us! It was one of the boys who had talked to us first and who spoke a bit English. “My friends”, he told us, “we were so worried you would not come back anymore. We are so happy to see you again and that you excepted our invitation!! Come with us, everybody is waiting for you!!!” WHAT A WELCOME!! All my worries disappeared, I was just grateful to experience so much hospitality in a foreign country! We were asked to come into the hut and dinner was already prepared for us! I could not believe that this people had prepared dinner, not knowing if we came back nor not, just hoping that we would! We sat down and found out, that it was just us who were eating at the table and about 40 locals watching us! page 1-2-3-4-5 Copyright © 2003 kiwichimp all rights reserved

Kiwi-Chimp Venture

past trips - burma

Whilst walking an ox-cart with 2 young men overtook us and they asked us in sign language (no English!) if we like a lift and so we did. After about 2 km we changed over to a tractor which came along and went another couple of kilometres on the trailer before we came over a hill and saw a little village in the valley. What a beautiful scenery. We decided to have a look at the village and walked along until we saw some young people playing with marbles. They turned their attention straight to us and surround us quickly. On of the boys spoke little English and asked us the “normal” questions: What’s your name, where do you come from etc.

It was funny, more and more people turned up and we found out, that we were the FIRST Western people who have ever made their way to this village! What an experience!

After a while we convinced the young people somehow to go on with playing marbles and asked them if we could join in. And so we did. Here we were somewhere in the middle of Burma, playing marbles with the locales for money! Yes, we had to play for money, that were the rules. Neither Trev nor me did well at the beginning and amused the locales. Finally our play became a bit better, but really we did not want to win anyway, because we did not like the idea of winning money form the locales.

The village was a very simple villages, huts were made from Bamboo or Wood, some Chickens running around, some Water Buffalo laying next to the houses and the people were very simple and poor but really friendly!!

They invited us into a hut and served tea and little biscuits. Conversation was quite difficult but finally a men turned up who spoke a bit better English and could translate all their questions and our answers. After half an hour we got asked if we would like to spend the night in the village, we where invited by the owner of the house and his family and they would be very happy if we would decide to do so.

Trev and I looked at each other: What a chance! We were invited to stay in a local village, which is not allowed in Burma by the government, we could experience the normal life in a village, could eat with the locals and no Western tourists had ever been in that village before! It did not take long to decide, of course we would love to stay a night!!! Just one problem: our biked were still at the waterfall and we had to take them back to the hotel, otherwise the people in the hotel would be worried about us in the evening. We quickly tried to explain, that we would love to stay but had to return to Pyin U Lwin and take the bikes back. Two of the local boys were told to take us to the waterfalls on their bikes. What a ride!! Trev took one bike, I set on the back and two of the boys came along with us on another bike, so that they could take the second bike back to the village. It was such a funny ride along this little path, sometimes we had to push up hills and then we were shooting down on the other side, always thinking that the bikes might brake under our weight! But we made it. We got the waterfall, paid a drink for the boys and us and then quickly cycled the 12 km back to Pyin U Lwin. We packed a little rucksack and left to catch a bus back to the waterfalls. By that time it was already 3.00 pm, there were no busses to the waterfalls anymore! We were looking around and an Indian men asked us if he could help us. “Yes”, we said, “we need a Taxi”. He quickly sussed out the situation, noticed we were in a hurry and offered us to find a taxi for us which could take us to the waterfall. Indians are really clever business men, we already knew that from our travels in India and we knew this taxi would NOT be cheap when it turned up! And so it was: 10 USD for a taxi ride of only 12 km!!!!! That was a rip off!! For 10 USD you can travel about 20 hours on a train or 2 days on a bus in Burma, but we wanted to get to the waterfalls without wasting more time ... and.... paid the 10 USD quickly!

About half an hour (and many swearwords about this rip off) later we got to this waterfall and we still had about 1 ½ hours walk to get to the village!! I got a bit worried because everybody was watching us walking on this little footpath at this time in the afternoon, asking themselves where we were going ..... And as it is not allowed to stay in local villages in Burma, I started to imagine that we would be picked up by the police or Burmese Army soon and we would get in big trouble. Trev tried to calm me down and told me not to panic. He tried to convince me that there was nothing to worry about, but I was not sure. I turned round every couple of meters and made sure nobody was following us. Finally we got to the village and it was around 5.00 pm, the sun was setting and it was starting to get dark. We were about 100 m from the village entrance when we heard loud voices full of excitement and some people came running towards us! It was one of the boys who had talked to us first and who spoke a bit English. “My friends”, he told us, “we were so worried you would not come back anymore. We are so happy to see you again and that you excepted our invitation!! Come with us, everybody is waiting for you!!!”

WHAT A WELCOME!! All my worries disappeared, I was just grateful to experience so much hospitality in a foreign country!

We were asked to come into the hut and dinner was already prepared for us! I could not believe that this people had prepared dinner, not knowing if we came back nor not, just hoping that we would!

We sat down and found out, that it was just us who were eating at the table and about 40 locals watching us!

page 1-2-3-4-5