Friday, 3 July 2015

Hsipaw



We arrived in Hsipaw in the early evening, and despite the fact that Jonno was having a great time with the chundering man, we got off the minivan and went to find a guesthouse. Most of the websites we had looked on had recommended a place called Mr. Charles Guest House, so we went to check it out. It was a very pretty building with most of the interior being wooden, which gave it an old English feel about it. We asked for the cheapest double room which was $14 with a shared bathroom. Unfortunately the building neighbored a before and after school programme, which started at 6am and finished at 10pm. It seems the only way people learn anything in Myanmar is by chanting things as loud as possible and as many times as possible, which was not great for when we wanted an early night or a lie in. We also discovered that even though we were in a twin room there were in fact three of us occupying the room, one of which was small and squeaky with a long tail. After attempting to position our bags so that our new friend could not nibble at them easily, we went in search of food and found a cheap roadside place with some noodle soup and returned to our room to be lulled to sleep by the chanting that sounded like some kind of satanic verse.

The next morning we took a look around the town of Hsipaw, which mainly consisted of a marketplace with various fresh and packaged food stalls. As we walked through the maze of market stalls, we saw lines of small nuns in pink robes and hats make their way around too, singing and receiving donations from the local people. I had brought along a pair of my trousers which were held up by elastic, and in some places the elastic had broken so they did not really stay up anymore.  For a while I had been meaning to take them to a tailors to see if they could replace the elastic, but had forgotten to take them with me. After about a month of forgetting, I finally remembered to bring them along so we went in search of somewhere that could repair them. We passed a few who shook their heads when I tried to explain what I needed, but one old man in a small shop took the trousers from me, dropped the fabric he was working on and began ferociously sewing away on his machine. When he had finished I asked him how much and he shook his head and would not accept payment, just one of the instances that show how friendly and kind the people of Myanmar are. It didn’t really matter that his work made no difference at all because he didn’t replace any elastic he just sewed a line where the elastic should have been, I appreciated the gesture anyway.

The nuns visiting the market stalls


On the map that the guesthouse had on their wall of the area, we noticed there was an old Shan Palace that was open to visitors, so decided to go and investigate. As we turned off the main road and onto a small path that lead to some gates that had become overgrown, we wondered if we had the right place. We saw a small sign on the gate with opening times, so gingerly opened the gate and went through. What we found was a fairly old English looking house but nobody in sight except a grumpy little dog that wouldn’t stop barking at us. As we turned to leave, a woman came out of a door and invited us inside, where there were two other tourists. She let us explore the room which was covered with old pictures and books, and then started explaining the history of the building. The Shan state of Myanmar previously had royal families for each area, and this was the home of the ‘sky prince’ of Hsipaw. The reason it looked English was that he had been sent abroad to England for university and adopted a western style and wanted his home to look the same.  He had married a woman from Holland who later wrote her story in a book called ‘Twilight over Burma: My life as a Shan Princess’. The woman who was telling us the story was his niece and now lived in the old palace and wanted to share her story with visitors. In 1962, the Burmese government arrested all the Shan princes in secret, and then denied that they had anything to do with it, but nobody ever saw the princes after that. The family are still trying to get the government to admit responsibility but to this day they still deny any involvement. The woman who now lives in the old palace started sharing her family’s story in the 1990s with her husband, but the government was not happy with this and imprisoned her husband who was released after four years. She and her husband continue to receive visitors, and have lots of stories and photos to share. It was fascinating listening to her accounts, and gave us an insight into what the people of Myanmar have experienced in recent history. Mid way through her talking to us, she heard some people outside and tutted, telling us she was sorry but some people just turn up uninvited, which is exactly what we had done but we didn’t point this out.

The old Shan Palace

Inside the palace- definitely an English influence


After thanking the woman for sharing her story we walked back towards the hotel. One of the other tourists at the palace was also staying at our guesthouse, so we walked with her. She was from Germany and had been travelling to some of the places we had also been to, so we shared stories. She told us that the guesthouse offered advice and information on the treks that they offer, and we had heard that the area was good for trekking, so we joined her in asking for information. The guide that was at the desk explained about the 1, 2 or 3 day treks they offered. Although we had done a bit of trekking, we had not tried any more than a day at a time so we thought we would challenge ourselves and try a 2 day trek, which would take us through villages and we would stay overnight in one of the villages. The german girl also booked the same trek which would start the next morning. Still not being too sure what we were getting ourselves into, we prepared our day bags with the things we would need and got some sleep.

The next morning we gave our main bags to the guesthouse to store them and went to find our trekking group. There were five of us in the group; us, the German girl we had met the day before and 2 German guys. We were introduced to our guide and off we went.

And we are off


The trek started out with a nice easy path through some fields and past a cemetery which had different sections for each nationality that was buried there, and as we continued we hit some steeper inclines but it was manageable and we stopped for breaks a few times. The guide had brought some local sesame seed cookies for us which we all fell in love with.



We stopped for lunch at a family home in one of the villages. They had set up a small table for us and some cushions made from sacks that we could sit on, and served us an amazing vegetarian lunch of local dishes with rice. We then had about an hour to relax in some deck chairs before we continued on our journey.

Taking some much needed rest at lunch

You don't need language when you can bang on a plastic chair together


The trek took us through beautiful scenery, from farmlands where families were ploughing fields with buffalo to jungle areas where the guide had to break a path through the trees. He had lots of knowledge about the area and showed us interesting plants like the mimosa leaves that curl up when they are touched and fruit trees like jackfruit, banana and avocado. The guide also explained to us that there are only certain areas in the Shan state which allow foreigners in and even Myanmar people from surrounding areas would need a good reason to visit the restricted areas. This is because there are armies from different parts of the Shan state who have camps in the jungle, and there is often fighting between these groups and the government. As we passed some of the villages, the guide told us that it is often difficult to get the villagers to engage with politics and the issues of the country, as they often govern themselves so don’t see the relevance. We also discovered new things about the German culture with three Germans for company, which has given us an urge to travel Germany now- the difficulties of having the freedom to travel the world, there are far too many countries! The great thing about German and English is that we have a lot of words that are the same or similar (one of them being hoof as we discovered) so even when they were speaking German together we could pick out a few bits of the conversation. Jonno also had a great satisfaction as a few days before he had said how much German people love strudel and we overheard the Germans talking about their favourite types of strudel, so I was given a ‘see I told you so’ look.

The whole family works on the fields


Beautiful scenery


We arrived at the village of our homestay about an hour before sunset, after trekking for around eight hours, and were taken through the village and up a steep path to see the Monastery at the top. There was a group of unkempt looking children playing around the Monastery, who were very excited to see us and ran up to us waving and shouting hello as we passed. One little boy only knew how to say ‘ta ta’ so he repeated this over and over again.

Meeting the local kids



We entered the monastery and the guide beckoned us to sit on the floor in front of the shrine of Buddha statues. On the platform there sat one monk of 14 years old, with an elderly nun praying at his feel. The guide explained that monks are always higher than nuns, regardless of the age. It did seem very strange to see this hierarchy in a culture where you should pay respect to your elders. After the nun had finished praying to the monk, he brought a flask of green tea for us which was definitely needed after the long walk. There were about twenty other monks and novices in a room next door watching a black and white film. The guide showed us a gold statue of a bird and explained that the village had been saving up for this statue and it was going to be placed on the top of a pole outside the monastery in a ceremony the following morning. He told us the meaning behind the bird is that there is a story where a bird challenges the sun to a race which he initially is winning but then death catches up with the bird. Apparently this is a reminder to Buddhists of the inevitability of death. The guide told us we were invited to the ceremony of placing the statue on the pole the next morning, which we said we would like to attend. The guide also explained the reason behind the bells on the top of every pagoda which chime when the wind blows them, as when people were in the jungle and wanted to find their way back to the village they could just follow the noise of the bells, as every village has a pagoda.

The village school, surrounded with barbed wire


By this time it was almost dark, so the guide lead us back down the steep path to the home which we would stay the night. The house was spacious but basic, and we were introduced to the family who lived there. There were grandparents, parents and five children living in the house together, and they welcomed us in with more green tea and lots of smiles. We were shown where we could take a shower- a concrete block outside with a trough of water and a bucket, and were served another delicious local vegetarian meal. The bedroom was a large room upstairs with mattresses on the floor and a mosquito net over each one- cosy enough and after a long day of trekking it was very welcomed!

Our homestay

A pretty big mosquito that has been caught by the net


We were awoken in the morning by a man with a terrible hacking cough, and then the grandfather of the house coming in to chant some prayers to the Buddha shrine in the corner of our room. We got ourselves ready and went downstairs where we were served a breakfast of rice, vegetables in a broth, omelette with anise leaves and a very strong smelling dried tofu dish. Some of the children were getting ready to go to school, but also had to help with the younger children by feeding them breakfast and getting them dressed. It was the calmest household with that many children that I had ever seen- most scenes of getting children ready for school involve parents rushing around frantically trying to get their children organised (If you have seen the programme ‘Outnumbered’ this has been my experiences). This was completely different- the children who were attending school were quietly getting themselves ready while their parents sat and chatted with the tour guide. Whatever parenting techniques had been used were clearly very effective! We left our bags at the house and walked back up to the Monastery for the ceremony, to find out that it had already finished and the bird stood proudly on its stand with a sprinkling of popcorn around the base of the pole as an offering. We went back to the house, gathered our bags, said goodbye to the family and set off, our legs feeling achier than the previous day.

We missed the party but went to check out the result




The second day of walking was easier than the first, with most of the journey on flat paths or downhill. We passed more farmland and villages, and after 3 hours reached a dirt road where we were met by a rickshaw and we all gratefully bundled on. Our legs may have been thankful for the rest but it definitely was not the most comfortable of journeys- the road was full of rocks and holes and we were flung around the vehicle. We were taken to a place that had some hot springs- they were man made pools but were pumped with natural hot spring water. One was pure spring water but it was extremely hot, and the other had some cold water added to it but was still the temperature of a bath. It was so nice to float around in them, stretching our achy muscles


Relaxing in the hot spring


After a while of relaxing, we were ready for lunch but when we got to the path, the rickshaw had gone and the guide explained there was something wrong with it so the driver went to get it fixed and would be back soon. This caused a slight panic as some people had left their belongings on the truck, including the German girl’s shoes, as we had assumed it would wait for us there. After about 20 minutes of waiting, the guide suggested we walk 5 minutes to a local restaurant for lunch there while we waited for the driver to return. We made our way to the restaurant, which wasn’t easy for the girl with no shoes, and the guide ordered us a local dish of Shan noodle soup which is a type of thick, sticky noodle in stock (it is pretty good). The rickshaw reappeared 15 minutes later to everyone’s relief, and took us back to the guesthouse where we said goodbye to the guide and had a very much needed shower. That evening, we went up to the communal balcony area where we ended the day with some drinks, including an interesting concoction made by the German guys of rum, hot water and sugar.

A banana- the latest hair accessory


The following day we felt that we had earned a day of rest so had a lazy morning, and then in the afternoon had a walk around some more of the town. There was an area which had been named ‘Mini Bagan’ and even though the prospect of more temples and pagodas wasn’t that exciting, we thought we might as well check it out and see if it actually did resemble Bagan. The answer was, not much, apart from it being a small collection of ruins of payas and pagodas, but it gave us something to do. We also paid a visit to the nearby Nat shrine which has lots of animal statues, and a monastery with a bamboo Buddha. We spent the rest of the afternoon in a peaceful cafĂ© with some fruit juices and booked our onward ticket to Inle Lake for the following day.

Someone has great taste in shrine decor

Buddhist gangsta statue with handfuls of cash

Making sure all the animals are well fed

'Mini Bagan'

A tree growing out the top of the ruins







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