My steps toward Nothern shan state & Kachin state
From 05june to 24 june 2007.
This year 2007, I decided to go to the north ….
Yangon-Mandalay-Muse-Ruli (shweli)- Jiegao -- YingJiang-Laiza-winemaw-myitkyina-bhamo-namkham-muselashio-hsipaw-kyaukme-Maymyo-Mandalay-Bagan-Yangon.
05june
This is the beginning of the trip. We take morning train to Mandalay .we leave from Yangon at 05h00 Am. Last night , I sleep in downtown with some of my friends from office ..we spend the night till 02h00 am in the morning ….then at 04h30 we leave to train station and we start our journey at 05h00.
Train leave from Yangon Central station at 05h00 sharp…still dark in the car/wagon , we have no light/no electricity. We take First class seat and quite OK , but very noisy like you are somewhere in the battle ground…All joints between the cars are moving a lot , level of the railway is not even so, its shake a lot and make big big noise continuously ..
After 3/4 hours drive from yangon , we are in the middle of paddy field and everywhere is green, nice scenery .We arrive lunch time at Taungoo , there you can buy your lunch ..As soon as train approach the station, everybody (mostly women and children) jump on the train and cry( shout) to sell the lunch . Rare to see a man in this business ..Here , at taungoo, you can buy local fruit
(leachy ? ) and some palm fruits ..
It’s getting hot in the afternoon … After lunch; some people can find the rhythm of the train and fall asleep. In the afternoon, Car guard come with a pile of cartoons and magazine and you can borrow some to browse..
On the train, you can see different life style and people , monks, villagers, merchant , people go/come to visit their relative etc etc. travel in different seek?
Some people passed their whole life on the train…they sell some snacks, food, medicine and local product on the train.
We arrive at Mandalay station at Night around 20h00 and we take a bleu taxi to go Manmyanmar Inn . We stay 2 nights at Mandalay.
06 june
Wake up late and go to Minthiha ,my favorite teashop in Mandalay.
I am sure Mandalay is the best place to have a breakfast , you have you have a lot of choice..
Food are really Burmese taste ( may be I speak too much ??)
After breakfast we go to Yadanabon market and Mahamuni pagoda ..
Inside the Mahamuni , everything is quite and calm except some Indian Astrologer , “Ponna” they are very aggressive and push you to come their shop/office to consult your future ..that’s is unacceptable ,better not to face them.
After Mamuni temple, we go for lunch at local restaurant..everybody know Daw lay may restaurant ( like shweba restaurant in yangon ) good Burmese food and reasonable price.
After lunch, we start looking for the car to go Muse..Easy to find, they ask 110000Kyats for one way . Then , we come back to hotel Mandalay is too hot/warm ..
In the evening, we go to U Bein bridge , relax ..Beautiful lake and nice bridge. Not extraordinarily but nice. only thing at the bridge is the novices from the monastery nearby ..Some of them are here for good reason to practice their English or to make a conversation with tourists. Some are not like this; they have a purpose totally against from the religion ... Better keep a distance from them! Anyway, sunset and bridge is cool...if you know some background story of Mandalay …it will be more than normal lake, bridge and sunset..
(Reference - The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh , Fryniwyd Tennyson Jesse, The Lacquer Lady, 1929 and Taung Taman Shwe Inn Ka Laynyin Saw Toke- (Breeze on Taung-Ta-Man Lakeby Mya than Tint (1999), Irrawaddy book "Irrawaddy Flotilla" by Alister McCrae & Alan Prentice published by James Paton Ltd which also includes an insight into the fascinating history of Myanmar - also know as Burma and Mien)
07 june
At 07h00 ,we go to Minthiha to have breakfast and we head up to muse. We leave around 08h30 from Mandalay and on the way we cross beautiful countryside, on spot called “loi sam sip “is the best view point before you arrive to Kutkai .
we stop lunch at Kutkai , there is a buffet restaurant , very good foods, clean and reasonable price(1500 per person ).
Then we continue to Muse and arrive at Muse around 16h30 or 17h00 , we leave from Mandalay around 08h30 so , road take more or less 9 hours ?? We stay at Shwe Thiri hotel, very close to border, just 5 minutes walk to border gate. We spend 07, 08, 09 and 10 june ( 4 nights) at Muse . We cross border everyday and make shopping and visiting in china.
08 june
We go and see Vesali Travel to organize our visit inside the China, one of the local travel agents in Muse. In Muse, you have some travel agency who organize the tour between China and Burma.
Vesali agree to provide us one Chinese translator and minibus for us, to visit in China , Rulli ( shweli )and Jiegao. We make a border pass at the gate called “Nandaw pauk” , very easy step to make a border pass , temporary pass certificate for local Burmese ( 7 days use ) is 1000 kyats and you can get it in a few minutes This certificate is only for single use ( single pass , just one time )and they issue passport only for those living is muse township .
We found that a lots of Burmese are working there in Rulli ( shweli )and Jiegao.
For the resident people, they use to cross the border from the fence.
For me it was very strange feeling even you say china, foreign country it was just some steps away from your hotel??
AT Border, I learn that you can make money in different way, drug, prostitution, illegal trade.
All Chinese products can be found in side, electronic devices, clothes, pirate DVDs and medicine etc.
Muse is the one of the favorite spot for Burmese shopper and most of merchant trade, legal or illegal, in both way between China and Mandalay.
As a means of transport, Chinese Motor bike is one of the major portions of the transport. One Motorbike courier can carry incredible amount of goods. They use to go by small trail lead to no where!
Their life is very interesting …they know all off-road stories as in Shan state you can see most of the group of anti-government group …
Most of the bikers are Shan and Kachin but some of them are Burmese from Mandalay, Pakkoku, Myingyan , Meikhtila region ...where they can play with their fortune ! Biking at the border is risky, first you cannot use normal route, you have to use small trail up in the mountain where the Customs people cannot trace you easily, second you need to be good rider as all these trail are too small and you have a big load of assorted items at the back…sometimes, you can be even shot by the Customs (from government side) or Border Guard Army or from anti government group…
Otherwise, 3 wheel motorbike (Tok Tok in Thailand) is a part of urban transport , 100 kyats for any ride .
09 june
Chinese translator come and find us at the hotel, We cross the border and visit to the china town called Mangshi ( luxi ) .Roads inside china are much better than our part. We have lunch at one local Chinese restaurant. Chinese beers in different brand are very cheap at the border even less expensive than bottled water.
In Chinese restaurant, they use different way to take an order, you have to go and see in the kitchen and order what you want, strange! But you have fresh and hot food.
My shopping experiences in Mangshi ( luxi ) is not really comfortable , difficult to communicate in English. We try to buy a map of town and China but impossible, everything is in Chinese and , Finally, we give up communicating with them and we just make a window shopping.
But I see some English books in Chinese, like Da vinci code, we don’t have in Burmese yet.
So, they probably think that they don’t need to learn English…
We coming back to Muse end of the afternoon.
But still early in Muse, as we have time different between china and Myanmar!!
What do you say if one step behind or forward can make you 01h30 minutes older or younger !!!
10 june-Muse-Namhkan-muse
We go to Namhkan , only 45minute/1hour drive from Muse.
Taxi leave from the centre of Muse, just in front of the Market. They take 5 person, 4 at the back (rear seat) and 2 at the front seat, it cost more or less 2500 Kyats per person. On the way, we talk with one man who uses to travel in this area to and fro at border...he give us a lot of information about how we can cross the china border and to get in myanmar from Laiza Gate ( Myitkyina) or Lweje ( Bhamo ).
On the way you can see beautiful paddy filed and some shan pagoda, in shan state, the shape of the pagoda are not like in Mandalay or In Bagan , they are slim and more likely Thai style.
This village also on of the highlight spot during second English Myanmar war time .small village where is the native of famous Shan singer Sai Sai moa. We visit the old suspension bridge from WWII
( In March 1945, Company B, 209th Engineers, completed a 450-foot Bailey suspension bridge over the Shweli River at Namhkam. They dedicated it to the engineers lost in the fight at Myitkyina.)
and new bridge project. We talked with some workers from the new bridge construction and according to them, they suppose to destroy old bridge when they finish the new bridge (probably in august 2007)
Namhkan has some beautiful story from WWII, here are the some part of the message from US war veterans “Our first stop was the Dr. Seagrave's Missionary hospital which is now a locally run clinic. Dr. Seagrave and his nurses were recruited by the US military to set up field hospitals in the Burma Campaign. I had taken many photographes of this area back in 1945 and I carried copies of them with me. Among them were pictures of the hospital grounds and some of the nurses.We located one of the nurses, Esther Po and her husband Kya Naw (Ja Naw) who still live in the village. We had a long visit, exchanging stories and photos. They both spoke English. (Kya Naw was born by Dr. Gordon Seagrave and he grew up with Dr. Segrave's sons in Namkhan villlage.)It was a complete surprise to Esther……”
We visited Myolei pagoda beside the small morning market...inside, you can see some picture and records from the WWII and the memoirs of soabwa ( shan state’s king ) ..The image inside was remain without any scratch while the allies air force bomb in Namhkan ,,5-6-1944.
(Reference – Lwane more bwe Kanbawza- (memorable Kanbawza by Mya than Tint (in Burmese), http://www.cbiexpeditions.com/html_pages/article8.htm
http://www.myanmar.com/myanmartimes/MyanmarTimes14-261/n018.htm )
11june –Muse-Rulli- YingJiang-Laiza-Myitkyina
We went to rulli , then Jiegao by taxi. In Jiegao, our initial plan is to take a bus to YingJiang and from YingJiang next step to Laiza( Kachin and china border town) , in Jiegao, we found a Taxi by chance to share with somebody from Jiegao…in fact , he is the jade merchant living in china ,native from Kutkai(shan state) he speak perfect Chinese, shan and kachin , travel very often between Hpakant (jade mine) and china.
We lucky to travel with him, in china if you don’t speak Chinese, that’s not easy to organize the things. Along they way, we see some plantation and some renovation of road very impressive…Condition is quite different from Myanmar...i am not blaming but something quite difficult to understand!!
We have lunch at YingJiang then we continue to Laiza ..on the we see a lot of truck with full of teak leading to China .We arrive at Laiza gate around 17h00 then we take a another taxi to Myitkyina.
In our taxi, except 2 of us, the rest are merchants…they make a business between border and Myitkyina since many years ago. They know this road by heart and they make their living with this road…they trade cosmetic, foodstuff, electronic and sometimes even car engine etc.. We arrive late to Myitkyina around 21h00.. we sleep at New light hotel in downtown.
12june- myitkyina
Myitkyina is quite big commercial town base station for Gold digger and merchants. We rent a Tok Tok to visit the town , Kachin’s Manau field
and go to the bala min Htin Bridge outside the town..
We visited some weaving quarter( shweNyaungbin ), the Kachin are renowned for their traditional weaving skills(a wooden back-strap loom ). Kachin sarong and Kachin shoulder-bag are among the other popular products of the Myitkyina .
Now a day, traditional weaving is difficult to find, all become modern, they use weaving machine and they hire the people from Pakkoku or Amarapura to come and work at Myitkyina.
At Manau field, you have Manau pole, little so called museum. they celebrate Manau festival in January .This is the most crowed and famous festival in Kachin state, during the festival, they wear festival costumes and dance with the chief of the state .Inside the small museum, you have some record of the Kachin solider who serve in the American Army during WWII. The two statues of the Kachin warrior at the gate were very impressive.
The Kachin have own written language based on Roman alphabet. Most Kachin converted to Christianity during the last century, but spirit worship is still observed in some areas.
Jade is mined in Phakant, Haungpa, Tawhmaw, Lonkin and other regions in upper reaches of Uru River. Phakant Area in Kachin State is renowned for its production of Jade in Myanmar. Some Gold can be panned out from rivers and creeks.
http://www.kachinland.org/kno_2006/Kachin_Culture/index.htm
http://www.kachinnews.com/Valleyofdarkness/ValleyofDarkness.pdf
http://www.kachinstate.com/
http://www.army.mil/cmh/books/wwii/marauders/marauders-fw.htm
13june-Myitkyina- confluence of Maika & Malika
The Ayeyarwaddy River originates from the confluence of two large rivers, the "Nmai Hka" and the "Mali Hka". These two rivers rise in the northern most of Burma and join at Tangphre village, 27 miles north of Myitkyina, to form the Ayeyarwaddy. The confluence of the Ayeyarwaddy is called "Myit-Sone" in Myanmar. It literally means a place where two rivers join to form a third river.
We rent a Motor bike to go Myitsone , its take more or less 3hours..On the way you pass some kachin villages. At myitsone (confluence) , you have nothing special but very beautiful ..we visited their Kachin traditional house near confluence point and as my knowledge they are more or less like palaung’s long house but they see that some facilities more for hunting ( bow & arrow , trap etc ) and smoking place at the entrance hall to grill the meat and to drive some mite away .
Local small restaurant are open just on the bank of the river. Also can taste roasted fresh river fish and Kachin traditional food, after finished your sightseeing of Ayeyawaddy’s confluence... Some people take a motor boat trip up to some gold mine!! We come back to myitkyina and visit some bookshops to find some Kachin tales in Burmese as we read some of their story at school and I want to find it for my library or in English but we cannot, they have only in Kachin language.
14 june –Myitkyina-Bhamo
Today , we will start our trip on ledo road , we are going to do Myitkyina-bhamo-namhkan part .We ask the hotel to ask the taxi for Bhamo and we share the taxi with some other guy..we leave around 11h00 . On the way we crossed some villages , stream , small river , mountain rages and laiza ( border town ) and we see some bikers ( motor bike courier ) play hike and seek with us ..Sometimes they use normal road and sometimes they go in the forest and we arrive around 17h00 at Bhamo .Walk around the town , jetty and coming back to hotel ( Friendship hotel).we so tired and get sleep early.
15 june visit at Bhamo
We rent a motor bike , take a map from hotel and visit Shwekyina pagoda somewhere outside the town and stone church from WWII (The 1905th Engineers had the opportunity to help Father James Devine, newly released from a Japanese prison camp, rebuild his St. Columba's Roman Catholic Mission in the hills east of Bhamo. ) , there you have one prison where they keep some political prisoners ..
And there I saw a lot of trucks ( more than 100 ) they grab from Illegal teak business people.
Before lunch, we go and see U sein win (bhamo) , he is trying to make a kind of helicopter on his own idea and his own material .. He explains his works very enthusiastically. Theoretically, you can fly but practically he cannot make it yet for many reasons. And his life… His father served in American Army as a driver and he still remember his early days which is some part of history( the WWII).he speaks quite good English and he is hoping for some financial aid to accomplish his invention.
For the moment, he earn his living by helping as a translator to the tourists who pass to Bhamo..He told us about the visit of salang kabar (old border town) , elephant camp up from bhamo and some interesting places around Bhamo where he use to bring the tourists.
I propose him to accompany me to salang kabar in next day and he is enthusiastically to do it as he wanna see his friend, chief of the village at salang kabar (old border town ).
16june –Bhamo-salang kabar –bhamo
We rent a motor bike and start our trip to Sinlon kabar Old colonial City.
Really high in the mountain..We visited the old town. According to U sein win this is an old administrative centre for kachin state during English period…you can stay see some old building of post office, school , hospital and some colonial house .its take almost 2/3 hours to go by Motorbike , on the way up is really uphill road …Now , this is the stretagic point for Burmese Army , the have abse unit at salang …and I see some hotel constructions are started to promote the tourism at salang..
17 june- Bhamo-Namhkan –muse
This is also a part of ledo road Roads were full of pot-holes and in poor condition. its take more than 6 hours for ±80 miles…..
With taxi, we leave at 07h00 in the morning and we arrive to GuideHteik ( check point ) around noon , then 14h00 in Namhkan.. I took a taxi from Namhkan to Muse, in Namhkan , you have a lot of taxi gate to go Bhamo or muse..muse is much more easier then Bhamo ..muse @ 15h00 ??
I spend one night there.. I went back to same hotel ,shwethiri .
18 june muse-lashio (lashio Thein aung )
It is a trade center and the terminus of the railroad line from Mandalay.
Between muse and lashio you have nothing much to stop its take mor or less 5hour drive..There one tradition , in shan state is the driver need to salute like a solider at every Nat shrine on the road side this is their belives to have safe drive ..( in Yangon , you may notice almost all driver they pray at shwedagon when they cross from aside ) in lashio we walk about the town and market. Beside the market you have on central pagoda like Mahamuni from Madnalay ..In lashio , you have only Chinese and shan restaurant and one hotel called Lashio motel . But, from lashio , you can go and visit some Palaung villages not far from the town on the direction of Park , somewhere after the park ...i ask one guard from hotel to help us for a walk to Palaung village before we leave for hsipaw in the next day .
19 june- lashio-hsipaw
This morning, we take a city taxi to drive to the outskirts of Lashio from where you will have to walk about 4 km slightly up-hill (1 hour walk per way) on an unpaved path to get to Nam Kyan village, first village. Before we arrive to Palaung village, we stop at small Indian temple then continue to some Palaung villages. Most of them speak Burmese but we are not lucky to see and talk with them..Nobody at the villages except children and old people.. Everybody is in the cattle filed/farm.. They are still working on cultivation. Coming back to hotel and take a bus to Hsipaw ..Lashio –Hsipaw is only 2/3 hours..we arrive at Hsiapw in the evening and sleep at Mr.Charles Guest house. In the same evening, we visit the Haw ( palace of Prince Sao Kya Seng )..just a look from a distance ..Because I read about the prince and I am curious to see where he stayed in Hsipaw . Some Bulldozers he imported from other countries are still beside their compound..
http://www.alumnifriends.mines.edu/fun_stuff/twilight_and_tragedy/Default.htm
http://www.shanland.org/general/2006/shan-new-year-in-hsipaw-1
20 june- Trekking around hsipaw
Among several possibilities of visits, we decide to make a day-return trek to Palaung villages…
Hsipaw its self beautiful village, well situated beside the river called Dutawadi …We start around 07h30 and we work through paddy field , old railway and ahead to Palaung the mountain range.. We cross the stream, typical Shan villages…after 45 minutes walk, walking path become harder..From this part till you arrive to the village all is uphill road.
We arrive to the village after 3 hours uphill walk..We are very exhausted and tired .Our Guide ( U Ni , from Mr.Charles Guest House ) bring us to his friend’s place ( chief of the village).
Well, lunch at his place is invited and imagine about the food?? Wonderful??? Completely wrong, rice is very hard , a pieces of meat (pork) with sliced onion and boiled potato is the best food he have.. Anyway, we eat a lot and we like it (i am sure, if your in town you will not eat this ).
After lunch , we talk a little bit about these and that and we visit in the village and walk back to Hsipaw..
We stop in small hut and pass some stream..This is the best panoramic view i ever seen (compare to my last trip to Kalaw, i prefer this one) .We cannot go out for diner and we are too tired. We go bed too early. We asked to the reception to find a car for us to go Kyaukme next day morning..
21 june- hsipaw-kyaukme-maymyo-Mandalay
Kyaukme is only 45 minutes drive from Hsipaw.. we stop at one of the famous Bawgyo pagoda. On the way you can see some mining business which is founded by Sao kya seng . http://www.jannagraber.com/princess.htm //
http://davidmetraux.com/docs/family/daniel/burma/articles/khin_oo_princess.doc //
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:FhyUOVJrpCAJ:www.asiapacificms.com/papers/pdf/gt_opium_trade.pdf+Mining+company+of+Sao+Kya+Seng&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8 )
we arrive to Kyaukme ,commercial town for tea leaf business .We go to train station and buy the ticket for maymyo ..We still have some spare time and we went to Tea leaf preparation place ( broker’s sale centre ) and learn some process of preparation of tea leaf ..
Tea leaf is ready to eat from the beginning but depending on the picking time and method you can have 2/3 different product.. like one for Chinese tea ( green tea ) , for sweet tea ( like in India) and for salad etc.. Train arrive intime to kyaukme and we took the train through famous Goteik viaduct ( between Kyaukme and Maymyo-Gokteik Bridge. The 700m long bridge, built in 1900 by the American Pennsylvania Steel Co, spans across a nearly 300m deep abyss. After crossing the bridge the train will stop at a small station. You will get the chance to have a better look at the bridge. Take good note though that it is not permitted to photograph/video bridges in Myanmar. Keep in mind that trains in Myanmar are not up to international standard and reliability leaves to be desired. However, we will make every effort to provide best available seats on the train. In case of schedule irregularities, delays or unavailability of seats, the journey will be made by road as per original itinerary. After viaduct goteik , we arrive to Maymyo ..then we took bus to Mandalay and overnight at Mandalay .Then next day bus to Bagan and it was the last part of the trip before i get back to office.
