Trekking Through Tribal Villages Near Kalaw

After the delayed flight from Yangon to Heho – allowing us to eat at the restaurant mentioned in the previous post – we took a taxi from Heho to our final Myanmar destination, the mountain town of Kalaw (kah-LAW), population 20,000. Here we would meet Alex (Pho Kyaw) who would guide us trekking through the mountain tribal villages in the surroundings of Kalaw.

Alex greeted us as soon as we stepped out of the taxi at Hotel Parami. Since our arrival there had been delayed we were not able to start trekking that day. Instead we took a room in Hotel Parami ($8 per night, per person, including breakfast and sporadically hot water), and then Alex walked us up a small mountain at the edge of town, topped by a Buddhist structure. The three of us sat at the top, and talked about the trek to begin on the next day, about politics and the past and future of Myanmar, and about religion. It had already been my impression, but it became obvious now that Alex is a thinking kind of man and I looked forward even more to the 2 days the three of us would be walking across the countryside together.

Coming down from the mountain, we three walked a block past the hotel and got a late supper at “The Everest.” Then Daniel and I settled in for a good night’s sleep, to wake at 7, breakfast at 7:30 (Daniel got scrambled eggs, I chose the omelet – but the omelet was just eggs, so they didn’t actually look much different!), and start the trek at 8. With our approval, Alex had accepted a third party to join us for the first of our two days. She was a physical trainer from San Francisco, former fundamentalist and currently “more of a Buddhist.” The trekking was up and down over the mountains, with packs carrying warm clothes for the night, lightweight sleeping bags, and bottled water. The scenery was beautiful, with lush growth in uncultivated sections, and various crops of the tribal peoples in the valleys and the on mountainsides (tea, oranges, cauliflower, garlic, chilis, bananas, rice, carrots, mustard, tobbaco, coriander, chiote, pumpkin, and I’m sure I’m forgetting others). Along the way Alex told us all about the various plants, wild and domesticated, and how the peoples harvest them and make use of them, both for food and medicinally. The paths we took were mostly single track footpaths, but some were wide enough that they would accommodate a car (though none are back there in the mountains), and a couple of times we went along railroad tracks.

The first day’s trek took us through a handful of tribal villages, where we saw chickens, pigs, and water buffalo, as well as the people drying tea leaves, boiling ginger root, putting rice through a process removing the husks, etc. The harvest of tea leaves is a communal affair. You pick the fresh tea leaves off the plants in your field every five days. You bring them home and lay them out to dry in the sun, turning them to completely dry. On the days waiting for that 5th day to roll around when fresh leaves will be present, you help others pick their fresh tea leaves, and of course you have their help on your 5th day. The homes in the villages were more substantial than I expected, but that is only because I was expecting straw huts or the like.

Ten miles later, and around 5:00, we arrived at the bamboo forest at the edge of a village where we would spend the night in the home of a teacher who had moved there to teach in the village school. It happened to be the largest home in the village, perhaps 20x30, divided into 4 rooms. There was no furniture, save for the small, low table in the kitchen, and 3 very small stools, about 4” off the floor. In the largest room, there were two thick pallets of layered blankets laid out on the floor next to each other for both Daniel and me. An assistant of Alex had gotten there early, per Alex’s instructions, and begun the food preparation for our supper: pumpkin soup, rice, green beans with egg, mixed vegetables and a couple other dishes as well. Upon our arrival that same assistant took the San Francisco “more of a Buddhist” a couple of hours further to where she would catch a taxi back to Kalaw. Alex and the teacher finished the meal prep and Daniel, Alex and I sat on the tiny stools around the little table to eat. EXCELLENT meal. The teacher ate separately after we were done.

In the large room afterward, Alex played some of his music from his mp3 player for us, and then Daniel and I set about to think of some games we could play without cards or anything. Daniel came up with paper football, and set to making the ball. As he and Alex played the first game, using the pattern on the vinyl flooring (that was a surprise) for goal lines and boundary lines, a couple of villagers came by to visit: a man in his 40’s or 50’s, and a boy about 10 years old. So as I played Alex, Daniel made another ball and we had two games going side by side. They took to it quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it. We hope to hear of paper football being played all through the tribal villages in a year or so! Later we spun coins to see whose coin would stay up spinning the longest, and noticed the boy’s method of spinning, using only one hand and not using a finger to flick the coin, but spinning the whole set of fingers to set the coin spinning. Next he used a different method, spinning his fingers in the air that way and letting the coin fly out to land and continue spinning. We were impressed!

We slept well, and woke to a breakfast of rice with a chili soy sprinkle, fried chiote prepared similarly to fried green tomatoes, and some more things Daniel and I don’t recall at the moment, but it was all good. Started the day’s trek and within 20-25 minutes arrived at a train station among the villages. Produce was being set up for sale along the tracks for all those passing through, and shops were open as well. We stopped in one where Alex ordered Lassies for us. No real idea how that should be spelled, but that’s what it sounds like. It was a yogurt drink, cold, but with a taste completely foreign to me and not entirely good. Daniel loved it. For me, the best part was the undissolved sugar at the bottom of the glass.

In a couple of later villages Alex introduced us to a couple of old ladies. The first was 88, and not in great health. She was sleeping on the porch of their little house when we arrived, but woke up after a few minutes. She had fallen in recent months and isn’t getting around well; she was also quite hard of hearing. In another village a little farther along our route, we met a woman of 102 (in photo). She was strong and vibrant, rising easily from a seated position on the floor to greet us. Neither of these women had any answer to the question, “how many descendants do you have,” as many had married in other villages and lived there.

We finally made our return to our base town of Kalaw, and Alex took us to his bamboo home he built himself about 5 years ago. There we had a dinner made by his wife, and afterward his wife’s sister and brother came by to visit with us, as well as her parents. Her brother and mother also showed up the next morning at the hotel, at 7.40 a.m., just to see us off as we left Kalaw. This was merely the final of many examples of the tremendous warmth and friendliness of the people of Myanmar.

(There are so many more photos I would have liked to include here, but space and time do not permit. Look for them as a Facebook album in the next day or so).