I got up in the dark before 5 on the morning of the 18th in Taunggok and took another cold, dark motorcycle taxi ride to the jetty before 6. The boat to Sittwe, about 120 miles northwest along the coast, was fuselage shaped with perhaps 100 or more seats, six across. You couldn't really get up and walk about and the windows were low, with the top halves covered with tinting, so the views from the boat weren't great. I did have a window seat, with no one in the two seats next to me, and the seats were comfortable. We didn't leave until about 6:40, first winding down the mangrove lined river and then south and southwest between low coastal islands. I kept looking at my map and compass to try to figure out our route. Leaving the islands, the boat reached more open water and headed northwest towards the southern tip of Ramree Island, a big island about 50 miles long and perhaps 20 at its widest spot. We docked briefly at Kyauknimaw, near the southern tip, about 8. More passengers got off than got on.
We continued north along the east coast of the island and then up another mangrove lined river to near the town of Ramree, where we briefly docked. We headed back the way we had come and then continued north until we reached some smaller islands between Ramree and the mainland. We passed through those islands and under a bridge connecting Ramree with the mainland. We reached more open water again and passed the huge LNG facility that the Chinese are building before docking about 11:30 at Kyaukpyu, the largest town on Ramree Island, near its northern tip. About 50 people boarded.
From Kyaukpyu the boat headed north into more open water, and then northwest with the Bay of Bengal to our left, though the waves weren't much different than in the more protected waters we had previously come through. A Burmese guy from Yangon working on the LNG plant had boarded at Kyaukpyu and sat near me. He told me the meter wide pipeline from the LNG facility runs to Kunming in China, a distance of 900 kilometers, so about 550 miles. (Burma, by the way, usually uses miles, feet and inches instead of the metric system.) He also told me he had been involved in railroad construction and that the reason that train rides are so bumpy is that the rails are short. He said replacing the rails would be too expensive, so he had been involved in a project that welded rails together, so that trains can go faster.
Nearing Sittwe, the boat passed between some long, narrow islands about 20 miles long. We arrived in Sittwe shortly after 3, docking in a muddy little inlet. I took a motorcycle taxi to the center and had some trouble finding a hotel, eventually getting a nice room but having to pay $40 for it.
Sittwe is on the east side of a peninsula, with the wide Kaladan River flowing down from the north, though at Sittwe I suspect the river water is mixed with sea water. Islands are to the southeast, including the ones my boat had passed through. Bangladesh is up the coast about 60 miles. I walked down the coast to the tip of the peninsula, about a mile and a half from the city center. The tide was out, leaving mudflats exposed and being crossed by fishermen with nets. A few boats could be seen. I got to the point about a half hour before sunset, which was about 5:40, then walked back the way I had come, getting back just after dark. It was getting chilly. Sittwe is at about 21 degrees north latitude.
The next morning I spent more than two hours walking around Sittwe's incredible morning market. I don't think I have ever seen so many varieties of fish, including several types of rays and eels. There was a lot of chopping up of fish going on and the market was messy and dirty. A lot of boats were on the river making deliveries of produce and passengers, some of the boats rowed by men in conical hats. Besides fresh fish, the market had stalls and stalls of dried fish of all types, often hanging from the rafters. Often the flesh had been dried in strips intact on the body, with the head still attached, so the dried fish look like fish cut to ribbons but still basically intact. Not only the heads remain, but so do the teeth. It is quite a scene. Besides the fish section of the market, I passed through the vegetable sellers and also saw great stacks of betel nut leaves and piles of chopped betel nuts for sale. Further north along the waterfront rice was being bagged, and that was interesting to watch.
At noon I changed to a hotel half the price, comfortable but without hot water. I walked about town a bit, but there isn't much to see. Sittwe is a fairly new city, rising to prominence only after the British took Rakhine, which they called Arakan, in the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824 or so and made it their capital. They called it Akyab. It was extensively bombed in World War II. Still, there are a few colonial buildings, including an old clocktower, with a different time displayed on each of its four clocks, if I remember correctly. I visited a mediocre museum and a monastery. Bats by the thousands roost in big trees downtown during the day. I noticed crows began to alight in their trees shortly before sunset. The bats themselves didn't begin to stir until about 15 minutes before sunset, the first bats flying off being chased and harassed by the smaller crows, which surprised me. But soon bats were taking off and heading generally south by the hundreds. I watched until dark.
I was up at 5:30, again in the dark, the next morning and headed to the jetty about 6:30. A crowded double decker ferry awaited. My ticket upriver to Mrauk U, northeast of Sittwe, cost 6000 kyat, about $6, and I paid an extra 1000 kyat for a plastic chair positioned at the rail on the top deck. The regular deck chairs, made of wood, were all occupied, so I suspect they got a special one for me. Besides the chairs, people sat all over the floor of the top deck. There were seven of us western tourists on board. Our departure was delayed for two hours, until 9, as the engine was worked on. I didn't mind and wandered around the boat watching all the activity. Cargo was being loaded on board, food was being prepared on the lower deck, and there were other boats going up and down the narrow inlet. The passengers were all bundled up as it was cold in the early morning.
As we headed out the inlet and then north up the wide Kaladan River, a cold wind came up. I was now glad we had left at 9 rather than 7. A music video was turned on and the first song, sung by what seemed to be a Burmese woman, was "Night When Christ Was Born," followed by Burmese pop songs. Initially, a flock of beautiful white gulls, with grey wings with black tips, flew alongside the ferry. Passengers were tossing out some sort of food, which the gulls usually succeeded in catching in midair before they food fell into the river. The gulls often hovered just a few feet, maybe as little as a couple of feet, from the side of the boat, at eye level or lower. It was fascinating to watch. In fact, if you just concentrated on watching the gulls flying right next to or below you, you got the impression you were flying along with them. I was sorry when the passengers ran out of gull food and the gulls alighted on the river behind us.
About 10:30 we headed up a little inlet and docked for about 15 minutes at the town of Ponnagyun, where about 50 passengers disembarked and an equal number embarked. Women with big trays of food balanced on their heads boarded during our stop to sell what they could to customers. I bought a boiled egg. Whole fishes on sticks were also available. We continued up the wide Kaladan River, but soon diverted into smaller channels, heading east and then north. We twisted and turned up the narrower waterways, passing lots of rice fields, and making a couple of more stops at little villages. Nearing Mrauk U the channel narrowed considerably and the terrain became hillier. We docked about 2 and I was met by a hotel guy and taken to his hotel.
Mrauk U was the capital of the Rakhine kingdom from 1430 to 1784 and was one of the richest cities in Asia in its heyday. It traded not only with the rest of Asia, including the Middle East, but also with the European powers. At one point it dominated the Bay of Bengal, defeating a Portuguese fleet in about 1530. It was filled with temples, many of which remain, though everything else but walls is gone. The Burmese conquered in 1784 and the city declined once the British took over in 1824 and moved the capital to Sittwe.
The town is more like a big village among the ruins, with lots of hills and trees, a very attractive place. Not many tourists get here and the people are particularly friendly. My first afternoon I walked to the palace compound, now in the center of the town. Nothing remains but the walls of the palace precinct. I did come across a bunch of friendly uniformed school kids going home after school. Just north of the palace is a little hill with a pagoda on top, and I climbed up for the view. I was enjoying the view of the area when I spotted a long procession, with drummers in front and a vehicle blasting loud music at the rear. I decided to follow it, so came down the hill and caught up with it. Two people were on horses near the front and behind them many women were carrying flowers and what looked like gifts or offerings, so I thought it might be a wedding procession. I followed it for quite a while, through several of the little villages of Mrauk U, until it ended at some sort of temple. They all went in briefly and then came out. The person on a horse I thought might be a bride looked male, so I guess it wasn't a wedding procession, or else a very ugly bride. The procession continued, but it was getting late, so I made my way to a restaurant at nightfall, where I ate dinner with a former British army officer who had served in Helmand Province in Afghanistan, but has retired after eight years in the army and will now work in Singapore for an oil company. The town was very noisy that night, with loud music playing until late.
Early the next morning I took a walk around town before breakfast. I walked around the tank, near my hotel, where people were drawing water. School kids were heading off to school. It was chilly in the mornings and nights in Mrauk U. Breakfasts at the hotel were very good, including not only eggs and toast, but Rakhine food, such as mudi (noodle soup) and sweets.
After breakfast I walked north about 15 minutes to get to the main complex of pagodas ("pagoda" seems the English term used most often for Burmese temples), most of which date from the 16th or 17th centuries, but at least one is from the 15th. Most of the houses in town are of wood or thatch, though there are some of brick or concrete in the center. The stupa topped pagodas are on both hills and flatlands and there are canals here and there. It is a very scenic place. Red robed monks were playing soccer as I approached.. Several had their robes tucked up around their waists.
The pagodas are restored and several are clustered near the main one, Shittaung Paya, which dates from 1535. Twenty-six smaller stupas surround the main stupa at Shittaung. Shittaung means "shrine of 80,000 images" and inside are supposed to 84,000 images of Buddha. Inside the main stupa are long corridors that encircle the main Buddha image in the center chamber. The outer corridor is 310 feet long with its walls covered with over a thousand sculptures of Rakhine life, including musicians, dancers, animals, and its builder King Mindon and his wives. Many are painted. I walked through slowly and enjoyed the detail. The inner corridor coils back and forth and is filled with Buddha images. You have to double back to get out.
Two other stupa topped pagodas nearby also have corridors inside, filled with Buddha images. Dukkanthein Paya has spiraling corridors that make a U shape on the outside and then an inner U shape with a chamber at the end in the front center of the stupa, where there is a large Buddha. They are all pretty interesting.
I visited several other nearby stupa topped pagodas, some on hills and some in the small valleys in between the hills. I passed through a couple of very friendly little neighborhoods, with kids playing in the narrow dirt lanes. There were few vehicles in Mrauk U, which certainly was nice.
About 4:30 I climbed the hill I had climbed the afternoon before and this time stayed up there until sunset, which was at 5:40. Smoke from cook fires rose from the villages all around and the hill provided good views of stupas in all directions. Unfortunately, loud pop music played from at least two directions below. Worse was yet to come. That night I had an incredibly loud snorer in the room below me. I could hear him even through the floor. Finally, about 1 a.m., I couldn't take it any longer and woke up the management. They were able to put me in a different room well away from the snorer and I finally got to sleep.
Incredibly loud music started up about 4 a.m and I got up about 6:30. I had breakfast at 7 and then walked to another hotel to join a day trip up the Lemro River. Soon after 8 I left in a jeep with four others on a terribly rocky road northeast to the Lemro River. It took us about 30 minutes to reach the river and the wooden boat that would take us up the river. The river water looked very clear. Vegetable patches grew on the river banks, taking advantage of the good soil exposed by the drop in the water level after the rainy season.
Going up that pretty river, we initially passed Rakhine villages, but about 10:30 made our first stop at a Chin village. The Lemro flows from Chin state, north of Rakhine state, and we were nearing the state border. The Chins are another of Burma's many ethnic groups. The village has about 60 families, living in thatch houses with no electricity or running water. Vegetables were planted along the riverbank between the village and the river. An old woman with a tattooed face was siting and weaving in front of her house. Chin women used to tattoo their faces in a sort of spider web design. This originated, so I've been told, to prevent Burmese kings from abducting Chin women, as Burmese supposedly don't like the color black. But tattooing has stopped since the 1960's as the government has discouraged it, so the only remaining tattooed women are now grandmothers who, I've read, are very proud of their tattoos.
We continued up the scenic river another half hour or so and stopped at another Chin village with friendly children and four or five very friendly tattooed grannies weaving and offering to sell their wares. They came up to us and shook our hands and happily posed for photos, giggling when shown the results.
The Lemro is mined, if that is the right term. for river rocks sent to Sittwe for construction. We saw lots of folks doing this along the river and, leaving the Chin village with the cheerful grannies, we stopped at a big riverside rock quarry. It was interesting to see how they were operating, with pumps. Oddly, we had our lunch stop here, with a fine view of the excavation works.
We went upriver to one more Chin village, with only one tattooed granny that I remember, and then headed back. It took us almost two hours to get back to where we started. I very much enjoyed that scenic river. Back in Mrauk U, I climbed to the pagoda on the highest hill with two others for the sunset. During dinner I watched the closing ceremonies for the South East Asian Games on television and went to bed early, sleeping for eleven hours after my lack of sleep the night before. Fortunately, it was a quiet night and morning. No loud music.
Early the next morning, before breakfast, I walked up to the main group of pagodas again. A little boy was sitting on the ledge of one and reciting, perhaps doing his homework. Below him, three girls appeared to be delousing the hair of a fourth girl. I came back to the hotel for another big and delicious breakfast, with two sweets at the end.
I rented a bicycle and spent the day biking to some of the more distant pagodas. I first headed south, stopping at a hilltop monastery and later a lake, and then past several pagodas and finally headed east. On one hilltop was a ruined stupa, unrestored, with Buddha statues sticking out of it. It overlooks Kothaung Paya, Mrauk U's largest pagoda, 250 feet by 230 feet in size. Kothaung means "shrine of 90,000 images" and was built in 1553 by Mindon's son and successor, who apparently felt he had to outdo his father by 10,000 images. The corridors are lined with bas reliefs on the walls of tiny Buddhas. Kothaung looks quite nice from afar, but is not particularly lovely up close, so I returned to the nearby hill with the exposed Buddhas in the ruined stupa. The views from there were particularly interesting, with views of vegetable patches below and scenes of plowing, watering, and maybe some planting.
From there I biked back towards town, past the old city walls being cleaned of vegetation. I stopped at another big pagoda and then made my way to another hill with a pagoda and climbed it for the sunset. I was the only one up there. The sun set into the haze on the horizon.
Early the next morning I walked through the palace grounds. After breakfast I walked around the palace walls and then to the main group of pagodas. I spent the middle of the day at Shittaung Paya, resting and then walking through the corridors to see the painted sculpture again. I also went back to Dukkanthein Paya and in the later afternoon walked again up the valley to the north. As I sat at one pagoda in the valley, wood collectors, carrying bundles of firewood on their heads, walked by. Nearby, women and girls were drawing water from a well.
I walked to a little village nearby, bought some cookies at a little thatched shop, and sat on one of the little wooden benches in front to eat them and watch the activity. People seemed quite happy to have me there. Kids were playing in the little dusty, uneven lane, including two little boys quite expert at rolling hoops, one a rubber tire from a small motorbike and one a metal hoop, perhaps a bicycle rim. An old bent over woman smoking a pipe walked by. She spit as she passed by. Women came to the shop and bought handfuls of little dried fish, for supper, I suppose. Nearby, another woman used a long pole to knock off a few seed pods growing high in a tree. Girls walked by with water pots on their heads.
Eventually, I started taking photos of the little kids and that created great excitement, especially when they saw the photos. Two little girls were playing a game sort of like marbles, except using seeds that they knocked into a hole in the dirt. I took a long route back to the center of town, passing three boys running with hoops. I took their photos, much to their enjoyment. I got back just as it got dark about 6.
We continued north along the east coast of the island and then up another mangrove lined river to near the town of Ramree, where we briefly docked. We headed back the way we had come and then continued north until we reached some smaller islands between Ramree and the mainland. We passed through those islands and under a bridge connecting Ramree with the mainland. We reached more open water again and passed the huge LNG facility that the Chinese are building before docking about 11:30 at Kyaukpyu, the largest town on Ramree Island, near its northern tip. About 50 people boarded.
From Kyaukpyu the boat headed north into more open water, and then northwest with the Bay of Bengal to our left, though the waves weren't much different than in the more protected waters we had previously come through. A Burmese guy from Yangon working on the LNG plant had boarded at Kyaukpyu and sat near me. He told me the meter wide pipeline from the LNG facility runs to Kunming in China, a distance of 900 kilometers, so about 550 miles. (Burma, by the way, usually uses miles, feet and inches instead of the metric system.) He also told me he had been involved in railroad construction and that the reason that train rides are so bumpy is that the rails are short. He said replacing the rails would be too expensive, so he had been involved in a project that welded rails together, so that trains can go faster.
Nearing Sittwe, the boat passed between some long, narrow islands about 20 miles long. We arrived in Sittwe shortly after 3, docking in a muddy little inlet. I took a motorcycle taxi to the center and had some trouble finding a hotel, eventually getting a nice room but having to pay $40 for it.
Sittwe is on the east side of a peninsula, with the wide Kaladan River flowing down from the north, though at Sittwe I suspect the river water is mixed with sea water. Islands are to the southeast, including the ones my boat had passed through. Bangladesh is up the coast about 60 miles. I walked down the coast to the tip of the peninsula, about a mile and a half from the city center. The tide was out, leaving mudflats exposed and being crossed by fishermen with nets. A few boats could be seen. I got to the point about a half hour before sunset, which was about 5:40, then walked back the way I had come, getting back just after dark. It was getting chilly. Sittwe is at about 21 degrees north latitude.
The next morning I spent more than two hours walking around Sittwe's incredible morning market. I don't think I have ever seen so many varieties of fish, including several types of rays and eels. There was a lot of chopping up of fish going on and the market was messy and dirty. A lot of boats were on the river making deliveries of produce and passengers, some of the boats rowed by men in conical hats. Besides fresh fish, the market had stalls and stalls of dried fish of all types, often hanging from the rafters. Often the flesh had been dried in strips intact on the body, with the head still attached, so the dried fish look like fish cut to ribbons but still basically intact. Not only the heads remain, but so do the teeth. It is quite a scene. Besides the fish section of the market, I passed through the vegetable sellers and also saw great stacks of betel nut leaves and piles of chopped betel nuts for sale. Further north along the waterfront rice was being bagged, and that was interesting to watch.
At noon I changed to a hotel half the price, comfortable but without hot water. I walked about town a bit, but there isn't much to see. Sittwe is a fairly new city, rising to prominence only after the British took Rakhine, which they called Arakan, in the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824 or so and made it their capital. They called it Akyab. It was extensively bombed in World War II. Still, there are a few colonial buildings, including an old clocktower, with a different time displayed on each of its four clocks, if I remember correctly. I visited a mediocre museum and a monastery. Bats by the thousands roost in big trees downtown during the day. I noticed crows began to alight in their trees shortly before sunset. The bats themselves didn't begin to stir until about 15 minutes before sunset, the first bats flying off being chased and harassed by the smaller crows, which surprised me. But soon bats were taking off and heading generally south by the hundreds. I watched until dark.
I was up at 5:30, again in the dark, the next morning and headed to the jetty about 6:30. A crowded double decker ferry awaited. My ticket upriver to Mrauk U, northeast of Sittwe, cost 6000 kyat, about $6, and I paid an extra 1000 kyat for a plastic chair positioned at the rail on the top deck. The regular deck chairs, made of wood, were all occupied, so I suspect they got a special one for me. Besides the chairs, people sat all over the floor of the top deck. There were seven of us western tourists on board. Our departure was delayed for two hours, until 9, as the engine was worked on. I didn't mind and wandered around the boat watching all the activity. Cargo was being loaded on board, food was being prepared on the lower deck, and there were other boats going up and down the narrow inlet. The passengers were all bundled up as it was cold in the early morning.
As we headed out the inlet and then north up the wide Kaladan River, a cold wind came up. I was now glad we had left at 9 rather than 7. A music video was turned on and the first song, sung by what seemed to be a Burmese woman, was "Night When Christ Was Born," followed by Burmese pop songs. Initially, a flock of beautiful white gulls, with grey wings with black tips, flew alongside the ferry. Passengers were tossing out some sort of food, which the gulls usually succeeded in catching in midair before they food fell into the river. The gulls often hovered just a few feet, maybe as little as a couple of feet, from the side of the boat, at eye level or lower. It was fascinating to watch. In fact, if you just concentrated on watching the gulls flying right next to or below you, you got the impression you were flying along with them. I was sorry when the passengers ran out of gull food and the gulls alighted on the river behind us.
About 10:30 we headed up a little inlet and docked for about 15 minutes at the town of Ponnagyun, where about 50 passengers disembarked and an equal number embarked. Women with big trays of food balanced on their heads boarded during our stop to sell what they could to customers. I bought a boiled egg. Whole fishes on sticks were also available. We continued up the wide Kaladan River, but soon diverted into smaller channels, heading east and then north. We twisted and turned up the narrower waterways, passing lots of rice fields, and making a couple of more stops at little villages. Nearing Mrauk U the channel narrowed considerably and the terrain became hillier. We docked about 2 and I was met by a hotel guy and taken to his hotel.
Mrauk U was the capital of the Rakhine kingdom from 1430 to 1784 and was one of the richest cities in Asia in its heyday. It traded not only with the rest of Asia, including the Middle East, but also with the European powers. At one point it dominated the Bay of Bengal, defeating a Portuguese fleet in about 1530. It was filled with temples, many of which remain, though everything else but walls is gone. The Burmese conquered in 1784 and the city declined once the British took over in 1824 and moved the capital to Sittwe.
The town is more like a big village among the ruins, with lots of hills and trees, a very attractive place. Not many tourists get here and the people are particularly friendly. My first afternoon I walked to the palace compound, now in the center of the town. Nothing remains but the walls of the palace precinct. I did come across a bunch of friendly uniformed school kids going home after school. Just north of the palace is a little hill with a pagoda on top, and I climbed up for the view. I was enjoying the view of the area when I spotted a long procession, with drummers in front and a vehicle blasting loud music at the rear. I decided to follow it, so came down the hill and caught up with it. Two people were on horses near the front and behind them many women were carrying flowers and what looked like gifts or offerings, so I thought it might be a wedding procession. I followed it for quite a while, through several of the little villages of Mrauk U, until it ended at some sort of temple. They all went in briefly and then came out. The person on a horse I thought might be a bride looked male, so I guess it wasn't a wedding procession, or else a very ugly bride. The procession continued, but it was getting late, so I made my way to a restaurant at nightfall, where I ate dinner with a former British army officer who had served in Helmand Province in Afghanistan, but has retired after eight years in the army and will now work in Singapore for an oil company. The town was very noisy that night, with loud music playing until late.
Early the next morning I took a walk around town before breakfast. I walked around the tank, near my hotel, where people were drawing water. School kids were heading off to school. It was chilly in the mornings and nights in Mrauk U. Breakfasts at the hotel were very good, including not only eggs and toast, but Rakhine food, such as mudi (noodle soup) and sweets.
After breakfast I walked north about 15 minutes to get to the main complex of pagodas ("pagoda" seems the English term used most often for Burmese temples), most of which date from the 16th or 17th centuries, but at least one is from the 15th. Most of the houses in town are of wood or thatch, though there are some of brick or concrete in the center. The stupa topped pagodas are on both hills and flatlands and there are canals here and there. It is a very scenic place. Red robed monks were playing soccer as I approached.. Several had their robes tucked up around their waists.
The pagodas are restored and several are clustered near the main one, Shittaung Paya, which dates from 1535. Twenty-six smaller stupas surround the main stupa at Shittaung. Shittaung means "shrine of 80,000 images" and inside are supposed to 84,000 images of Buddha. Inside the main stupa are long corridors that encircle the main Buddha image in the center chamber. The outer corridor is 310 feet long with its walls covered with over a thousand sculptures of Rakhine life, including musicians, dancers, animals, and its builder King Mindon and his wives. Many are painted. I walked through slowly and enjoyed the detail. The inner corridor coils back and forth and is filled with Buddha images. You have to double back to get out.
Two other stupa topped pagodas nearby also have corridors inside, filled with Buddha images. Dukkanthein Paya has spiraling corridors that make a U shape on the outside and then an inner U shape with a chamber at the end in the front center of the stupa, where there is a large Buddha. They are all pretty interesting.
I visited several other nearby stupa topped pagodas, some on hills and some in the small valleys in between the hills. I passed through a couple of very friendly little neighborhoods, with kids playing in the narrow dirt lanes. There were few vehicles in Mrauk U, which certainly was nice.
About 4:30 I climbed the hill I had climbed the afternoon before and this time stayed up there until sunset, which was at 5:40. Smoke from cook fires rose from the villages all around and the hill provided good views of stupas in all directions. Unfortunately, loud pop music played from at least two directions below. Worse was yet to come. That night I had an incredibly loud snorer in the room below me. I could hear him even through the floor. Finally, about 1 a.m., I couldn't take it any longer and woke up the management. They were able to put me in a different room well away from the snorer and I finally got to sleep.
Incredibly loud music started up about 4 a.m and I got up about 6:30. I had breakfast at 7 and then walked to another hotel to join a day trip up the Lemro River. Soon after 8 I left in a jeep with four others on a terribly rocky road northeast to the Lemro River. It took us about 30 minutes to reach the river and the wooden boat that would take us up the river. The river water looked very clear. Vegetable patches grew on the river banks, taking advantage of the good soil exposed by the drop in the water level after the rainy season.
Going up that pretty river, we initially passed Rakhine villages, but about 10:30 made our first stop at a Chin village. The Lemro flows from Chin state, north of Rakhine state, and we were nearing the state border. The Chins are another of Burma's many ethnic groups. The village has about 60 families, living in thatch houses with no electricity or running water. Vegetables were planted along the riverbank between the village and the river. An old woman with a tattooed face was siting and weaving in front of her house. Chin women used to tattoo their faces in a sort of spider web design. This originated, so I've been told, to prevent Burmese kings from abducting Chin women, as Burmese supposedly don't like the color black. But tattooing has stopped since the 1960's as the government has discouraged it, so the only remaining tattooed women are now grandmothers who, I've read, are very proud of their tattoos.
We continued up the scenic river another half hour or so and stopped at another Chin village with friendly children and four or five very friendly tattooed grannies weaving and offering to sell their wares. They came up to us and shook our hands and happily posed for photos, giggling when shown the results.
The Lemro is mined, if that is the right term. for river rocks sent to Sittwe for construction. We saw lots of folks doing this along the river and, leaving the Chin village with the cheerful grannies, we stopped at a big riverside rock quarry. It was interesting to see how they were operating, with pumps. Oddly, we had our lunch stop here, with a fine view of the excavation works.
We went upriver to one more Chin village, with only one tattooed granny that I remember, and then headed back. It took us almost two hours to get back to where we started. I very much enjoyed that scenic river. Back in Mrauk U, I climbed to the pagoda on the highest hill with two others for the sunset. During dinner I watched the closing ceremonies for the South East Asian Games on television and went to bed early, sleeping for eleven hours after my lack of sleep the night before. Fortunately, it was a quiet night and morning. No loud music.
Early the next morning, before breakfast, I walked up to the main group of pagodas again. A little boy was sitting on the ledge of one and reciting, perhaps doing his homework. Below him, three girls appeared to be delousing the hair of a fourth girl. I came back to the hotel for another big and delicious breakfast, with two sweets at the end.
I rented a bicycle and spent the day biking to some of the more distant pagodas. I first headed south, stopping at a hilltop monastery and later a lake, and then past several pagodas and finally headed east. On one hilltop was a ruined stupa, unrestored, with Buddha statues sticking out of it. It overlooks Kothaung Paya, Mrauk U's largest pagoda, 250 feet by 230 feet in size. Kothaung means "shrine of 90,000 images" and was built in 1553 by Mindon's son and successor, who apparently felt he had to outdo his father by 10,000 images. The corridors are lined with bas reliefs on the walls of tiny Buddhas. Kothaung looks quite nice from afar, but is not particularly lovely up close, so I returned to the nearby hill with the exposed Buddhas in the ruined stupa. The views from there were particularly interesting, with views of vegetable patches below and scenes of plowing, watering, and maybe some planting.
From there I biked back towards town, past the old city walls being cleaned of vegetation. I stopped at another big pagoda and then made my way to another hill with a pagoda and climbed it for the sunset. I was the only one up there. The sun set into the haze on the horizon.
Early the next morning I walked through the palace grounds. After breakfast I walked around the palace walls and then to the main group of pagodas. I spent the middle of the day at Shittaung Paya, resting and then walking through the corridors to see the painted sculpture again. I also went back to Dukkanthein Paya and in the later afternoon walked again up the valley to the north. As I sat at one pagoda in the valley, wood collectors, carrying bundles of firewood on their heads, walked by. Nearby, women and girls were drawing water from a well.
I walked to a little village nearby, bought some cookies at a little thatched shop, and sat on one of the little wooden benches in front to eat them and watch the activity. People seemed quite happy to have me there. Kids were playing in the little dusty, uneven lane, including two little boys quite expert at rolling hoops, one a rubber tire from a small motorbike and one a metal hoop, perhaps a bicycle rim. An old bent over woman smoking a pipe walked by. She spit as she passed by. Women came to the shop and bought handfuls of little dried fish, for supper, I suppose. Nearby, another woman used a long pole to knock off a few seed pods growing high in a tree. Girls walked by with water pots on their heads.
Eventually, I started taking photos of the little kids and that created great excitement, especially when they saw the photos. Two little girls were playing a game sort of like marbles, except using seeds that they knocked into a hole in the dirt. I took a long route back to the center of town, passing three boys running with hoops. I took their photos, much to their enjoyment. I got back just as it got dark about 6.
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