In Kalewa on the 10th, I didn't get up until about 7:30. The morning air felt warm compared to the previous mornings in the mountains of Chin State. I had hoped to take a morning express boat downriver to Mingin, but the previous evening had been told there were boats only at 1 and 5 in the afternoon, the latter going all the way to Monywa.
As it turned out, I enjoyed my morning in Kalewa. At about 8 I watched the express boat heading upriver to Mawleik arrive, and then depart about a half hour later. There was quite a bit of river traffic to watch. I walked a bit through town, stopping at a tea shop for a breakfast of tea and not too greasy sweet rolls. After breakfast I walked back to the riverfront and watched another boat being loaded and unload, with men and women carrying big bundles on their heads up and down the river bank, perhaps a 40 foot drop.
From the town center near the boat landing I then walked north on dirt paths above the river through clusters of wood houses on stilts clinging precariously to the eroded steep riverbank. I passed friendly people living in very simple homes, with pigs rooting around. Some of the paths were of wooden planks. Eventually, I passed a few small stupas on little hills above the river. After about 45 minutes, when I had reached what seemed the northern reaches of the town, with good views upriver to a bend of the Chindwin, I turned around and came back more or less the same way, arriving at the town center about 11:30. I ate a good lunch in a simple restaurant overlooking the river and boarded the express boat for Mingin about 12:30.
The boat left soon after 1 with only about 30 passengers, though we made many stops on the way, at least 20, picking up and dropping off passengers on wide sand banks and steep dirt banks below villages or maybe just a house or two. A couple of times passengers boarded the boat after arriving in a smaller boat that pulled alongside. The riverside terrain was hilly and scenic, with cliffs in at least one spot. Generally, we were headed southeast, but with many twists and turns. At times we were going north. The sky was a little cloudy.
We reached Mingin, on a high riverbank, at 5:30, just before dark. Making my way with my backpack off the boat on the narrow plank leading to the shore was a little daunting, but I managed not to fall off into the muddy water. The climb from the boat on the river up to the town was more than 40 feet.
Mingin seemed like a pretty town. Several trees were filled with chirping black birds settling down for the night. I was directed one way to a guest house, and then back the way I had come to what turned out to be the government guest house. A well dressed young man came out and said I would have to stay in the guest house just across down the street, above the river, and pointed it out to me. He said it wasn't a very good one, and that certainly proved right. He told me he was the District Commissioner and that if I had any problems in Mingin to come and see him. He told me the boat downriver to Monywa was scheduled to leave at 4 every morning, but sometimes left at 4:30 or 4:45.
I walked over to the guest house, a large wooden building of two stories and inquired in the restaurant on the first floor. A man told me a room was 5000 kyat, about five dollars, gave me a key, and pointed upstairs. I found the rickety stairs leading up to a dark corridor and my room. There were no lights and I examined my bare room with my flashlight. It contained only a wood platform for a bed, with a "mattress" no thicker than a very thin bath mat, and not much larger, plus two thin blankets and a pillow. I suppose I have had worse rooms in my travels, but not many. I had been thinking of spending a day and two nights in Mingin, but began to reconsider. The toilets were downstairs and there was no bath room. Maybe just as well, as the water in the toilets was very muddy.
I left my backpack in the room and took a walk about town. It was now dark, with few lights on, so there wasn't much to see. But there was even less to see in my dark room at the guest house. I ate dinner at the guest house and then took another walk around town. The lights had come on, so there was a bit more to see. One man brought out his maybe ten year old daughter from their house to speak a few English phrases to me.
Back at the guest house the lights were on upstairs and some rooms had lights, but not mine. I had a fluorescent light fixture, but no bulb. I walked around a bit more outside and then read in the restaurant below my room until about 9, when I went to bed. After a few minutes on that hard bed, I had pretty much decided I was leaving the next morning.
I awoke the next morning at 3:30, and not for the first time since I had gone to bed. I went outside to check the express boat, and people were arriving with flashlights to board it. The moon was up, brightening the river. I got down to the boat just before 4 and saw that it was not the boat I had taken the afternoon before, but a bigger one with about 130 seats, all of them more comfortable bus type seats. I suppose that this was the boat to Monywa that had left Kalewa at 5 p.m., spending the night in Mingin.
Quite a few passengers boarded, though there were still many empty seats. I think it was more than half full, though. We left at 4:40. A cold wind blew into the boat and soon the plastic sheeting was lowered on both sides of the boat to keep out the wind. It wasn't raised until about two hours later. I may have dozed some, but did see a rosy dawn through an open door near the bow. The boat made many stops taking on additional passengers.
Once the plastic sheeting was up, I could enjoy the early morning river views. For the man in front of me it afforded the opportunity to chew betel nut and almost continuously spit copious amount of red saliva out the side of the boat, usually hitting the narrow walkway just outside the open windows.
From Mingin we had traveled northeast, following a big bend of the river before the river turned south. Now heading south, the boat made a stop on a riverbank about 7 and the boat was swarmed by women with platters of food. I bought a greasy piece of chicken, consisting of two wings and two thighs, for 2000 kyat, about two dollars.
From then on there were few stops as we sped downriver. The sky was speckled with clouds early in the morning, but soon cleared up. The riverside scenery was less interesting than the day before, with few hills. About 8:30 three packed express boats headed upriver passed us. I knew the three express boats that travel from Monywa to Kalewa every day are scheduled to leave Monywa at 4:30, and was surprised to see them so soon in our trip downriver.
By 9:30, under sunny skies, it was warm enough for me to take off my fleece and windbreaker. The boat made good time and just before 11:30 I spotted the long bridge over the Chindwin just north of Monywa. We slowed down as we passed below it, the river shallow there, with a sandbank taking up more than half the distance under the bridge. We continued slowly from the bridge to Monywa, zigzagging across the river to avoid sandbanks. I noticed lots of dredges at work on the river.
The boat docked just after 12, much earlier than I expected. Back in Monywa after leaving it eight days earlier, I had completed a loop that took me south to Pakokku, west to Chin State, north through Chin State, east to the Chindwin, and then down the Chindwin back to Monywa. I wasn't sure that I would be able to make that loop when I started off.
A horde of taxi guys aggressively soliciting business swarmed onto the boat as soon as it docked. I made my way up the steep bank and walked the 15 minutes or so it took to get to the hotel where I had stayed before. Getting to my room, I appreciated the relatively thick mattress on the bed. I ate a big Burmese lunch, with about ten plates, including very good fish, and two soups, in a restaurant I had liked during my previous visit, and then spent the rest of the afternoon in an internet cafe. Still full from my big lunch, I ate some street side snack foods for dinner. The vendors may not have remembered me, but were very friendly. Back in the hotel I washed my dirty, dusty clothes and day pack and went to bed about 9.
I spent the next day in Monywa, a very nice town. I spent the late morning and early afternoon in an internet cafe and then had another big Burmese lunch about 2. The serving girls brought me an extra plate of a vegetable dish I particularly liked, a sort of stringy green vegetable with what looked and tasted like pine nuts. For dessert they brought me a container full of hard sugar chunks, another container with some sort of crunchy corn nuts, and bananas. In the late afternoon I walked down to the riverfront to watch all the activity and the sunset, walking back just before dark.
As it turned out, I enjoyed my morning in Kalewa. At about 8 I watched the express boat heading upriver to Mawleik arrive, and then depart about a half hour later. There was quite a bit of river traffic to watch. I walked a bit through town, stopping at a tea shop for a breakfast of tea and not too greasy sweet rolls. After breakfast I walked back to the riverfront and watched another boat being loaded and unload, with men and women carrying big bundles on their heads up and down the river bank, perhaps a 40 foot drop.
From the town center near the boat landing I then walked north on dirt paths above the river through clusters of wood houses on stilts clinging precariously to the eroded steep riverbank. I passed friendly people living in very simple homes, with pigs rooting around. Some of the paths were of wooden planks. Eventually, I passed a few small stupas on little hills above the river. After about 45 minutes, when I had reached what seemed the northern reaches of the town, with good views upriver to a bend of the Chindwin, I turned around and came back more or less the same way, arriving at the town center about 11:30. I ate a good lunch in a simple restaurant overlooking the river and boarded the express boat for Mingin about 12:30.
The boat left soon after 1 with only about 30 passengers, though we made many stops on the way, at least 20, picking up and dropping off passengers on wide sand banks and steep dirt banks below villages or maybe just a house or two. A couple of times passengers boarded the boat after arriving in a smaller boat that pulled alongside. The riverside terrain was hilly and scenic, with cliffs in at least one spot. Generally, we were headed southeast, but with many twists and turns. At times we were going north. The sky was a little cloudy.
We reached Mingin, on a high riverbank, at 5:30, just before dark. Making my way with my backpack off the boat on the narrow plank leading to the shore was a little daunting, but I managed not to fall off into the muddy water. The climb from the boat on the river up to the town was more than 40 feet.
Mingin seemed like a pretty town. Several trees were filled with chirping black birds settling down for the night. I was directed one way to a guest house, and then back the way I had come to what turned out to be the government guest house. A well dressed young man came out and said I would have to stay in the guest house just across down the street, above the river, and pointed it out to me. He said it wasn't a very good one, and that certainly proved right. He told me he was the District Commissioner and that if I had any problems in Mingin to come and see him. He told me the boat downriver to Monywa was scheduled to leave at 4 every morning, but sometimes left at 4:30 or 4:45.
I walked over to the guest house, a large wooden building of two stories and inquired in the restaurant on the first floor. A man told me a room was 5000 kyat, about five dollars, gave me a key, and pointed upstairs. I found the rickety stairs leading up to a dark corridor and my room. There were no lights and I examined my bare room with my flashlight. It contained only a wood platform for a bed, with a "mattress" no thicker than a very thin bath mat, and not much larger, plus two thin blankets and a pillow. I suppose I have had worse rooms in my travels, but not many. I had been thinking of spending a day and two nights in Mingin, but began to reconsider. The toilets were downstairs and there was no bath room. Maybe just as well, as the water in the toilets was very muddy.
I left my backpack in the room and took a walk about town. It was now dark, with few lights on, so there wasn't much to see. But there was even less to see in my dark room at the guest house. I ate dinner at the guest house and then took another walk around town. The lights had come on, so there was a bit more to see. One man brought out his maybe ten year old daughter from their house to speak a few English phrases to me.
Back at the guest house the lights were on upstairs and some rooms had lights, but not mine. I had a fluorescent light fixture, but no bulb. I walked around a bit more outside and then read in the restaurant below my room until about 9, when I went to bed. After a few minutes on that hard bed, I had pretty much decided I was leaving the next morning.
I awoke the next morning at 3:30, and not for the first time since I had gone to bed. I went outside to check the express boat, and people were arriving with flashlights to board it. The moon was up, brightening the river. I got down to the boat just before 4 and saw that it was not the boat I had taken the afternoon before, but a bigger one with about 130 seats, all of them more comfortable bus type seats. I suppose that this was the boat to Monywa that had left Kalewa at 5 p.m., spending the night in Mingin.
Quite a few passengers boarded, though there were still many empty seats. I think it was more than half full, though. We left at 4:40. A cold wind blew into the boat and soon the plastic sheeting was lowered on both sides of the boat to keep out the wind. It wasn't raised until about two hours later. I may have dozed some, but did see a rosy dawn through an open door near the bow. The boat made many stops taking on additional passengers.
Once the plastic sheeting was up, I could enjoy the early morning river views. For the man in front of me it afforded the opportunity to chew betel nut and almost continuously spit copious amount of red saliva out the side of the boat, usually hitting the narrow walkway just outside the open windows.
From Mingin we had traveled northeast, following a big bend of the river before the river turned south. Now heading south, the boat made a stop on a riverbank about 7 and the boat was swarmed by women with platters of food. I bought a greasy piece of chicken, consisting of two wings and two thighs, for 2000 kyat, about two dollars.
From then on there were few stops as we sped downriver. The sky was speckled with clouds early in the morning, but soon cleared up. The riverside scenery was less interesting than the day before, with few hills. About 8:30 three packed express boats headed upriver passed us. I knew the three express boats that travel from Monywa to Kalewa every day are scheduled to leave Monywa at 4:30, and was surprised to see them so soon in our trip downriver.
By 9:30, under sunny skies, it was warm enough for me to take off my fleece and windbreaker. The boat made good time and just before 11:30 I spotted the long bridge over the Chindwin just north of Monywa. We slowed down as we passed below it, the river shallow there, with a sandbank taking up more than half the distance under the bridge. We continued slowly from the bridge to Monywa, zigzagging across the river to avoid sandbanks. I noticed lots of dredges at work on the river.
The boat docked just after 12, much earlier than I expected. Back in Monywa after leaving it eight days earlier, I had completed a loop that took me south to Pakokku, west to Chin State, north through Chin State, east to the Chindwin, and then down the Chindwin back to Monywa. I wasn't sure that I would be able to make that loop when I started off.
A horde of taxi guys aggressively soliciting business swarmed onto the boat as soon as it docked. I made my way up the steep bank and walked the 15 minutes or so it took to get to the hotel where I had stayed before. Getting to my room, I appreciated the relatively thick mattress on the bed. I ate a big Burmese lunch, with about ten plates, including very good fish, and two soups, in a restaurant I had liked during my previous visit, and then spent the rest of the afternoon in an internet cafe. Still full from my big lunch, I ate some street side snack foods for dinner. The vendors may not have remembered me, but were very friendly. Back in the hotel I washed my dirty, dusty clothes and day pack and went to bed about 9.
I spent the next day in Monywa, a very nice town. I spent the late morning and early afternoon in an internet cafe and then had another big Burmese lunch about 2. The serving girls brought me an extra plate of a vegetable dish I particularly liked, a sort of stringy green vegetable with what looked and tasted like pine nuts. For dessert they brought me a container full of hard sugar chunks, another container with some sort of crunchy corn nuts, and bananas. In the late afternoon I walked down to the riverfront to watch all the activity and the sunset, walking back just before dark.
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