The Burmese Experience in Thailand!

And so here I am 2 weeks in Thailand already and I have learnt so much...about Burma, and ate so much...Burmese food! An explanation? You know me, I will get there in about ten paragraphs. And so to the beginning of my experience, I flew from Kathmandu to Bankok and got to Bankok about 6.30pm, I asked about a local hotel for an overnight and was told it would cost me 900 Baht! Well that was just too much - about ten quid...so I decided to sleep in the airport...that was my first mistake. The plastic chairs in Bankok airport are really not comfortable at all and will leave you very very irritable in the morning! I met a nice girl from Germany and we got chatting so it was nice to have company but now I have been a traveller, I should have known better...and so 5.30am I start to ask questions - why can't I see any information re my flight to Mae sot in the North of Thailand. Answer - the 'domestic' depart is about a 20 minute walk through the terminal. Ok, so I get there and my back is killing me and I ask again - someone points to the info desk for Phuket airlines but no one is there, so I go upstairs and they tell me the info for Phuket airlines is downstairs so I go down again and still no one is there and I should be leaving in about 2 hours. So I ask the airline provider beside the Phuket booth and they tell me...'oh it doesn't fly there anymore..you will have to get a bus!'. Repeat over and over, I am a traveller, it is just part of the experience...ok I have an infected mosquito bite on my ankle and on my butt that are both in agony and bleeding and I am very tired and sore and dirty but I will be fine. Its all part of the experience! So I get myself travelling to the bus station and the taxi driver is very nice and trys to speak english and the taxi is nice and cool but when I got out of that taxi, oh I was in a sauna...sweating away dirty tired sore minging Sylvia with the infected mosquito bites. And I tell you no bus station is great when you need a bit of 'relief' as the toilets are holes in the floor and there is usually water everywhere as that is how a person cleans themselves here - no toilet roll (gotta have some loo roll on you at all times) and trying to negotiate that with a large and small rucksack is no easy task.

And so about 8 hours by bus to Mae Sot, it wasn't so bad for 280 baht (about 4 quid) and I have done a 14 hour bus journey from Mysore to Goa and so in this I am experienced! And so I get here, get a rickshaw to a guesthouse (with a hot shower ofcourse - Bai Fern) and spend some money on some good food as I do deserve it and then I phone the school and let them know I am here. And so the next day the school's founder 'Myo Wyn' and 2 of the children appear at the guesthouse with a couple of bikes and rusty big bike with a trailer to pick me up! The school was only 5 minutes on the bikes and it was lovely to see the children all learning and one of the teachers who was there also happened to be a volunteer 'Miss Australian Mary' who became a good friend. I was shown in to our 'room' come cupboard for books and I just sat there for a while (on the left cheek as the right cheek was still pretty sore) and wondered what to do! It has all been pretty confusing but I think we have got there in the end, I am most especially grateful for 'Miss Mary' who made the whole transition so much easier. Anyway the school is like a big wooden (pretty solid) shack on stilts it has a bit of an infestation of mice, cockroaches, mosquitoes and other insects I am sure that I try not to even think about. Mary and I slept on mats in our room with a big mosquito net to cover us thank goodness. Our window is a hole with wooden shutters. some of the children also sleep at the school as their families cannot afford to look after them and they sleep in the main room of the school - ie the only other room apart from the toilet! The toilet again has the hole in the floor and its concrete in there but the rest of the building is pretty much wood. There is a big vat like wooden bath thing of water where you scoop the water out to wash yourself with. It is an experience standing there in the scud and throwing a bowl of freezing cold water over yourself, it is also a joy in that the water has little micro organisms swimming around - and some of them you can see! The water for the toilet is in a smaller vat beside that and the water is brought up in big buckets from the water well outside and the children all work together to bring the buckets up. The kitchen has a white board separating it from the main school class and it is wooden floor with big spaces, and you will find the children there squatting on the floor and cleaning dishes with the refuse going through the spaces between the slats of wood.

The school is not the most attractive of schools, it is very very basic, well way below basic and they don't have so many books for learning. But what they do have is a 'happiness' that I think sometimes you lose in a world with too many 'things'. They play together a lot and talk a lot and enjoy to do the silly children things even at 14 and 15 years old. The older ones from 11 - 15 will help with the chopping of the veg (boys and girls I must add) and the cooking and also the serving of the little ones. They move the benches they work at when it is lunch time and they sweep up the floor before lunch and after. They all help to wash the dishes including the pots. And they all help each other especially in the 'english' class as some understand more than others. They don't have the best homes, they don't have many clothes. The children are from Burma (only 3 large paragraphs to that point!) and in their country there is a lot of fighting and political unrest so they have had to seek refuge in Thailand who don't particularly want them. Myo Win set up the school for them and also feeds them as a lot of them don't have much food at home and he is very dedicated. Some of the children wash around 5pm at the well and also wash their clothes, some of the children will be home at that time but many of them will stay. They usually get to school around 8am and will be there until around 4pm unless they want to stay for food or to get washed or something. They also enjoy when I get some music on and start dancing with them!

I think 2 of my biggest experiences with the school has been the night we got flooded - a nearby burst pipe left a river under the school and we had to grab things and take them upstairs. I felt bad as I had just been to the doc about my foot which was now swollen twice the size of my other foot and as well as the infected mosquito bites I also had infected blisters. So 2 sets of pills and 2 tubes of cream, I get myself sorted with my meds go to bed and wake up at 4am hearing 'Miss Mary' 'Miss Sylvia' 'hurry' 'hurry'. I thought it was a joke, then I thought it was raining, but it looked like the only water was with us as outside was bone dry. And so when the kids were gathering stuff I was thinking - I can't go in to that filthy contaminated water my sores are open and I have been told only to let boiled water near it nothing else or it will get worse. So I wade through it anyway, up to my thighs and we get all the shoes and stuff up to a drier place and we just stand there staring. The place is a mess. Because it is like a big ditch it just filled like a swimming pool. The water did begin to receed naturally and the children went in and helped clear more stuff and get the mud and rubbish out. The youngest was 9years old squatting by a bucket and scooping big handfulls of mud and rubbish in to it. I didn't realise I could love or respect these kids anymore. They are the most sincere, smiley, happy, caring, loving, grateful children I have ever met. It is such a pleasure to be around them and play silly games with them and teach them some english. They are a pleasure.

My other experience was probably the other day on the 22nd Nov I think when Myo Win got us up at 5am to go cycling for 4 and half hours! Miss Mary had now left and had bought a gift for the school - a bike as they only have so many. And so they keep giving me that one when I am cycling with them. Anyway mid way through the 'run' my handle bars were coming off and my saddle was twirling around and my back brake wasn't working! Ok so it only cost the equivalent of about 15 quid but hey it is brand new! But I did enjoy being with the children and Myo Win takes every opportunity to teach the children, he always has them gathered round to learn something about nature or wherever we are.

And so what I am enjoying about being here - it is a joy to teach the children. One of the older children Lyn Lyn is only about 15 or 16 years old and she teaches the little ones. She is one of the most beautiful people and she is always working, if not teaching, cooking, ironing, scrubbing clothes by the well, organising, always doing something. The children are funny and sweet and it is hard to learn some of there names like Aye Aye Swy which is A A Swey, and Tun Tun OOh and Maw Maw and Whey Te San, and there is so many of them, about 25 in my class, I feel like I am learning more than they are! They always make things for you and draw for you and give your their sweets and the little ones give you their toys to play with and they have their own personalities and they just make me laugh, love them to bits.

What I don't like so much is the constant sore back I have from sleeping on the floor, the mosquito bites that cover me like chicken pox, getting up at 6.30am to go to breakfast (ten minute cycle in the morn), then back and the children are shouting something they are learning until 9am when they are taught by Myo Win and then I take them at 10.30am to 12.30 (and also 2.30 - 3.30pm). I don't like that I am expected to be in on time for lunch and dinner. That I need to be back for around 9pm as lights out are at 9.30pm! There is the cock that crows at 4am and from then every ten minutes. There is the cockroaches going in to your bags and you hear rustling noises that are very unnerving. There is the main road right beside us and you can hear the traffic go by and there is a child who lives nearby and only cries when it is time to go to bed. And there are other things I don't really enjoy too much but again it is all an experience and i am sure I will forget them as time goes on and just remember the beautiful smiles of the children. Plus the fact I have booked a guesthouse for tomorrow night (for 2 weeks) and it has a hot shower and a bed!!!! for about 2 quid a night, I am going to go for it but I am sure I could have got it for 1.50!

And so not much travelling in Thailand and not really seen much of the country as I am working all the time or sleeping, I am so tired! But it is a joy to be a volunteer and have this experience. I have given the school about 200 quid donation and I also sent them some books when I was home and so that feels good but I will continue to send them stuff when I get home as they so badly need it and their funding is being cut from December. Again I will post the address if you want to send them anything. And next time I am on I will be posting some pics - you will fall in love with them as I have! Oh yes, another thing I think is really sweet they put this white cream on their faces and have all types of shapes left on their face from the cream, mainly they paint on white circles on their cheeks and sometimes a white spot on their forehead and a line on their nose or something. It really is incredible. I just stand and stare sometimes, I find it really amazing! I will post the pics!

Oh well, Hope all is well with you and yours! Thanks for tuning in!

Aw ra best.
Sylv x

ps Since putting up this post I have gone to visit the 'homes' of some of the children and you know what, it has given me the biggest slap to reality ever. You see the children every day and they look so clean and well presented, you just can't believe that they live in little more than a 'lean-to'. There homes are self-made wooden shacks with dry leaves for a roof, no walls, no doors and not much else. If you had to go camping there and you were presented with this kind of place to sleep in overnight you would refuse. The children are so happy and fun-loving and bright and beautiful, I can't believe where they have to live. They just have so little, so little, it broke my heart and I nearly cried right there. You see how some people live on tv, but not until you are actually sitting in there home do you realise what 'life' is for them, and even then you just can't comprehend. As most of these people are here as illegal refugees because of the problems in Burma they come to Thailand to work and to try to get a bit of money, but they are exploited by land-owners and they are exploited in factories where they are paid well below the Thais. And the police regularly search for them and arrest them and send them back to Burma. And so today I have even more respect for these children, and they just welcome me in to their homes, introduce me to their families and they smile and play while my heart breaks for them.

Trekking and festival partying pics in Nepal!

My 'better late than never' pics of Goa!

Brigitte Jones - Amateur Pants...Sylvia in Nepal!

I am alive for those of you enduring my frequent diary entries! Just to let you know, in case you were worried! I was a few times, worried I had been very silly to 'challenge' myself in coming to 'Nepal' and doing a bit of a 'trek'. Tell me, what was I thinking???? And so here I am the 2nd last day of my time in Nepal and I am actually feeling very sad as I have made some very special friends here who have looked after me and helped me to understand and participate in the culture here.

I had met a lovely couple in Hampi - Mary and Andy, they are a couple of really funny people and I enjoyed chatting with them loads. Mary gave me some advice on good books to read and also a contact for coming to Nepal. She introduced me to a guy called 'Bishnu' a guide, a 'trekker' and a climber whom she said was a great person and would give me a good deal and take some of the hassle out of preparing for a trekking trip. But first things first, on flying in to Nepal I met this Japanese guy at the 'exchange counter' he said his name was 'something Hero' so I just called him 'Hero' and he said we could get a taxi together into Thamel in Kathmandu. I told him I would wait downstairs and after waiting 20 minutes I was about to leave but down he came with no explanation as his english is pretty poor so we just look at each other and nod 'taxi'! Outside one guy is trying to get us to go to his hotel but I have already booked with 'via via cafe' and another is trying to barter a deal for his taxi, and I kid you not they were almost physically fighting with each other for our business and Hero is like 'lets walk' and I am like 'lets not my bag is too bloody heavy'. And so we wander around arguing with groups of taxi drivers and then just run after this one we see a little bit away and agree a deal with him. We get to via via cafe and it is a pretty cool place, its like, hmmm I would say it looks like a 'hash pit', not that I would know what one looked like! Its just very dark and moody with lots of tibetan and Nepali natural art work and budhas and stuff. I liked it. So me and Hero stay there, I get my own cool room and he gets landed in the dorm. So I talk to him and he says something about a walk and so I go get my mosquito repellent and come back...I look outside 'hero', no, I look upstairs 'hero' no and so he has disappeared. I get used to our lack of communication and go a wander myself. Kathmandu is very crowded with people, it has far too much traffic in little streets of similar shops at each turn, the street is the road it provides access to bicycles, bicycle rickshaws, motorbikes, mopeds, taxis, fruit hand carts, people and yet more people and tourists galore! In Thammel it is very much catered to the tourist, every shop is for the tourist, there are shops selling jewellery, woolen hats and cardis and jumpers, pashmere and silk scarves, tibetan art and crafts, Nepali art and crafts, outdoor equipment and clothes for those going on the 'treks' or more adventurous trips, book shops, clothes shops, etc, etc and you turn the corner...its the same again - I just keep going right that way I should be able to find my way back - it all looks the same to me...at first!

On my 2nd day I take a cycle rickshaw to the 'Monkey temple' - I know I didn't learn my lesson from the first one and then I went to Durba Square. The Monkey Temple is at the top of a load of steps but not as much as in Hampi...still its enough of a trek for me. At the top there is a temple and also some grave stones and in one part of the temple some buddhist monks are chanting and lighting candles. Also you can see Kathmandu and the smog that hangs just over it from far too much traffic. Durba Square was nice with some beautiful old Temples but I didn't have much time there as I had to meet Bishnu and my cycle rickshaw guy had worked hard for me - well he had to take me around the place the guy deserved a medal (when we were going uphill I was even going to ask him if he wanted me to take over! Well the poor souls don't have '
gears' what is that all about???) At Durba square a tall muscular Nepali guy asked me if I wanted a guide, I had to decline, he asked if I was looking for love, I also declined! Then I went up some steps on one of the buildings and 2 young guys were chatting to me, one of them told me to be careful being a lone woman traveller, I thought that was very sweet, the other offered me ten thousand quid to marry him and bring him in to my country. I said..how much was it you wanted? Kidding, Aye right don't think so pal.

And so back to Via Via cafe and to meet Bishnu, a really nice Nepali guy who invited me to join with him and his friends for Dipawali, a big festival in Nepal. Little did I know what this would consist of! For 3 nights I then sat on Bishnu's motorbike with several of his friends on their bikes driving around Kathmandu to the houses of friends and relatives to sing from about 8pm at night until around midnightish. And Nepal is pretty warm during the day in Kathmandu but at night it can be very very very cold, especially when you are on a motorbike! I must admit I did enjoy watching Bishnu and his friends singing together outside various homes, everyone clapping and some of them dancing (especially the drunk ones), Bishnu on guitar and Vishnu his friend getting jiggy with it on the drum. 2 girs from Denmark joined us as well Aia and Elizabeth who are currently volunteering with an orphanage that Bishnu works with. Those 3 nights were really good fun, and I grew to really love some of the Nepali songs they were singing and joined in a few times myself, well a word of two! Bishnu's friend has made me up a bit of a cd with some of the songs on it - thanks Ogen!!! Oh and I can't forget to mention that Bishnu took me to his aunt and uncles home in Kathmandu for Dipawali Tika. A brother will paint some tika on the middle of the forehead of his sister and a sister for her brother, it really is quite sweet and cousins for each other. And there is LOADS of food, and I mean LOADS! It reminds me of Christmas at home. I felt very privileged to be participating in this experience. Will post the photos when I can.

And so the trek! I don't have much time just now and so may have to continue this blog entry another time! From Kathmandu Bishnu and I travelled to Pokhara for the Ghorepani trek. Pokhara is also very touristy but a little quieter than Thamel and it has a beautiful lake with a gorgeous view of the mountains. The bus took about 7 hours I think. And then we travelled from there to Naya pull to start our Trek. And so there I was with my ill fitting shoes, infected mosquito bite on my ankle, trekking stick, far too much in my jansport bag with no waist support and most importantly a cold from being out for the festival those last 3 nights with a complimentary sore throat thrown in for good measure. I was ready. All I can remember about this trekking experience is - my throat was killing me and I found it sore to swallow water at times, I hated, I mean hated going up the stone steps mile after mile upward, on the 2nd day I went through about 4 tshirts and I could have filled 4 bottles with the sweat I had pouring from my back. I constantly felt dirty, cold, sore and irritable. And when we finally got to the near final destination of Ghorepani I was so relieved and loved the view of the mountains and couldn't wait to have a hot shower put on my dirty clothes and have something to eat. But as I was showering Bishnu said the 'Maoists' were downstairs demanding money from the tourists. It was pretty much the equivalent of 12 quid, but its the principle! And so I was last and try to barter them down as I was in a bit of a fowl mood and I was really really tired and still sick and most people were trekking for ages I was only out for a few days. But no. I also pointed out that where he asked me to sign it said 'voluntary donation' and I didn't particularly feel that way. Again he just smiled and I asked Bishnu for his pen knife and said I would take them on, he said ' they have guns', I said 'I wish I had pms then they would know all about it' and so I dutifully handed over my cash and got a receipt. They are so organised.

'unite all the oppressed classes and people of the world! Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Parchandapath!!

'For the protection of language, culture and art of Magarat Autonomous Region, for the development of tourist areas and to keep them clean and beautiful and finally to bring about the complete change by completing the Nepalese Revoluntion, your help will be important. We welcome you and our heartfelt thanks for your help.

Voluntary donation (aye right)

biplab Special Regional Bureau, NCP (Maoist) Magarat Autonomous Region.

So there you are.

The little @#$%s!

Anyways, even though I am such a moaner I have lost about half a stone and so that can't be bad. The views on the way of waterfalls and mountains and hills and greenery were beautiful and now that I look back it really was a great opportunity and I would do it again. I don't think Bishnu would put up with me again though!

Tomorrow I go to Thailand, today I am going to visit the orphanage Bishnu supports and take some gifts for the kids and leave a donation with the orphanage. I will post the details of where to send stuff if you are interested and I will get pics of the kids as well.

Thats me for now. Look out for the movie, coming your way soon!

Later
Sylv x