Myanmar – Bagan

by liyangsthoughts, posted in Travel

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Landed in Yangong. But after spending four hours waiting for the next connection flight we realised it will take another 2 hrs to get to Bagan . All because the travel consultant decided to change our airline from KBG to Air Bagan . Only half way in the air we learnt that it takes two stops on the way to reach Bagan . So a one hour trip extended to two hours . At the second stop the plane had to fill some petrol. We didn’t get off the aircraft instead sitting in the dark and asked to unfasten our seat belt . The underlying meaning is that if there is an explosion you have a chance to run off the plane . Since it’s already dark outside the technician had some torches to help them with lighting while filling the tank . I felt anxious about flying after a very bumpy flight from Akl to Wellington in the ghastly wind a while ago. Have to say I didn’t enjoy the airbus service with the quick landing and take-off , getting people on and off the flight . They did a good job to ensure our bags reach the correct destination despite the chaos at the arrival gate. Before boarding we were all given this sticker to put on your clothes, it indicates which airline you are . Magnus thinks the flight attendants are quite attractive looking which I totally agree . They also serve super sweet juice and soft drinks on the flight except drinking water . Service was not bad overall.

We finally landed at Bagan around 7pm . The first thing once we picked up our luggage was to pay the US $15 per head entrance fee to help with the conservation work of the temples . There are about five staff at the desk keep asking us the same question such as where we from. Our driver took us to our accommodation . We spent about $35 NZ dollar for dinner at the hotel and it’s definitely not cheap considering the type of food we had . That was the last time we had dinner there .

The next day we biked around the new Bagan area . A local young man stopped us and told us about the sand paintings drawn by his father . After a bit of haggling we bought a small piece with 7000 chit . Later on when we went to the temples turned out to be many many more people who were selling the identical paintings also “done” by their parents or grand parents . The village we come across on the bike trip are really poor . People lived in a very simple hut with grass made roof which is pretty much all they own .

We paid US $1 for a 750 ml bottle of drinking water at the hotel room . This is quite a contrast comparing to a normal meal should cost around 500 chit that’s less than 50 cent according to Lonely Planet. I’m normally not so calculating on holidays but in the first few days I did feel like we are just silly tourists who just pay whatever and nothing seem to go to the locals who are really in need of some money .

Part of this in my view is contributed by the big tour groups from Europe , US and Japan . The tour groups get off the bus have little or no interaction with the locals and since the packaged tour is probably covered for most costs they don’t mind paying a bit more on small things like over priced water and beer etc …

We hired a car for US $20 to see the famous Bagan sunset. There is no words to describe the magnificent view . its definitely something to remember for a life time . There are over 4000 temples built in the area . When we arrived at the temple we had to climb up to the patio to get the best view . It’s amusing but also a bit sad to see some late arriving buses honking at the flock of cows . The cows moved so slowly and the sun is setting lower and lower without waiting for the bus to get to the temple. We humans can be so selfish,  just because we want to get somewhere we will rush and push whatever is blocking our way.

On the way back we asked the driver for recommendation on places for dinner . He said a few resort type restaurants. When my partner asked which one he personally would go he could not answer, I felt a bit bad because I think eating out is probably a luxury for the locals .Finally we did manage to find a really nice local restaurant which served very good Myanmar curries and noodles . We told the waiter no nuts on the salad , I guess there was a misunderstanding coz the salad arrived with  with lots of peanuts mixed . So for food allergy people the language barrier could be a bit risky when it comes to order your meal .

The next day we hired the same driver to Mt Popa. It’s about 1.5 hours drive from the hotel . The temple is built on the top of a mountain . Took about half an hour steep hill climb . Along the way there are cleaners asking for donation because they wipe away the monkey poos. We also need to pay the donation for shoe keeping . Basically every little thing is expected with a donation .

Along the way there are many statues of Nat who are the spiritual gods in Myanmar religion . We didn’t hire the guide to explain what they are for. In the end the whole experience is like watching a foreign film without subtitles . It was worth the trip though . The monkeys we met along the way was quite entertaining too .

I was getting grumpy of being treated like a tourist the whole trip, so I decided to pick a local restaurant for lunch instead of the resort type where the driver wanted to take us . Turns out the place I picked had no price on the menu and the lady just charged us whatever price off her head . We asked for Myanmar curry she walked to somewhere next door got the food for us. Not even cooked from their own kitchen which was a bit weird . The food was not good and we felt a bit stomach upsets afterwards . So my effort of trying NOT to be a tourist back fired on us .

Nov 29th 2013 written at Inle Lake

Post March now in July

by liyangsthoughts, posted in Life down under

So shortly after the Kunming train station stabbing on 1st of March , on the 8th the MH370 disappeared. We are at the end of July now, the plane is still missing.

In May celebrated my birthday with the theme of a Onesies’s party, had lots of friends over, it was a lovely celebration.

A few days after my birthday another attack took place at a morning market in my hometown Urumuqi , 31 killed many were old people who were shopping for fresh and cheap vegetables at the market.

June don’t remember much except signed the paper on the 9th, so by law I am a married woman now.

July hosted a group of business people from South East Asia, learnt a lot from them , a very productive and good trip. Then followed by another delegation from China, very different group, interesting people also enjoyed meeting them. Right after the hosting business is done, before I got on the flight from Christchurch back to Auckland, found out the Malaysia airline got shot down in Ukraine. A few days later, a Taiwanese airline came down due to poor weather, then a few days later an Algerian flight came down ….

I guess this is how life is going to continue for the rest of my journey, celebrations followed by tragedies then more celebrations .  Watched a documentary about Deepak Chopra, he said that the whole universe is in every one of us. We are the universe, everything is linked . There is no death, its unborn , its eternal … If you truly believe in it, it seems to take away the sadness of this world a little. I also would like to possess the wisdom to understand that this physical body and the world around us does not define who I am. After my physical body pass on, part of me still goes back to this universe, it continues.

But why do we hang on to this and that…does this world deserve us to hang on to? Thats another question for another day.

 

Dear Leader

by liyangsthoughts, posted in Words that matter

http://www.randomhouse.co.nz/books/jang-jin-sung/dear-leader-9781846044205.aspx

Attended Jang Jun-Sung’stalk at the Auckland Writers Festival this morning.

Jang published the book Dear Leader, what made him unique is that he worked in the propaganda team for the regime before defecting to South Korea.

When asked what does words and poems mean to you as a writer in NK? Jang explained while he was growing up,  the literatures he read only carried two strong messages, hate and love. Hate the capitalist enemy , love the great leader.

There are only two writers works people are allowed to read in NK,  Kim Jong-il  and Kim Il-Sung. Foreign books are only published about 100 copies only and limited to the elite class to read. Normal people don’t get to read anything else other than the great leaders works. Its until one day by chance he came across the work of Lord Byron it changes his view on literacy completely.  He felt the works of Lord Byron’s are written for everyone equally. Since then Jang wanted to become a poet and a cripple like Byron.

Since Kim Il-Sung was a highly regarded poet in NK, therefore other poets who write for the regime are also treated with respect. Another reason poems are widely popular in NK is due to the lack of paper in the country, poems are cheaper to print comparing to novels.

In NK there is strict literacy laws. Creative people have no freedom , they must praise the supreme leader. Even actors who portray the leader in films will receive the ultimate respect from others. There is one producer got punished  just because he addressed one actor’s name slightly wrong .

Jang said that it is not just the power dictatorship people endured in NK, but also the emotional dictatorship. If a writer dare to write something against the regime, may face a 3 generation punishment, means the grandfather, father and son will all be punished.

When asked what was the turning point for Jang to leave NK. He said it was the famine in the 90s. During 1994-1999 about 3 million people died of starvation in NK. He described a woman on the roadside selling her young daughter for US$1 , just to buy a little bit of bread.

He also told the story of a young girl begging for food on the street, he gave her some cookies but the girl refused, instead asking for a tube of tooth paste. The reason is she eats rotten food she can find on the street, and she felt consuming  a bit of tooth paste afterwards will help her stomach taking the rotten food more easily. The girl lost most of her family members during the famine. At that point Jang realised he lived in the country which has the richest leader and the poorest people. Jang wants to write about the real life instead of lies. His mentor who could not escape from the regime has stopped writing, because he believes the only way to fight against the regime is silence.

Who is responsible for the famine? Jang explained in NK people replied on public distribution for food and resources. But when it failed to deliver , people still kept on waiting for the government to provide. They lost the ability to generate food and resources by themselves. This delay caused such a huge number of death due to starvation.

Jang also described his meeting with the great leader. He described Kim Jong-il as a desperate man. Before he met the leader he regarded him as God. When he met the leader at the great hall with all the others, he thought  the leader was just a man who is much older, fatter and more ugly than himself.

He saw Kim Jong-il  tearing up when he listened to a singer signing . The singer was not even singing a sad song. But once the great leader started crying,all the generals standing behind the leader raced to grab their own handkerchiefs and started crying too. At that moment Jang almost felt pity towards Kim Jong-il  , because as a dictator he never experience an ordinary  life and probably don’t even know how to express his emotions in a normal way.

When asked the role China plays in NK defectors, Jang explained China returns defectors even though they know that these defectors will be tortured and killed. Most people try to escape the regime will bring two things with them, poison and sharp razor. So if they are to be returned, or caught they rather take their own lives first. During his escape, he lost his dearest friend who accompanied him. He said many Chinese live on the border with Korea who speak Korean, 朝鲜族, assisted some defectors to cross border.

At the end of the talk, Jang encouraged  the international community to separate North Korean people from the government. He thinks what the ordinary north Koreans really respect is the dollar (economy growth), because they need to survive.  Its not a matter of will the regime collapse, but of WHEN it will collapse. He has strong hope that the government will not last long.

Someone from the audience asked how does Jang cope mentally with the things he has been through. He replied once he escaped to South Korea, he has the strong will to do something in order to create changes.

1st March – Kunming train station

by liyangsthoughts, posted in Hometown

On a nice Sunday morning of March the 2nd, my partner and I met up with two friends at a local market to have some coffee and good food. One of the friends asked me if I have heard on the news about what happened in Kunming. She told me a group of unidentified people use knives attakced a lot of people at Kunming train station. My first reaction was to check my phone and go on Chinese social media to find out what happened. By that time, there was no news on who was responsible. But I already had a sick feeling that it could link to my hometown Xinjiang,  a region where it used to be known for its beautiful landscape, delicious fruits and unique dance and music. Now it is famous for one thing:  the East Turkestani separatist terrorist attack.

Due to my constant checking on different social media , my battery was dead soon. By the time I got home recharged my phone it was confirmed the massacre is carried out by them. Based on South China Morning Post 33 people killed and over one hundred injured.

On Chinese social media , there are floods of opinions and voices, most are about feeling sad for those 33 broken families who lost their loved ones in such a brutal and inhumane way, then there are questions. Questions over religion, questions over the system, endless questions.

I was born and raised in Xinjiang, I have Uyghur friends . When I type Xinjiang in Google research, the words it is associated with are riots, unrest, terrorist …. this is NOT what anyone want their birth place to be linked with. Truth is this is something very difficult to change from now on.

Before Kunming train station massacre, when you ask Chinese what they think about Xinjiang, most will probably answer that its a faraway place where there are tensions and troubles from time to time. It won’t really affect their daily life. After 1st of March, things changed. The threat of East Turkey separatist is a challenge that every Chinese will face , apart from the pollution and keep the economy grow, the government will have many worries hanging over the far northwest.

I won’t go into deep analyse on what cause it, because many people have their own opinions about China’s policy on ethnic minority. What I want to talk about here is how it affect my way of life.

First of all, I am determined to get fit, mentally and physically . My family and friends are still living in my hometown. I want to be strong for them in case one day they need my help. Also to be fit physically means if ever I am in a situation under attacked, I want to be able to fight back or at least run fast enough to save myself.

Secondly, I want to read more , learn more about what drive us to hate each other and what make us to love one another. I want to learn more about this thing called “faith”. People say you gotta to have faith, but if we don’t even know what faith is in the first place, how can we have it?

3. I want to be kinder to others. So many tragedies happening every single day, when was the last time you hear something from the news that truly made you feel the world is a wonderful place? I can’t change the world in one day, but I can change my attitude and actions towards things around me. Be kind , and I hope it will make things a bit easier.

Life is so so short. Think of those who stand on the train station, one moment they were thinking what to do, where to stay, who to meet at their next destination, next moment they lay in a pool of blood leaving behind their loved ones with broken hearts and wondering WHY! Why this world can be so cruel and yet we still try so hard to cling on. Continue live till another day .

Peace out.

Road trip through Tamil Nadu – Part 3

by liyangsthoughts, posted in Travel

The last stop on our road trip is the famous Ramanathaswamy temple. We left Kayakumari at 730 am. After 7 hrs on the road in dusts and heat we arrived Ramswaram . The myth is that Hindu God lord Rama built a bridge across the sea to Lanka in order to rescue his wife Shiva from the evil king Ravana. The place is the closest point to reach Sri Lanka.

I have to say the outside environment of this temple is quite poor. On the way we saw the Pandam bridge which is quite impressive and would be a very scenery train ride.

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outside of the temple

The visit to Ramswaram was very humble and unforgettable. For some strange reason I didn’t see the sign saying non Hindus are not allowed in the centre of the temple. I went along with Neeraja and Sita. Inside the temple this girl about age 14 approached me with a big smile said hello to me. Later on when we bumped into each other again, she was leaving with her family. She came up to me once again with a big smile said goodbye. Throughout the trip strangers showed so much kindness to me, most of them would smile and get out of their way to help me.

The most memorable  part of my temple visit was sitting down at the the entrance of the center shrine with Neeraja and Sita. The priests received our names and prayers, he walked right inside the room brought our offerings to the god Shiva.  Neeraja said she prayed for my marriage and my brother find a good job. The priest brought a garland from the inside of the temple to me and put around my neck. I felt really  humble and had tears in my eye. It was definitely  a special moment for me to be accepted and treated as the same. When we walked out, the goat and cows outside the temple came to me start eating my garland. I decided to leave the flower to the goat, it needs the flower more than I do.

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the hungry goat

To end my road trip I would like to dedicate a few lines to our driver Murugesan. He is a very kind soul had the best smile. He has two children and been driving for Neeraja for 15 years. He owns a rickshaw and that is how he makes a living. This trip he borrowed the car from his friend and gave up family time during Diwali came with us on this trip. I felt quite sorry that he had to sleep in the vehicle throughout the trip. When I asked him where he would sleep at the night, he pointed a sofa in the hotel reception . I felt quite sorry for him, coz in NZ the driver will get lots of rests and good accommodation when the are on tour. In India, life is hard , people are seem to at ease with not having much or if any comfort. He never complained about anything on this trip and looked after the three female passengers very well. He loved action movies, when we passed this road where his favorite action movie had a scene there, he asked if I could pls take a photo of him and the vehicle to bluetooth him the image. He looked really happy on the picture, I sincerely hope he has a good life, his children get good education and luck is always on his side when he is on the road. God bless him.

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Murugesan
I would never get to experience all this without the puppeteer group and the lovely Neeraja and Sita. They took such good care of me and made sure I experience different aspects of this amazing country to the fullest.