Knife Fight at Pindaya Caves

At this time, I was only stopping over in Yangon, and flying out this morning to Heho on a brand new airline, called Asian Wings Airways. They have a fleet of two ATR 72(s), turboprop, kind of strange looking with its little wing. Now that Myanmar has started to open up a little it has more of a need for another domestic airline to accommodate visitors. I left the hotel, got to the airport and checked in, and waited to board. They walked us out to the plane and I climbed aboard. It quickly became clear that while the airline was less than six months old, this plane was quite older, and I wondered if, like all of their cars, this too was a refurbished import. But they did serve breakfast on the hour and half flight, and both my bag and I got there without any problems. I found my guide and driver and we headed out to Pindaya, about a two hour drive. In Bhutan I had a very nice car, in Myanmar it was a not so nice car, but it ran and got us where we needed to go. This time it happened to be a right side steering wheel version.




Along the way we passed a lot of kids who were out waving at us. At first I thought how cute, they want to say "Hi" to me, but then I heard what they were saying, "money, money, money", hey wait, they are begging.


No, these are not normal people dressed up as monks to try and get more food, these are in fact monks (and a nun in pink), also along the road side begging. In Bhutan, monks study ancient texts, meditate, and are self-sufficient. In Myanmar, monks head out each day to ask for food for themselves, rarely meditate, if at all, and have limited study. I think a lot of the contrast is due to government, one is supporting their people and culture, while the other is repressing them.


My guide, here in the Shan State, turned out to be a little odd. I think a lot of it was that he was a very simple person, and a little bit that he was just a little odd. He started telling me about this balloon festival in his home town and then showed me some pictures. At first I thought this was cool of him to share it with me, but would quickly find out that this guy really knew how to beat a dead horse. If I had to guess I would say I heard about this damn festival an average of five times a day. I knew he was hoping I would say I wanted to go see it, but we have balloons here in the US and I was not biting. Along the way we stopped in a village and checked out their local market.


Fresh chicken.


Fresh meat.


Fresh fish.


Fishmonger.


Some transportation has changed and some has not.


I prefer the environmentally friendly version.


I was pretty much the only white guy here, and it seems they do not get many of my kind as I got quite a few looks. A few even took some pictures with me using their cell phones, and I was really starting to enjoy the Myanmar people.






Just like in Bhutan, dried fish, well, kind of fish.


And just like in Bhutan, chilies, hot chilies.


You may have noticed that in some of these pictures, people have some kind of "paint" on their cheeks, and you may be wondering what significance it has. It’s bark and does play an important role in their lives, it prevents them from getting sunburned.


I really enjoy seeing markets and find it really defines a culture, so I spent some more time walking around.










Tea.


I then came across the food court and I tried a little fried tofu.






The clothing department.


The electronics department.


Most of the farmers drive this, often referred to as a Chinese bull. They are cheap, come from China, and are easy to repair. They are never in accidents because they don’t really go fast enough to cause one. And the reason the belt is open and exposed like that is because they can just drive up to different machinery and switch a few belts, and now power a mill or electrical generator.


A fancier version for those rainy days.


We continued on and passed a "bus" going in the other direction. My guide said that they were probably going to the balloon festival in his home town.


We got in to Pindaya and found some locals bathing. While it was really hot out, I’m not sure my delicate skin could handle these waters, or maybe they could. I’ve seen a lot of rich people pay a lot of money to soak in muddy water like this at very high class spas.


We ate lunch and my guide told me about a balloon festival going on in his home town. I had a beer and it helped when I found myself viewing the pictures for a second time. Although it did not help when I had to go to the bathroom and passed a poster for the festival. Yup, lots of balloons on that poster, red ones, blue ones, even a few yellow ones.

After lunch we headed to the Pindaya caves. They were packed with tourists, not foreign tourists, but local Myanmar tourists. My guide said they were all going to the balloon festival in his home town and were stopping here along the way to see the caves. As we drove in to park there were people all over the road and my driver was getting frustrated.

Many people in Myanmar chew Betel Nut, an areca nut wrapped in a betel leaf. It’s a stimulate that gives them a mild high, numbs their mouth, and turns their teeth red. Part of the reason they can eat so many chilies is that half of them can’t even feel the heat anymore.

My driver’s teeth were covered in red and he started yelling out the window, which I assume when translated formulated a few foul fighting f-words in it someplace. This apparently did not go over well with another red mouthed man, who came over to the car window and started egging my driver on. My driver turned off the car and started to get out. My guide put his hand on my drivers shoulder and said something to get him to start the car again. My driver pulled up to a make shift parking space about 50 feet away and got out of the car. He then reached under his seat and pulled out a knife. This was not the kind of knife you would use to butter your toast, but one that Mick Dundee would use to kill crocodiles with, now that’s a knife. He wrapped it up in a towel to conceal it, and took off in the direction of the other red mouthed man. I grabbed my camera and got out to follow him, but my guide said no and that we have to see the caves. I would have to wait until we got back to find out what happened, and to be honest part of me was ok with that.

We headed to the caves and took the elevator up.


While I had already fallen in love with the people from the local villages, the people from the city seemed to be on some kind of auto pilot. I had a number of events like this, and I don’t think they do it to be mean or rude, I think it is just how they are, they are kind of programmed this way. For example, if you are waiting to get on an elevator that only has two stops, the doors open, and you see people already on it, you will probably wait for everyone to get off first, and then get on. Not the city folks, they hear the bell from the elevator and immediately start to try and get on the elevator before anyone can get off. So it becomes one big traffic jam. I think I even saw a few of them salivate when they heard the elevator bell.

I somehow managed to get off the elevator and the views were amazing.


The caves were interesting and full of thousands of Buddha statues, however they were fairly modern and did not have that traditional feel.








There were a few side caves that were originally used for meditation, however now it is just a place for the Myanmar tourist to take pictures.




After my last elevator experience I decided to take the stairs back down.


I was walking fast and wondering what happened with my driver, if I even had a driver anymore. We got back to the car and my driver was there waiting for us. We got in the car and my guide and driver talked, I understood none of it. It turns out that the other guy not only had red teeth but was also quite drunk. Because of the additional tourists today the police were already on site, they had already seen this guy having a little trouble with us, and when he moved on to the car behind us they arrested him. So when my driver got there it was already over. I was a little disappointed, but also glad that nothing more came of it.

Wow, what an amazing first day in Myanmar, this was definitely my kind of country and I could not wait for what adventure lies ahead, and the people I would meet. While it would not be the soul awaking experience of Bhutan, it would awaken me in different ways. I checked in to my hotel for the night, an awesome bamboo hut, complete with roommates. Up in the rafters were a few birds who found the rafters to be a good foundation to build a nest. Once I got over the initial shock and realized they would leave me alone, I drifted off to sleep.

VIDEO: Day 1 - Pindaya