Meaningful Myanmar

MEANINGFUL

MYANM

Community-led projects are creating some of the best new experiences in Myanmar – we sent out a small team to discover them first hand

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A colorful hello A woman wears the traditional pom-pom headdress of the Yinbaw tribe

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Our guide, Richard, emerged froma huddle of scarletrobed men. ‘It’s going to be a good year,’ hegrinned. A freshly erected totem poleloomed above, and at its base, the village elders were finishing their inspection of a series of chicken bones. People huddled around us in their traditional dress, from the solemn navy jackets of the Pa-O tribe to the pom-pom headdresses of the Yinbaw. Everyone was waiting for the climax of the Kay Htein Bo festival, where the fate of the coming year would be decided by a chicken’s bone marrow.

While Myanmar’s Kayah State has a mainly Catholic population, animist beliefs still run strong, particularly within the region’s tribal communities. This annual festival is a chance for the tribes to gather and pray for rain, and after the

chicken divination, dance together in celebration of the forthcoming year.

It was the start of my trip through Myanmar with a small group of colleagues. We were here to seek out community-led experiences for travelers thathave a positive impact when you visit and put your money into the right hands. It led us first to Kayah, an eastern state only recently opening up to visitors.

Loikaw, the village-like state capital, works well as your base, and it’s a quick flight from Yangon. From here, local people will lead you in a range of tours that are supported by the United Nations through the International Trade Center.

After watching the festivities, we set off along a dusty red-earth track to Hta Nee La Leh, a Kayah village. The Kayah

’THE KAYAH WOMEN WORE GLEAMING BRONZE COILS AROUND THE NECK AND KNEES’

are one of the nine largest ethnic communities in the state and particularly anchored in animist tradition.

Below the boughs of eugenia trees, we entered an animist hunting shrine, where villagers worshippedbefore going out to hunt. A local woman, with Richard to translate, showed us totem poles, called kaetoebu, from past festivals. Each tall grey pole is made from a single teak tree, which has to be felled without it touching the floor – if it does, then a new tree must be chosen.

Every community is vividly different, and I suggest spending a few nights in Loikaw to explore its villages. The residents of Pan Pet, a cluster of five Kayah villages, have been running community tours for four

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Magical Myanmar Fisherman casting fishing nets in Hsithe; (clockwise from top right) Myonam pagoda in Loikaw; the Pa-O and Yinbaw tribes await the end of the Kay Htein Bo festival

years, growing organically as more and more families ask to be involved.

Our guide was Mou Li – ‘call me Molly,’ she smiled – a young woman who wore a baseball cap with her traditional longyi and handwoven top. The community helped to fund her schooling in Yangon, and she was now back working as a guide.

We followed her past pigsties, cactus hedges and trails left by chicks to a stilted house, where we were invited up onto a balcony that caught the soft afternoon breeze. The tiny figure of Daw Mu Aye, a 70-year-old who almost fizzes with excitement, rose to meet us.

We were offered know ye (rice wine) and green tea, while Mou Li introduced us. Daw Mu Aye was keen to hear where we’d come from and (a recurring question from people we met) our marital status. Like other older Kayan Lahwi women, she wore gleaming bronze coils around her neck and knees. She then vanished inside, returning with a homemade guitar. ‘She wants to share our love songs with you,’ said Mou Li. We caught a deep laugh from the house. ‘That’s her husband,’ she giggled.

This is the real joy of spending time here: visiting locals who’ve opened their homes to visitors, eager to share their culture. Lunch, cooked in the village, is a traditional jungle picnic – rice, beans, potatoes, and chicken wrapped in banana leaves. If you’re prepared for a short hike, you can eat it under the shade of a hilltop banyan tree, looking across Pan Pet.

ON THE AYEYARWADY

The villagers of Hsithe, a community three hours north of Mandalay that sees even fewer visitors than Loikaw, have been fishing alongside Ayeyarwady river dolphins for generations. Dwindling river stocks have left the fishermen struggling to make a living, with some

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MYANMAR

resorting to electrofishing. This, in turn, stops fish levels recovering and harms the rare river dolphins. The Harrison Institute, a UK-based conservation charity, has been working with the people of Hsithe to find a sustainable way of supporting their traditional way of life.

The answer awaited us on the riverbanks. As we arrived by boat (the only way to reach Hsithe), Ma Hnin Witt Yee and her team were on standby to welcome us into a traditional stilted teak house – our home for the night. Everything, from the hand-loomed bedding to the dining table, had been made by local people, and the ingredients for our meals were grown in the village.

It’s a simple stay, with a shower and a toilet in a separate block, but I loved being woken by a cockerel and the hum of an early-morning river boat. Visits are restricted to one booking at a time, so you’d have the place to yourself.

After breakfast, we found that the fishermen had gathered to teach us how to cast nets. It soon became obvious why we’d started this tuition on dry land – net casting is like trying to arrange a heavy curtain with one hand tied behind your back. Once they were

satisfied with our technique (or at least happy we would not lose the nets), the men let us join them on the river.

We didn’t catch anything, aside from one giggling fisherman who decided to wade into the water and pretend to be a fish. Regardless, we returned to shore with approving nods for our improved technique. Then there was time for a walk around the community to meet the families of the fishermen who’d chaperoned us.

The fee for a one-night experience at Hsithe goes straight back into the village, with percentages financing dolphin conservation and invested in a community fund. Each person involved in your stay, including the fishermen, also directly benefit from the experience.

INLE LAKE

An overriding notion I’ll take from this trip is the sheer number of community-led experiences that are blooming across the country – you don’t even have to travel far to find them. A short drive from the floating gardens of Inle Lake is Nyaung Shwe village, where Kyaw Swar and his family run a small restaurant. Wanting to support the younger people in his community who were struggling for

Float your boat Local women take a break while working in the floating gardens on Inle Lake; (from below right) learn from the locals on a ‘hide-and-seek’ cooking class and make traditional Inle dishes

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MYANMAR A FIRST-TIMER’S VIEW

Charlotte from our concierge team joined the trip as a first-timer to Southeast Asia.

If, like me, you’re a novice to Southeast Asia, Myanmar would provide a great introduction to the region. It has a range of postcard-worthy sights, including the dazzling Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Bagan’s temple-scattered skyline, and the inky-blue waters of Inle Lake.

On my trip, I was aware of the country’s troubled past and complex contemporary issues, and it was clear that Myanmar’s development had stalled. However, by choosing locally run accommodation and activities, you can directly impact the people you visit, while enjoying some of the best experiences Southeast Asia has to offer.

income, he came up with the idea of a ‘hideand-seek’ cooking class.

Kyaw Swar was keen to start our visit with a Burmese language lesson (it’s surprisingly phonetic), before handing us an envelope. Inside wereinstructions for our first task: procure some gin sein (garlic).

A neighbor arrived to take us to the first house in the village, where Soung Hnin and her young family were waiting. Clutching our sheet of conversation tips, we managed to muddle through our first Burmese dialogue, accompanied by fresh green tea. I then summoned the confidence to ask for some garlic.

Initially, my efforts weren’t quite working. Luckily, after a few attempts and much laughing, she approved my pronunciation and produced a bag of

’WE MUDDLED THROUGH MY FIRST BURMESE CONVERSATION, ACCOMPANIED BY FRESH GREEN TEA’

garlic and our next envelope. Her husband appeared at the door, ready to lead us on to the next family.

We continued visiting villagers, collecting ingredients for our lesson and (slowly) improving our Burmese.Each family grows the ingredients they pass on and are paid for their produce before you arrive. We also went to the local market, where we ducked past flower stalls and basket weavers to buy our final ingredient, watercress.

Back at the restaurant, chef Mee Mee escorted us to the alfresco cooking area, funded by the Business Innovation Facility, a UK-based development initiative. We were given our own station and started crushing ginger for traditional Inle dishes, including a fragrant fish curry and tea leaf salad.

As we lunched on our creations, I realized that a small audience had gathered behind us. ‘Good food?’ asked Kyaw Swar. Everyone who had been involved in our morning experience was waiting for our answer. I twisted my tongue around a new word from the list, yan gon de (delicious). Smiles all round. I must have, finally, got the pronunciation right.

Flight information: Flying from New York to Yangon takes around 23 hours via Dubai. When to go: The ideal time to travel is during the dry season, between October and May. Get me there: A 12-day tailor-made trip to Myanmar based on Sophie’s experiences in Loikaw, Inle Lake and Hsithe, as well as time in Bagan, starts from £4,360pp. For more information, please contact our Myanmar specialists on 1-855-838-0105.

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