18 Feb 2018 – Day 4: Visiting the Chin villages
The day started with a sunrise over a landscape covered in fog and mist. I stood freezing my bare feet on the stone floor at the entrance to a stupa on a small hillock near the center of the town, overlooking what might have been the old city of Mrauk-U, the capital of the Mrauk-U kingdom for 355 years in the not too distant past, and further away, the remains of the ancient city walls. Behind me, inside the temple, was the Buddha, ever serene and smiling.
We proceeded to the local market which had already started to bustle with activity. The flower women had set up stalls on the main street. We settled down at a local tea shop where I had a double breakfast of local food – Mote Khwet Pyaing (steamed sticky-rice cake with a stuffing of sesames and toddy sweet-oil), a palatar and a bowl of thin rice noodles in a soup followed by sweet tea mixed with milk.
At 9:00 AM, we drove to Lay Myo river jetty from where we took a boat to visit a couple of Chin village. The view was scenic on both sides and as the river wound its way among the mountain ranges, we watched bamboos being floated down river, children playing with boats or collecting pebbles near the banks.
At the first Chin village, I met 4 of the elderly Chin ladies who in their youth had tattooed their faces in the Chin tradition. We spent some time walking around the village and visiting the primary school where we saw a few children attending Sunday classes with their teacher. We stopped to chat with these elderly ladies who were more than happy and excited to wear their large earrings and demanded that I take their pictures.
On the way back to the jetty I was able to take some photos of the Chin children playing and generally keeping themselves busy playacting and singing.
We took a short break at the local shop at the jetty to drink coconut water using bamboo straws from a juicy coconut. The local coconuts are really big! So big that I am not able to upload the photo. 🙂
We then proceed further up-river to the second Chin village on our itinerary, one with a beautiful view of the winding river and the hills.
Each of these Chin villages have a population of approximately 300 people whose sustenance is mostly cultivation. After walking around the second Chin village, we decided to quench our thirst with some local beer before taking the boat back to Lay Myo river jetty and to the hotel.
By the time we reached Lay Myo jetty it was late afternoon. I decided to skip the sunset and instead Mr Tun and I went to meet a friend of his and partake of the local rice alcohol with some spicy Rakhine food in a small shop beside the canal at the local market. Since we had not had a chance to eat lunch, the food helped. With the local food and the rice alcohol flowing, we had long and interesting discussions covering the history of Rakhine, her people, local topics and issues. We kept eating beef curry, fish, fish cakes, etc., finally adding rice towards the end to call it. It was late in the night and we decided to call it a day.
My story of Day 5 will be continued in my next blog.
Abhijit Dutta's Wanderlust. 