Yangon, Myanmar. Wednesday, 7th December 2005
Our customer from Singapore flew in to Yangon with his assistant, on Sunday evening. Their purpose was to visit the ginger farmland of Aungban, in north-east Myanmar. prepared for the two-day journey, I met them at Hotel Sedona(a ten-minute walk from my residence) where they were put up, on Monday morning. After self-introductions and preliminary discussions we set off for the airport. We boarded a domestic flight operated by Air Mandalay and after a pleasant ride through the clouds for an hour, landed at Heho airport, which seemed like a small, military base. Heho is located close to the hills, so the airport had pretty interesting scenery all around. We walked on the tarmac to the small terminal building and were outside within minutes. Here we were met by our suppliers, Mr. Haji Hassan, Mr. and Mrs. Thit Lwin; and Mr. Maung. Haji and Maung had driven down to Heho all the way from Yangon the previous day ! We packed ourselves into two cars and set off for Aungban, approx. 20 kms away. For once, it was good to get away from Yangon and experience a different ambience.
After a ride of 30 minutes which included a zig-zagging ascent reminiscent of the approach to our hill-stations back in India, we reached the hill-town of Aungban, which had an uncanny resemblance to Almora in Uttarakhand! After examining the storage of ginger in the warehouse, we made our way to Kalaw, a further 30 minutes' ride away. Kalaw is a fantastic place that looks very much like Wellington(the hill-station in Tamil Nadu; not the capital of New Zealand!). Thit Lwin had booked us at a wonderful resort called Hill-top Villa resort, situated above and opposite the town of Kalaw. The approach to the resort was very similar to the one to the Palace Hotel at Chail, in Himachal Pradesh. The resort was luxurious and spectacular, affording a magnificent view of Kalaw. At last, I had visited a hill-station in Myanmar! We checked in and made our way back to Kalaw for lunch and after some pretty ordinary stuff at one of the restaurants, proceeded to the ginger fields spread around Aungban. The fields were huge and sprawling and we had a wonderful time unearthing and examining the fresh ginger. Our customers were also impressed. Towards evening we returned to Hill-top and by now the mountain air had taken on its notorious chill. After a sumptuous dinner at the resort's well laid out restaurant, we were treated to a cultural show performed by local artistes on the lawns of the resort. The 45-minute programme culminated in the release of three big and colourful hot-air balloons into the sky and this was the highlight of the show. All in all, a wonderful evening!
After a none too comfortable sleep thanks to the biting cold in the otherwise comfortable room, I was up at 05:00 the next day, to prepare for the departure to Pyawbwe; 3.5 hours away. As luck would have it, the electricity decided to desert us at that moment and the room was plunged into darkness. After struggling for a while with a matchbox trying to light a candle kept in readiness for such occasions, the electricity board of Kalaw relented; and power was restored. The morning ablutions complete, we were ready at the breakfast table at 06:00. The view from the top was incredible, with the early morning sun warming and brightening the higher reaches of Kalaw town with its gentle rays; and moving down slowly to wake up the slumbering town. The clouds had descended and seemed to nestle among the tiny homes in the hills. It was like a scene form a fairy tale, one that I shall never forget. A good breakfast of fruit juice, omlette with toast, tea and fresh fruit followed; after which I reluctantly bid goodbye to Kalaw. The hour and a half's descent was fun, the winding road passing through a thick pine forest, once again reviving memories of Himachal Pradesh. For our Singaporean friends however, the journey must have been nightmarish with the road throughout being more of a dust track; the tar being virtually absent.
A rather tiring three hours' journey saw us at a small town called Hline Tet, where we halted to see the Govt. canning factory. The factory specialises in the processing and packaging of fruits and vegetables; and we saw dried cabbage(1) being processed and packed. The stuff was meant for export to Korea. Our interest in this factory centred around their ability to provide us sun-dried and machine-cut ginger slices and our visitors from overseas seemed satisfied with the samples they were presented with.
We then proceeded to Pyawbwe, Thit Lwin's residence and a place which you too must be familiar with by now; as I have visited it a number of times in the past and mentioned it in my earlier write-ups. here our customers were presented with a few more samples of ginger and turmeric. After the mandatory lunch at Thit Lwin's, we left for Mandalay airport. Haji Hassan was at the wheel and driving a la James Bond - a ride that I thoroughly enjoyed - he brought us to the airport in two hours and a half. The Mandalay airport terminal is, as mentioned in an earlier write-up, huge and impressive; but a sheer waste as the airport has hardly any traffic. Another classic example of misplaced priorities, when such a building would have done wonders at Yangon. The Air Mandalay flight took off at 16=45, ten minutes before schedule; and an hour and a quarter later we were back at Yangon, twenty minutes before schedule!
Two days well spent, away from the business tensions of Yangon.