13/01/2010
Oh… I only just realised that I’ve ignored this part of the site for a long time. Maybe this is why I find Twitter impossible (quite apart from never being able to say anything in just a couple of lines)
It’s not as if I didn’t have anything to write about, either. On Saturday I returned from a six-week trip that went Thailand-upper Burma-Yunnan-Assam-Chennai-Gujarat. Part of it was admittedly holiday, but more of it was adding to the Tea-Horse Road book - the little-known southern route, snaking down from Kunming into Shan State, then across upper Burma to Imphal, through northeastern India and up to Tibet. With trade, as usual, flowing in the opposite direction.
The Burma section involved taking the public boat up the Irrawaddy from Mandalay to Bhamo, an experience in its own right. Here’s what happens at one of the frequent stops, where not only passengers but cargo is loaded and unloaded, all across a plank….
….while sacks of rice, vegetables, anything (and formerly tea) come aboard in a steady stream of sweating porters…
….while local villagers try to sell foodstuffs on board…
The original plan was then to cross the border with China overland n the Shweli River, and ordinarily (if there is an ordinary when it comes to Burma) this is possible. However, since about Spring last year there’s been fighting in Kokang, and ethnic Chinese border area to the north, so no foreigners are allowed near the border for the time being. I was preapred for that, so returned to Mandalay and caught the convenient direct flight to Kunming, then hired a car and drove back down the surprising expressway towards Burma. Surprising in that it’s an impressive feat of civil engineering, with tunnels through mountains and viaducts across the valleys, for about 600 km ….. And it’s all investment. Very little traffic right now, but the Chinese are thinking ahead, and there’s a large area of southwestern Yunnan beginning to develop. I went as far as Baoshan, which has been a trading post on the Southern Silk Route for many centuries. And to my delight I found a 140-year old village tea house, still functioning in its rickety way without change. Not many of these left around….
Following which, for something completely different, on to India and up to Assam, to stay on a delightful tea plantation, one of many owned by McLeod Russell, the largest company in the business…
Nearby, on the other bank of the wide, meandering Brahmaputra, is the national wildlife park of Kaziranga, home to a very healthy population of over 2,000 Asian One-horned Rhinoceros. This female seems to be pregnant, and I have to say not completely happy that we were hanging around in our little jeep, hence the beginnings of a charge….
But the jeep was in gear with the engine running, so that was all right. After Assam, to Chennai for a music festival, then Gujarat, and finally back to London. However, after a couple of days I find myself in Qatar on the Gulf, attending a photography event and awards ceremony. Flew in last night, and right now looking out at the calm and sunny sea, a little different from England at the moment, from my hotel balcony.
And my New Year’s resolution (one of many necessary) is to be more conscientious with this page of the the website…
Tags: Burma, tea-horse, Tea-Horse Route, Thailand
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