söndag 11 maj 2014

Charming Chinstate

Chinstate is one of Myanmars seven divisions which opened up last year. It had been isolated from the country and closed to foreigner but finally, in November 2013 it was free to enter. Without any permission. So in March, I left Yangon to experice the part of the country where my people I've been working with come from. 

My first stop was on the border in a town named Kalaymiyo, also called Kalay. Half of the town belongs to the Chinpepole and half of it to the Burmese. There's a rivier dividing them apart and when I was calling my friend who is Chin, she had some hard time to find the guesthouse I was staying in. Since it was located in the other part of Kalay.  


The picture above is the trainstation in Kalay. It's a big building and behind, you find the trains which are the smallest ones I've ever seen.

The second day Stephen had arrived. We rented a motorbike from a random guy who was more then nervous. Apparently, almost nobody had done it before so we had some hard times to find a bike. But in the end we succeeded and went on the road towards India.  Which was a road filled with bridges all the way every second meter.




 And on the road we also found the Tropical Cancer. Almost like the equator.

The two pictures below are taken from outside of Kalay.




 The day after we decided to go in to Chin. We booked a small bus where the guy squeezed us in. Unfortunatly we were not allowed to enter by the car on the pic. That car was on his way to India but throug Chin instead of going north to the big border.




They are finally allowed to uppgrad the roads. So wherever you were travellig, people are working on the roads. And building bridges.

Falam is a town up in the moutains. There lives about 15000 people and they're beloning to a one of the 39 churches that exsist in that town. And they all asked you about your denomenation?  












I just loved the names of all the buildings in this town. And I guess my favourite was Ebenezer.



There was three american teachers who had arrived three weeks before we came. They were there to help out in the schools. And Mona ( one of the girls Stephen brought along) and me, we joined them for a day. The teacher had about 70 kids on her own.


 It was hard for us to give up Falam and move on. But when we had stayed for 4 or 5 days we decided to visit Hakah, the capital of Chin. Hakah is located even higher than Falam and there was actually cold. Really cold.

We went to the old stadium and watched the sunset. I was one of the moast scarry things I've done. It was all made in wood and you didn't know at all for how many  years ago. And on the top, you were quiet high up and it felt lik you were gonna break through every step. I was crying on my way down.









The tradionall outfit of Hakah. 

 



I loved the fabric from Chinstate. Failur that I had forgotten my money. Or maybe I was lucky cause it was quiet pricy. 

Taught some kids a game. They were all bored cause the big guys were playing football and were not allowed to join. So we had fun instead. 


Mona left us after Hakah and Celie in Gangaw. So Stephen and I was alone again, and on our way to Kamplet. The first bus we went on was like the one above. I was a bit moody cause I thought we didn't have any space. But I should just had shut up. The next one, this one, was the same modell and in this- we DIDN'T have any room. I litterly jumped on the bus and forced the women to move and all the men sat on the top. I was sweety, bumpy and almost 6 hours. Excluding stops.


Finally we droped some people and I got a seat. I was greatfule though that they didn't treat me extra. I had to sit on the floor the first hours. Happy face. Almost first time.


The moast sadest thing was that when we reached Kamplet I didn't bring my camera around and it was the pretties place. And we were surrounded by the tattoladies. Those who Lonely Planet mention as a tourist attraction and that you can't find in some places.


And to save the country from Christianity, some monkes, the only three in Kamplet, moved a giant Buddah up to the top of the Victoria peak. A week before we arrived. The first Buddah in Chin.


But we were still in Chin. So we found there own moutain.

  
Unfortunatley I didn't bring my camera around all the time and especially not i Kamplet which was my favouriteplace. Also the only town where you were surrounded by the tattoladies. 

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