Ethical Seven Star Tours - Inbound

Traveler’s memoirs 02 : Stop ,Talk & Mock with villagers.

We wondered around the village of rice wine brewery, meet & chat with locals. Even villagers couldn’t speak English well though they were clever enough to communicate by signed language & using a few English words. They have sense of humor & kind to others.
Most of the villagers living there are Karen races.

We continued walking to Letkhana village where they produce Palm sugar. They live in very simple hut made of bamboo/ wood and teak leaf or thatch for roofing. Most of their daily works are simple as well. In every household, the husband climb Toddy palm trees to collect juice after that the wife prepares at home to cook that juice until it gets thick. Then the thick cooked juice will be dried in sun by making pieces until it finally become palm sugar. Well, their life is that simple.

I did travel to many destinations new and old in Myanmar and visited some of the palm sugar production places. Although I had tasted many palm sugars before, never been tasted as fresh and natural as this small village’s palm sugar. I like it much and I bought some for home in order to help the community.

At this little messy old hut, I tasted fresh toddy palm juice which the land lord kindly picked up from the tree freshly and also tasted fermented toddy palm juice which locals consumed as their daily wine after their long-day work. I watched him climb up the palm tree, collecting juice in bamboo jars and climb down with jars hanging around his waist. It was just awesome!

With the help of my friend, I managed to find a small restaurant for lunch. There were not too much variety of food, but are clean ,tasty and simple. After Half day of activities like Kayaking and walking, we rested for a while at the restaurant having local green tea and Myanmar tea leaf salad with condiments (Tea leaf salad is traditional snack taken after meals).
After lunch we started to walk again through rubber forest to another village. About 15 minutes walk we reached at Thalagu Karen Buddhist village who practice Buddhism staunchly. They build their own houses, they weave their own clothes and they earn their living by farming. Men wear white long dresses and women wear red dresses. Children wear white long dresses called Thin Daing. Near at a hut one of the ladies is weaving teak leaves for roofing and I can see her expertise in her work. They seem to like isolation from other community and want to be on their own society and stay strict to their believes. They are humble and welcomely greet when a visitor come to their village.

I was invited by one of the households and visited to her house for a cup of tea, she explained about their village life and customs. My interest is to talk with elders about their lifestyle and authentic herbal medicine. I learned and gained lots of knowledge about genuine village lifestyle and nature.

Later on, we enjoy around the village by watching children playing & ladies working in their compound. Time is running fast. When I checked my watch, I found out that I have spent a couple of hours already.
Although I loved to stay more , it’s time for me to go back to my hotel............ to be continued next week.

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