Kokang

This last week I have been in the Kokang region of northern Shan state, which boarders China. It was so very very remote and wild and mountainous and beautiful… and Chinese. Although part of Myanmar, most people spoke Chinese and it was not possible to spend Myanmar Kyat. Only Chinese Yuan.

We visited a school which the army recently built. The children in the area, mostly ethnic Palau (one of Myanmar’s 130+ ethnic minority groups), are now able to go to school for the first time. As such all the children in the photos below are in the kindergarten class learning Burmese, Maths and English. There is no mother tongue learning system so their language of instruction (Myanmar/ Burmese) is also a foreign language for all of the children, who only speak Palau. I am sure this makes learning difficult.

The children were gorgeous, especially the girls in their traditional outfits and silver earrings. They were quite shy and definitely not used to pasty white people pointing cameras at them! Most communities in the area lack easy access to water, which is why many of the children and their clothes were very dirty.

    

Lombok

All in all I preferred Lombok to Bali. Less shiny and far fewer tourists.

We did a 3 day 2 night trek up Mount Rinjani which is Indonesia’s 2nd tallest mountain. I think. It was only about 25km, but it was very up and down. The trek involved hiking up to the crater rim (from 1,100m to 2,600m) then camping overnight, before Ant got up at 2am and hiked another 1,000m up a shale ridge to the summit and back down again for breakfast. Then we both headed down to a lake at 2,000m and then along and 600m up a vertical cliff to camp on the other side of the crater rim, before hiking down through rain forest to about 600m on the final day. It was very very hard work, but the views were worth it!

To start with it didn’t look particularly tall/ steep or far. Hmmm perspective. We had porters that carried the food and tents. We had to carry our clothes and water etc. The porters  were amazing and everything was carried in baskets on poles balanced on their (very strong) shoulders. Some of the climb was very steep, scrambling over rocks and I have no idea how they did it balancing the baskets and wearing plastic flip flops.

 

Up in the clouds…

 

I was feeling the effects of moderate poisoning from Bali. So I spent quite some time in the yellow tent. But wow – what a view from a toilet! Up on the crater rim looking down on the lake. Amazing. And quite chilly. Which made a change.

  

As I mentioned Ant was determined to reach the top and so got up at 2am for the 3 hour slog up a shale ridge. 3 steps forward 2 steps  back, and then back again for breakfast and another 6-7 hour hike. Sounded too much for me, especially as I didn’t really sleep (spending too much time enjoying the toilet view). He was beyond exhausted at the end of the day (and his walking boots broke and had to be temporarily fixed with plasters), so I think it was wise not to go up. But I did miss out on the view of the whole crater + mini volcano in the centre.

 

Then it was down to the lake. Although not such hard work on the lungs, the steep steep down hills really were hard on our legs. The photos make it all look so pristine, but there was a huge amount of rubbish everywhere. Plastic sweet wrappers and toilet paper mostly. A real shame.

 

As we hiked up the other side of the crater we had amazing views over the mini volcano in the lake. The photo on the right shows the hike Ant did. Down from the highest point all the way to the lake. Pit stop in hot springs to rest the legs and then back up the other side. Despite the hot springs by this point we were filthy. Clearly no one was going to be lugging water up and down the hills for washing!

 

The final day was 6 hours hiking down down down down through rain forest. Towards the end I was just gritting my teeth and making me feet walk forward. But the end was in sight, as was our transfer to a perfect little tropical island to enjoy hobbling around on our poor legs, massages, rest, fresh fish and snorkeling on the coral reef just off the beach. Lots of pretty fish!

 

Bali

We did not fly to Bali on Lion Air. However we did visit an art gallery where a Balinese artist had depicted Lion Air’s recent crash/ sea landing in traditional Balinese style.

It was strange to be in a Hindu culture as opposed to a Buddhist one. We loved the small offerings that were laid out everywhere every day.  They were on pavements, roofs, stones, rice paddies, car dash boards, temples…. everywhere. So pretty.

Storm clouds over a Hindu temple

 

That said the shops in Ubud did have a lot of Buda's about the place. I liked the colours of these 2 sitting on the yellow table in front of a blue wall. And yes that is a big leaf. A very big leaf.

  

The rice paddies were so green and beautiful, and the terraces were so neat. These ones are part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. Beautiful!

   

… well they were beautiful until I fell down a hole and into one of them. Which amused Ant. I spent 10 min failing at cleaning off the mud before the walk of shame back up the hill to the car.

 

Dog sunbathing on amazing smelling fresh cloves drying out in the sun.

 

Our hotel in the rice paddies at night. It was lovely!