Myanmar: a little world of big possibilities

My account four fascinating days on a remote island with Tribewanted’s latest pilot project

On 12 February this year, I asked Ben Keene, our leader at Tribewanted Bali for a quiet word. I was concerned that I was not contributing enough to our co-working group.

As he is very good at, Ben listened to what I had to say and we agreed three things to be done. One of those was to sign up to join a small group of people headed for Lampi Island Marine National Park, Myanmar.

I saw it as a means of getting to know more about the essence of Tribewanted, as I figured I’d be more use to Ben in the longer term than limited period of the Bali co-working project. I was curious to find out more about Ben’s passion for off-grid tourism experiences and get to know him a little more along the away.

As we approached Bo Cho Island in the Marine Park, I started to write what I was seeing and feeling and I carried on pretty much all trip. In this new-style blog, I’ve taken some of those thoughts, combined with some videos I took to tell of my favourite Tribewanted days.

First though, a bit of background on the expedition

We went to Myanmar as part of a wider mission led by Istituto Oikos, an NGO, working with the Myanmar government on its tourism activities. We tagged along in an ‘unofficial’ capacity, but with the big benefit of being the first group of ‘tourist’ visitors to stay on Bo Cho Island.

The expedition was led by Paul Rogers, a veteran tourism guru, and Tania Miorin, an Italian development professional together with her Oikos colleague Aung Kyaw Ohn.

Our team was lead by Ben and our Burmese guide Naing Lwin (known on our trip as ‘Nai Nai’). We were joined by Bob from our Bali tribe and his boy Xavier, American Annabel working for an NGO in Yangon, a TV production couple from Hackney called Matt and Sarah, and diver named Jonny from Yorkshire.

Day 1

We’re coming up to some islands far off the Myanmar mainland, which is now hidden by cloud and distance. Our two captains, parched by the sun, take turns at steering.

Our two Ministry of Tourism and Hotels companions sit quietly. One, a lady, has immaculate nails, trendy jeans and luggage akin to the Burmese version of Yves Saint Laurent.

Annabel is half sleeping, half reading her book The River of Footsteps. Bob sleeps. Xavier tries the same in his freshly-opened bright orange life jacket. He’s unlikely to need it on this calm-sea day.

We approach an island and see signs of life. A man stands up in a small boat. I guess he’s a fisherman, as my dad was when I was a boy. White sand beaches appear beneath the dense green that smothers the two islands we see ahead.

We’re through the gap, as if we are entering a channel. There’s a jetty on our port (left) side. I’ve gone from dozing to thinking I could get our story in The Times. I get excited easily.

I see a lady on the beach, a dog trailing behind. I see a sign and a small building with the Myanmar flag resting gently against the flagstaff. I think we are here.

We are! Ben records a video in front of the National Park office. I try to sneak in with my own recorder. He’s not impressed, as this video shows.

On the other hand, Annabel was a very happy camper (we’re tenting out here) after being welcomed into the village of Ma Kyone Galet. Check out her excitement in this video.

Day 2

Waking

As I mention in this video showing off our campsite, it’s been a while since I slept in a tent. It took a while to get to sleep, perhaps even until morning when the whistle of the birds soothed my discomfort.

I hear a trickle of water and peer out of my ‘cub-scout tent’ (as Ben dubbed it) and see Bob washing himself under the trees. It looks odd. “There’s a leak in the pipe that sprays perfectly” he says. So much for a campsite with no water!

It wasn’t to last though. We’re not sure who applied the tape to seal the pipe.

An unexpected Moken introduction

I head around the point, away from our campsite sanctuary. Fisherman and their long-tail boats come into sight. Their nets are tangled. I sit and watch. Had it been my dad doing the unravelling, as he did in the Chatham Islands in the late 1970s, I’d have been on the boat with him.

Ladies are carrying the Moken fishermen’s catch in baskets balanced on their heads. Like the Balinese carrying offerings, except with the additional challenge of negotiating the soft sand.

I shuffle on and see some Moken kids building sandcastles at 8.50am. It’s more of fort with walls, upon closer inspection. It’s impressive. I smile and take a video. The kids rush forward the camera watch to watch. Some things don’t change wherever you go.

Fishy questions

I’ve been having my first decent chat with Jonny as we trek the short jungle path to the Kayan (people of mainland Burmese origin) village on Bo Cho Island. He asks “how come only two of your Bali tribe are here?”. Not having a good answer, I said there were three — Ben counts too, right?

A blaze of white (sand) and blue (sea) appears, we’ve reached the beach. Nai Nai draws a map of the island in the sand and leads us towards the village. We’ve picked a good day, the Kayan divers have not been out working today and tomorrow is also an off day — they’re Christian here.

It’s a typical fisherman’s house — lots of nets on the floor, a radio and a TV. A lady turns the music off — I was quite enjoying that.

The men have been here since the Nagis Cyclone of 2008, lots of people died and their village in the Amyarwady Delta was swept away. Their new home here on Bo Cho is 600 miles away.

The men tell us they free dive for sea cucumbers, as Nai Nai translates questions from Matt and Jonny. They say there is a compressor on the island which they take on their boat with a long pipe. Jonny says “I want a go with that”. We’re an excited tribe.

Ben moves the conversation on to tourism: “What do you think of all the liveaboard boats that arrive?”. They are proud Nai Nai tells us. It makes them happy to see people with different ideas. Promising!

The lady next to me holds a baby and chips in often. The baby needs to pee, and does. There’s a puddle next to my feet. It happens.

We are invited next door for a coconut. I take my place, Bob to the left of me, a photo of Christ to my right. ‘Here I am, stuck in the middle with you’ I hum as I recall that tune from the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack.

For Matt, it’s his first ever drink from a real coconut, as he tells us here on film.

A Touch of Brazil

Lunch has been consumed at our regular dining spot near the island’s school, so head off down a less-worn path, with local guides, two 14-year olds: Wai Yan Moe and Yan Pan Soe. It’s dense and hot, the track bearing scars of illegal logging activity, as Nai Nai explains.

I’m so engrossed talking yachting with Nai Nai (he is an official guide for that too), I’m not paying attention to where we are but the sound of waves tumbling onto the beach soon fixes that. We emerge onto a huge whitesand beach. It feels like flour between our toes (I have to credit Ben for the word ‘flour’ here).

I risk taking my iPhone into the water, I want to capture this moment. Ben thinks it’s like Brazil, on this video.

After a failed attempt of skirting round the island — we were thwarted by high tide — we snuck back into the village just before sunset. Here’s what me and a bunch of local boys thought of the day — check those hairstyles!

Day 3

A boat bound for Lampi’s beauty

Nai Nai produces a sketch of the Marine Park and tells us the plan for the day. Our captain fires up the motor and we’re off.

Jonny sits on the bow. Ben looks like he’s in the desert, t-shirt wrapped around his head. There’s not another boat (or desert) in sight.

It’s hard to hear each other, the motor is loud. It’s hot already. We open the waters. Matt speaks of “the smell of adventure”.

We round the south-west corner of Lampi Island. A cool breeze blows in despite the glass-calm water.

Xavier looks a touch pensive. Ben relaxed. Jonny fidgets. Annabel writes. Sarah gazes. Bob is still.

An enormous bay of white sand beach emerges. We gasp collectively. It’s two kilometres long Nai Nai tells us. Matt plans a hotel.

I don’t recall seeing anything so beautiful and untouched by man. This is what we came for, to see a little world of big possibilities. There is lots of chatter now.

Ben is unmoved. Xavier yawns. Jonny asks for water. Annabel scribbles. Sarah yawns too. Matt stares out to sea. Nai Nai speaks to the captain. Bob’s neck perspires.

I can’t stop writing, I feel energised and super excited to be on my first expedition. I ask Jonny, our marine-life lover, has to say.

Listening and Learning

The tribe is still snorkelling along a Lampi reef. I’ve been for a swim. Doing front crawl here is like a never ending finishing tape, it’s hard to stop.

Nai Nai and I take the lunch ashore. We sit under a tree and eat chicken and noodles from a polystyrene container. We could be anywhere.

I ask why he uses the ‘old’ words like Burma and Rangoon. He tells me that the modern words (Myanmar and Yangon) are taught in school but, outside, the old words have not changed. It reminds me of Indians using Bombay, while the tourists say Mumbai.

He tells me there are 135 different languages and people in Myanmar, of which seven make up the majority of the population.

I ask if he studied. He laughs: “Yes, I studied economics to become a tour guide”. I want his job!

I ask him where he was born and about his family. He’s the fifth of eight children. He has a brother in Thailand where the two countries are separated by a tiny river. “It’s so close you can order stuff by shouting out”, he jokes.

I look up and Ben is like a human star fish on the beach. I’m guessing he’s not missing his emails to much. I wonder what it was like when he was on Vorovoro nine years ago? I must read his book.

He wakes and says: “I feel like I could sleep for a week. I’m just starting to feel relaxed”.

Lord of the Mangroves

We’re walking up a swamp at the end of a Lampi Island estuary, our long-tail boat left behind as it’s too shallow. I feel the sting of a swamp fly and the scrap of a rock against my foot. I should have worn flip flops.

As if by magic, the mangroves suddenly tower over our heads. It’s like the scene of a film, Lord of the Rings, perhaps? These roots that surround, and threatening to envelop, us are over 100 years old Nai Nai tells us.

I’ve left my camera behind. This part will remain a mystery until I get hold of the photo that Jonny took of us climbing one of the trees in the mangroves.

Day 4

Naan and coffee

We’re at our other ‘local’ for breakfast as Paul trots out a old cricket joke — Xavier is not amused and wants to know the rugby score. Ben asks Xavier how he’s surviving without being ‘connected’. “Fine” is the short reply. We’ve not taken a call or tweeted all trip!

Breakfast has become a ritual — munching naan cooked on the ceiling of a oven built of concrete. It’s so similar to what I’m familiar with, I’m half expecting a pizza to land on table.

Those tribe members that arrive after 8am miss out on the naan. It’s a bit like being late for a date — there is no guarantee of anything on arrival and rejection can be swift. There aren’t many other options in the high street of Ma Kyone Galet.

A Moken house swirling with pipe smoke

Sarah and me are going to sit in on the Oikos meeting with the Moken people this morning. We sit and listen as the team plan. One message is super clear — it’s not wise to over plan as the Moken can be off to work (fishing) at any time.

The team decides to focus on a few activities that the Moken might be interested in. Spear fishing seems to be the most obvious one. It’s decided to see if we (Tribewanted) can be the ‘tourists’ to test this idea out.

We head out of the village and down to the beach where the Moken live in theirs houses on stilts. This will be a first for me — I’m excited!

We are welcomed inside the house of a Moken fisherman and his two wives (not a misprint). They each smoke a cigarette, it’s the norm here — the cigarettes I mean.

There are five women, four men and two babies. Paul opens up his Mac and shows the group some photos of a coral restoration project in north-west Bali. Tania and Sarah look on from the edge of the circle. I film and observe.

This is tough — Paul speaks in English, Aung Kyaw converts to Burmese and Htun Aung Soe, who is half Burmese, half Moken, translates to the Moken language. I’ve been impressed with Htun and not just because he’s studying Geography at Uni on the mainland.

The men look intrigued, the women listen carefully. Soon the men are chatting among themselves. There are smiles and lots of nodding. Paul goes into lots of detail, and the pictures are going their job. I’m not surprised, one of them is of a Buddha with electric currents under water!

Check out this video of Paul and Htun at work. Two of the men light their pipes — is that nerves or excitement?

Paul emphasises the Bali project was started by the community. Htun is very excited now and three pipes are smouldering.

The excitement seems to be building in the room, as the possibilities for tourism in the community. I feel excited just listening.

Paul asks if the Moken community know good sites for where coral restoration can be done. The men laugh. They do. All they want to know is ‘who’s paying’?

Ben’s finale

Jonny and I arrive at the monastery just after 7pm and see Ben on his own. “I’ve been double booked” he laments. It seems a dance class has usurped his ‘pitch’ to the people of Ma Kyone Galet tonight.

The next hitch is technology, the projector is not working. “Can’t we just sit around the campfire and chat”, Ben says. Aung Kyaw lights a cigarette. Even smoking in a monastery works here.

There’s 12 adults here, though just one woman, and lots of kids (they’re always around when the tribe is about!). Ben talks about heading to Vorovoro Island in Fiji in 2006, and how ‘one day the world would come to Vorovoro’.

He shares the two essential questions to ask a community: What are your traditions and can you share them with us? Ben goes on to say Tribewanted can bring visitors, support and funding, but a project is owned and developed by the community.

Bob speaks on behalf of the group. There is a sparkle in his eye as he mentions the life in the main street of Ma Kyone Galet. The community wanted to hear what Xavier thinks: “it’s a really friendly island, more than others”. Well put young man.

Bedtime

Soon we’re back for our leaving dinner and Paul is full of stories from Ben as a three-year told to travails around Thai hospitals. Ben ticks off our beers on his tally and settles the bill.

I’m feeling tired and head back to the campsite. I’ve enjoyed this time in Ma Kyone Galet so much. If I hadn’t been part of Tribewanted in Bali, I would not have made it here.

I open Tribewanted and get reading. Soon though, I need to sleep.

Day 5

Home time

I wake early and I’m back into Tribewanted — Bob told me it would be addictive and it is. The speed at which Ben and MJ got moving withe the Tribewanted/Vorovoro concept was amazing and so motivating (I’m sure I will write about that story too, soon).

Tents all packed up, I stroll down the beach with Jonny waving out to the old man I met yesterday at the meeting in the Moken house (pipe smoker no 3). Jonny is buzzing about the prospect of a coral restoration project here.

We sit down for one last round of naans and coffees. Htun is also in our breakfast spot so I show him Tribewanted for a final memory of what might be possible.

Bob and Xavier soon join us. Xavier says “I’m going to miss this place”. I am too.

A final word

I took a lot of video on our expedition. Here’s a final clip from me, Ben and the Tribewanted Myanmar team.