Have nothing but gives everything
My first Myanmar friend
Myanmar is next to Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh, India and China, but there’s only Thailand borders are free for foreigners to go across, so Mae Sot becomes a famous place for cyclists to stop by.
The last night in Thailand, I was unloading my bike and heard two foreigners said: “Wa, we finally see cyclist!” They are a couple from New Zealand, they have just cycled Myanmar and getting ready to travel in Thailand by bus.
“Bamboo bike? Are you the Hongkongese who Myanmar’s Warmshower host mentioned?” They were looking at my bamboo bike.
“Yes, Susu?”
“Yes! Susu, she is a girl really worth to visit and know! ”
From Mae Sot Thailand to Myanmar I cycled on a highway which is built by Thailand, after 50km of hills I arrived a town — Kawkareik. For people who want to know the density of a town, the easiest way is to look at a map. I don’t understand why Kawkareik is not that small but she only has 4 hours of electricity a day.
Myanmar doesn’t have many Warmshower host (Couchsurfing for cyclist), if yes, they are normally foreigners, the local have little chance to know what Warmshower is and it is very weird that there’s a Warmshower host in a small town with only 4 hours electricity.
Myanmar suffers from civil war, so it’s the law that foreigners have to live in guesthouse and the locals can’t have foreigners stay at their place. I contacted Susu and tell her that I will arrive in her town in a few days, she asked me to call her when I arrived.
“Beep……Please try to call back later. ” The phone is off.
Is it because of no electricity? But it’s now 7pm, it shouldn’t be and she has off work now.
I was too hungry and tired so I didn’t wait for her and ate some noodle close by. When I went back to the guesthouse it was already 9pm, only 30mins before the electricity off. I walked pass the guesthouse landlord and thought should I call her again, it’s quite late now?
“Hum…may be I should leave it.”
I walked back and asked the landlord to call again even my mind was like just leave it. “She is here, she is looking for you upstair.”
If God gave me one more chance I would still eager to meet this Myanmar lady — Susu.
“Have you eaten? “ Susu asked with her broken English.
“I only ate some noodle and still hungry, you?”
“I ate a little bit, come to house! “
Then we started riding a bike to her place.
The road towards Susu’s home is very dark and bumpy, only with some lighting’s from local’s house. If it is without electricity, you can’t even see a thing.
About 7 mins later, we arrived a small wooden house, it’s a little bit broken but simple. There’s a certificate with Burmese on the wall and a black and white photo of a lady. The dinning room has a broken bicycle and a buddha, also her brother was standing there and said “Hi”.
Susu poured me a pink drink, Myanmar’s drink doesn’t really have ice and with lots of colouring, I took the cup and asked: “Can I please take some photos here?” Susu was like, hey you don’t need to ask, just take as many as you want and then she started prepare our dinner in the dark.
Suddenly she asked her brother and gave me a pile of photos and an old style photo book. I saw the lady of the black and white photo on the wall…
“Is she your mother?”
“Yes, she died when I was 18.”
“……” I didn’t say a word.
“My mother died one year after my father died because she got a……thing you know she can’t move? and she was very depressed.”
“Stroke?”
“Yes! Sorry I don’t know the name.”
“Don’t worry. So you also have a sister?” I looked at the photos and said.
“Yes, she is now studying University in Yangon.”
“Who pay the school fee?”
“Me!” She pointed at herself.
“My brother need to study in University in few years later, so I do anything I can do. I have a full time job, also teach kids in the weekend, sometime have tour for foreigners. My boss know I need to pay for school fees so he allow me to take tours on weekdays.”
“You? Do you have brothers and sisters?” She suddenly asked.
“No I don’t, only me.”
“Oh, really? Myanmar family must have 3–4 children’s!” She was very surprise and suddenly looks serious. “But it’s good…only one.”
“Well, sometime’s is good, sometime’s bad. When something happened, I don’t have anyone to talk to as family issues are so complicated and hard to be understood.”
“Yes right. When I was 18 I really don’t like taking the responsibility of my brother and sister. My mum said: “Take care of them.” Then she stop eating and killed herself. Now I really think I am happy to have brother and sister, we are happy.”
The table was full of Burma dishes without any notice. I think that was too much, every time I am served by the locals and I would think, they have nothing but they gave me everything they have. Many urban people have so much but they feel like they have nothing.
“Is it because of me so you prepared so many dishes?”
“No, this is what I normally eat.” She smiled and start introducing the Burmese dishes on the table.
“This is for you, this is the Myanmar salad I made, this is……”
“Burmese dishes is very rich right? A cyclist said I can open a cooking class to teach foreigners Burmese dishes. Indian, Thai, Vietnam and Malay dishes are very famous but no one knows Burma dishes.”
“This is a great idea, earning foreigners money is the easiest way.”
“But I can’t do it now, I have income now, if I change I am not sure if I can have stable income. I want to do so many things, may be wait after brother and sister finish university?”
“What do you want to do?”
“First I want to promote Myanmar don’t use plastic, also plant a tree after cut one.” She took out a calendar printed with Netherlands’s photos which is a gift from a Dutch cyclist. “See Holland is very pretty, they don’t have plastic.”
I keep listening to her, I know the photos must have edited but somehow it is true that South East Asia is filled with plastic and rubbish.
“Myanmar is a very beautiful place, but with lots of rubbish it is not beautiful anymore. I refuse to use plastic bag but people don’t understand even I explained. They said I can use plastic bag in some other way. Oh and also these two years Myanmar is lack of water, I remember when I was in childhood I never had this problem, we could get water anywhere anytime, we can swim in the river. I want to work in NGO, but I don’t know how.”
I was surprised: “Not many South East Asian has the same thought as you, even my friends who are fully educated, they love plastic bags.”
“Actually foreign cyclists told me and I realised it is right! So I very appreciate and love to meet cyclists around the world!”
She is doing something right, although it is very hard to change other’s habit, but cyclists inspired her by doing so.
“This is the second thing I wanted to.”
She took an A4 paper out printed with English. The title is “Hpa An / Kawkareik Tour (VERY LOW COST)”, and also some brief intro of Susu and the tour.
“This is also typed by a foreign cyclist, my English is not good, so he helped me to attract customers.”
I read through the A4 paper once: “Have you set a price for the tour?”
“No, I don’t want to set a price.”
“Hum…I think you should set a price. For example how much is a day of Hpa An tour, how much is Hpa An plus Kawkareik tour. As a traveller, even though I know it is VERY LOW COST but I can’t feel how economy it is. I saw you wrote 5000–10000 Burma dollar for a trip on Warmshower’s description, so it’s about 5–10USD per tour, when I know the price and I could feel how low cost it is.”
“Also may be you should list out an itinerary, what’s special about the tour. For example you have mentioned the rare noodle factory, foreigners can make noodle and eat after that, it is fun! Or may be go to the local market, buy some food and prepare a meal together, you are good in cooking so it would be fine. Or when you introduce Hpa An’s attractions you can upload some photos with description saying people can watch thousands of bats in a cave under sunset. I can write the structure out when I have time, but my English is not fluent too, you have to ask the English cyclist to help you write out the full itinerary. Then it’s all about promotion.”
“Another cyclist opened a facebook page for me and uploaded photos for promotion, but I don’t know how.”
She was holding her phone: “See my phone is very old and slow…so…”
I was looking at her old phone and some unclear image of her facebook page and thought, everyone is helping this girl and I am also doing the same.
About 10pm, we were still on the table and the light cut off, suddenly it was dark everywhere. She calmly took her torch out and walked to the kitchen: “Wait.” The light was back.
“Hum? Isn’t it no electricity after 9:30pm?” I was curious.
“We use solar panel, the electricity is weaker in rain season, only last for a few hours.” Then she showed me the torch and happily said: “This is also a gift from cyclist.”
“I am very curious how you know Warmshower?”
“I love to meet foreigners, so I can learn English. One day I saw a foreigner and I talked to her, she is a cyclist and she helped me to set up a Warmshower account. She know my English is not very good, so she typed the information on my account.”
Just a little move of a cyclist and it changes the life of a girl in a small town.
After that she keep introducing her culture with broken English, she took the Myanmar cloths out, put some local plant sun cream — Tamaka on my face and also gave me a postcard of Bagan. She is just doing something she loves and shares all she has.
It was almost 12am, I actually need to sleep at 10 because I need to leave early tomorrow, but I didn’t want to leave the place. She asked her brother to took me back to my guesthouse. On the way without light I was thinking, even though I don’t have a clear answer, but I still understand why all the cyclists eager to help her, it’s just because we the cyclists are so glad to meet the girl who is trying her best to host us.
Epilogue:
On that night I was saying I would like her to take me to the noodle factory and also be a day tour in Hpa An, she didn’t refuse nor agree, I thought she wasn’t free.
On the next day, I told her that I couldn’t find the noodle factory close to the market. She surprisingly said: “I thought you said you are not going!”
Hum…so she didn’t understand what I said, I really want to visit the factory!!!!!! May be she only understand half of my opinions about her tour? I will give her a clear plan next time!
Hpa An and Kawkareik is not a famous tourist place, but if you guys are visiting Myanmar feel free to join Susu’s “VERY LOW COST” tour, I believe you will have an unforgettable experience. Actually I am busy like hell when I am traveling, I am afraid that I can’t help much. If you have any good plans and want to help Susu, feel free to comment here or message me!
Thanks for reading, it would be super grateful to follow me on other medias…
