Adi Lady's Adventures: Tommy and Trekking

Shocking WiFi connection in most of Myanmar means bloggingtons are well backed up, like my poo. I will do my best to update.

Day 9 of trip saw us heading east from Bagan to Kalaw in the hills. En route we visited Mt Popa the epicentre of Nat spirit worship.

This is a photo of the temple on top of the mountain.

And this is the shrine that awaited me after the 800 step climb. OMG, how kitsch! It felt part shrine part circus attraction. I was half expecting the Nat spirit of a bearded lady to pop up.

For those of you who don't know, Nat spiritualists believe that spirits reside in rivers, mountains, forest etc. They also pray to specific spirits for bespoke wishes. For example there is a god of alcohol that can be prayed to for anybody who wants to stop boozage. At first I thought this a crazy notion then remembered that we Catholics pray to St Christopher to find lost stuff and St Blaze for sore throats. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is what's the diff?

This is the view from the top of Mt Popa.

And this is one of the scabby monkeys that infest the place. All the lady monkeys had really red, sore joggers' nipple. Very mange indeed:(

This is a gnarly old monkage. He was a pretty miserable monkage at that.

Then we arrived at Kalaw and got up early for trekking in the morning.

Mountains...

Villages...

Very cute kids...

Adi lady in traditional headgear, we had lunch in a village and got to try on their clothes.

The man in the orange turban is Tommy and he is truly remarkable. He has dedicated his life to the plight of the hill tribes of Myanmar. When he was a medical student he was photographed on a demonstration against military rule and black listed by the government. He was kicked out of university and nobody was allowed to employ him so he headed for the hills of his boyhood. He speaks excellent English and the 7 tribal languages, as well as French and a smattering of Russian. He was smuggled out of the country in the 80's and completed a degree at Birmingham University, the UK being the only country to offer him asylum. He has been in and out of gaol and had a gun held to his head on many occasions but shows no fear. Tommy is not a political man but was persuaded to run for parliament due to his influence with the hill tribes; he is more famous to them than Aung San Suu Kyi, he now holds a seat for the National Democratic party.

Tommy will probably be 'disappeared' or the future democratically elected Prime Minister for Myanmar. His view of the political situation is both sensible and pragmatic and reminds me of the stance taken by Nelson Mandela after the fall of apartheid. Quite simply the military have to be negotiated with, consulted and included in Myanmar's future government. To hold them accountable to the Geneva conventions would back them into a corner causing them to come out guns a blazing, fueling further bloodshed.

Tommy runs the RDS (Rural Development Society) which funds improvement projects for the hill tribes and has set up an orphanage in the town, we are going there for dinner.

So what made me happy today?