N 10 :Tuol Sleng

I think only a few people from the older generation have heard this name. It is a detention centre in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and I want to write about it.

 We visited some tourist attraction sites in the morning and after we have rested for a while, we went out again in the evening to visit Tuol Sleng, because it also is a tourist attraction. It is also called ‘Killing Fields’ because many people perished there.

It is in the city and the three storey buildings had been a school. It is during Pol Pot’s regime ( he is a communist ) that they arrested many people and kept them in detention camp like this one , made people moved  to the countryside and made them worked in the fields  against their wills, kept people half – starved, and torture and killed them. In a country where the population is only about 20 millions, 2 million were killed then.

When we came into the ground a somber feeling came over me. The thing we saw first was a concrete slab right outside the building. Our guide explained to us that when the new government raided this place they discovered 14 dead people and so they buried the bodies there and had that slab over the grave.

Then we went to see the rooms. They are bare except for a tin bed with an iron chain attached to it. The walls are dirty and stained (maybe with blood). Some rooms have photos of people detained there and later killed. In those days they killed everybody who they think are their enemies and are not on their side. I think that Cambodian people still have not overcome the horror and grief they encounter in those years. Many mass graves are still being uncovered.

We went to see some more rooms like this one and later we came to bigger rooms where torture apparatus and thousands of photos of the people killed are displayed. Many written documents are also to be seen. By this time I can see only a few of us looking around.

I had seen photos of piles of skulls in magazines and I asked Sokhin our guide where they are and he took us to the farthest side of the building. The skulls are in a cupboard. I took some pictures and as we don’t want to see any more we came out. 

When we reached the entrance we saw our whole group sitting and waiting for us. They said that it is not a happy place to visit, and so they don’t go in. I also think that the smell here is not good.

..……  To be continued…….

N9 : Conservation of Nature

This morning we had some visitors and we happened to talk about Taunggyi. They said they had visited Inlay and the Tamsang Cave and we discussed about the newly construction works in the cave. So an idea I have been wanting to write about came back into my mind and so I transform them into words.

In January while we were in Melbourne we visited a scenic spot called Lakes Entrance. It is about 4 hours drive from Melbourne. After 2 nights stay at Lakes Entrance we left to come back to Melbourne. Before long we reached a place where a road branches out to a town called Buchan (pro; buk can) There is a tourists attraction place called Buchan Caves there. We wanted to visit that place and so we took the road to it which took us 45 minutes.

When we were in Buchan we went right to the caves. In the ground there is every facility for camping. We had to pay $17 each to enter the cave.

Tours are conducted according to schedule and are lead by a tour guide. The visitors are gathered and the guide explains to the visitors about the cave and the dos and don’ts.

After that the guide opened the locked door at the entrance and the tour began. Like the caves in Myanmar the cave is full of stalagtites and stalagmites which are fascinating. 

But the difference between our caves and their caves is that they take much care in conserving their caves. It is not only a hundred or two hundred years for the stalagtites and the stalagmites to be formed to this state. So they are valued much. People are not allowed to touch them. At some places they were even guarded by iron nets. People can only view them from outside. We can say that they value nature. Take a look at the mountain in the east of Taunggyi. It had been covered with thick-green forest when we were young. But many pagodas and monasteries sprouted all over the mountains, and roads were built over it. These things affected the environment and our mountain is not like the olden days now.

What I want to say is that we should have the knowledge not to destroy our environment, but to value them for our own benefits. If the people doesn’t know about this the officials who have responsibilities should educate the citizens and prevent them from doing so.

N 8 : Cherry Fruits

I think not many people have seen and eaten cherry fruits in our country, because they are not grown and produced here. They are imported, but only in small quantities.

While we were in Melbourne last December we visited a cherry farm. It was cherry fruit picking season and the farms have a way to have the fruits picked without labour costs and at the same time earn some money from the farms.

The method is to let people enter the farm for $6 each. They were given a basket each to put the cherries they picked to eat and take home. While in the farm they can eat as much as they like, but as for the fruits they are taking home they have to weigh them when they come out and pay $10 for each kilo.

The farm we went is planted on a hillside and the scenery is very pretty on all sides. We learn that cherry trees like to be planted on hillsides like the tea trees in our country.

The cherry trees which their fruits can be eaten are of the family as our cherry trees of Taunggyi. I can say that because the leaves are similar to our wild cherry trees. But they are treated with modern horticulture techniques that the fruit grow bigger and can be eaten. They don’t let the trees grow too big. So they pruned them regularly. I also saw that there are many species from the names they have labelled for each tree.

The fruits are about the size of the peaches we have here. Each tree bears many fruits. The red cherry fruits are a pretty sight, but they are not sweet because they are not ripe yet. The ripe ones are darker, and if they are not picked at the right time they break and thus gone to waste.

I wish some entrepreneurs bring some plants from abroad and plant them in our country so that the people of Myanmar can enjoy them. I think they will grow well in our Shan States.

N 7 : The Cherry trees of Taunggyi

Taunggyi is a pretty town or maybe can be called a city because it has grown too much now. Round about 1900 it is only a small Taungthu (as the Pa-ohs are called then) village. The English moved their camp from Maing Thauk where there was much diseases and fevers to Taunggyi which is higher than Maing Thauk. And so a small town is born.

According to a book (Quiet Skies on Salween, the book which I translated into Burmese) there were many cherry trees in Taunggyi then. It says if you look down on the town from the crag (which is the top of the mountain on the east of the town) you will see a sea of pink colour. The mountainsides and the surrounding places are covered with pink blossom cherry trees.

It was still like that around the 50s and the 60s when I grow up in Taunggyi. I still remember that cherry trees lined up along the Main Road and it was very pretty when they bloom in December to February.

But the bad thing about cherry trees is that after the blossoming season has ended there appear thousands and thousands of worms from the trees. Some are dangling from the branches and the streets are strewn with live and dead worms so that people who are walking on the sidewalks cannot avoid treading on them.

I have seen cherry trees which lined the boulevards in Tokyo and also in the US (Washington I think) on TV. They celebrate cherry flower festival there and during that time many people visited and enjoy the pretty cherry blossoms and have picnics in the grounds.

The cherry flowers there are not the same as ours. Ours are smaller and the colour is pink whereas theirs are bigger and white. I think they are not natural like ours and are hybrid. I wonder if worms do or do not break out after the season is over. 

However cherry blossoms are very pretty. Our city was once called “Cherry Flower City”. But as for now it may not be right to call it so. Our cherry trees were cut down by citizens and municipal alike, so that only a few remains in Taunggyi.

I wish the officials whose duties are to maintain the city should think about planting new (and new species from abroad) and restore the city according to its old name “The Cherry Flower City". 

N 6 : Deforestation

Many people who are sensible enough like trees. Imagine yourself living in a place without trees. How are you going to endure the heat, where are you going to get timber for your house, the fruits for eating, firewood for your fires, and to protect your banks of rivers and streams from erosion?

 Last year I travelled to Taunggyi by car. On the way to Naypyidaw, on the two sides of the road the scene is not green and lustrous, but dry with the colour of ash and the hills are bare. But I also saw signboards saying  “ Bago khayaing sein lan sou pye ye “The reality is the opposite with the aim of the signboard.

Between Hlaingdet  and Paya Ngahsu we saw big piles of logs as before. I wonder if our country benefits from timber export or if the earnings only go into the bank accounts of the companies. In our country our state is one of the most suffering region from deforestation. And the road which is used to bring out logs out of the state also suffers. Our Taunggyi Meikhtila road is never really in good condition although repairing and maintenance is always to be seen.

When I was in Taunggyi I heard that whole trees were cut down so that wild orchids can be taken from them to be sold to China. So what will become of our country in 50 years. Or should I say lesser than 50 years. I have never heard about planting new trees in the inner Shan States. People only experienced a lot of troubles planting those good for nothing castor oil ( kyet-hsu ) plant.

If people are told about the disadvantages of cutting down trees they will surely argue that what the people has done is only a fraction of what the companies are doing.

I hope that the new government is considering about this and see to it so that our country will not become a land full of taung-ka-doan and gradually become desert land.

N 5 : I and Daw Aung San Su Kyi

I have much in common with Daw Aung San Su Kyi. We were born in the same year. She is in June and I am in September. Her father fought for the freedom of this country and was a famous political leader. My father also fought for the freedom of this country. He joined the Doubama Aseeayone and was also a Thakhin. He was also a member of a political party that fought to free the Shan States from the feudal Lords.

I am not comparing my father to the great Bogyoke Aung San. Bogyoke is the leader of the whole Burma while my father activated only in a small part of the Shan States.

But Bogyoke was assinated in 1947 and also was my father by the Feudal Lords. Daw Aung San Su Kyi was only 2 and I was only 3 by then.

About my name, I had one foster brother, who is older than me. I knew from him that because Bogyoke named his daughter Aung San Su Kyi my father named me Su Su. And so anybody can see that the ‘S’ from my blogger’s pen name is s he short form of ‘Su’. 

Other than these facts I cannot compare myself to Daw Aung San Su Kyi. I am just a dust when she is a shining star. I wish her good health and …….

“Long Live Daw Aung San Su Kyi”...

N 4 : The Old and the Young

We had a birthday party for my grand-daughter at home one night and I talked to Moe Moe, my daughter’s friend, and she said her mother is going to Korea with a tour company in April. We had gone to visit Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand last year with her father and mother. I knew that they were fond of travelling.

The thing I want to say here is about the difference between people. In our tour group beside me and my husband and some relatives there are two young women who hasn’t been abroad. When we were in Ho Chi-Minh City we visited the Gucci Tunnels. There I noticed that while the other people were exploring around the place they just sat at the entrance sipping soft drinks.

When we came to Angkor Wat I saw clearly how they are. These two young ladies never set a foot into that world famous building but just sat at the food stalls and visited the souvenir shops. During this time after we all explored Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom we were all tired and sat to rest and waited for our group to come back. Those two old people (Moe Moe’s parents) I mentioned above were the last to come back. They visited every nook and corner in the blazing heat. They are not young people. The husband is 70 and the wife’s somewhat younger. They came with us because they wanted to visit Angkor Wat in the 1st place.

If we look at these two couples, one old and one young we cannot say that they differ very much in education. All of them would at least have higher education. But the older one, they grow up in the merchandising environment and living in a big city. The younger couple grows up in the countryside and so they may not know the real value of old historical sites. They even say that why we took them to old and decrepit places (behind our back).

I have to conclude that it is the age, the education and experience that make them like that and that I as a group leader should warn  them before hand about places we are going to visit and that we are not going to visit shopping malls and theme parks only. 

N 3 : My Blogger's Name

I choose “S of the Shan Hills “to be used as my blogger’s name. When thinking about choosing pen name we always think something concerning our birthplace. (Not in the western world where people use only their real names).

I was born and raised in the Shan Hills. There was one famous Englishman who gave himself the name “Scott of the Shan Hills.” Anybody can look about him in the internet. I think he came to love the Shan Hills and so he took that name even if he was English.

So, I think, I who was born and bred in the Shan States can also take that name. Though my ‘S’ is the same as Scott’s initial I don’t think about copying his name. ‘S ‘is only ‘S’ and I don’t want to be compared and can’t be to the great Mr. J G Scott.

N 1 : Why did tears well in my eyes

I had some obsession with the ‘’Silk Road. “I don’t know why. So when I decided to translate an English book into Burmese I chose the ‘Silk Road’.

Many people know about the Silk Road. Some have learnt about it in History. It is a very ancient road used more than 2000 years ago to communicate between the western world  (Turkey and Rome ) to China. Most people know about it from the travels of Marco Polo and Journey to the West (Wu Khone). But there are still people (mostly from younger generations) who doesn’t know about it.

 Well ….. I looked for the book but could not find a suitable one. At one time one nephew of mine who knew that I am looking for it brought me one. He borrowed it from somewhere. I took a look at it and decided to translate it.

It is my first book and a bit difficult. I had to ask the author U Myint Kywe to help me and edit it for me.

When the book is finished I think that though I am interested in the Silk Road and want to visit it I cannot do so because I am old and cannot be sure about my health. So I thought about writing a postscript saying;

“To my daughter……to visit the Silk Road in place of your mother whenever you get a chance to do so”

I did not really put the postscript but I told my daughter by email and her reply said;

‘I want to cry mum when  I read your email. If you want to go there why don’t you go by yourself. I think u still can do so if u really want to.”

When I read her email tears also welled in my eyes. So I had to flash my eyes so as not to make tears fall down.

N 2 : Introduction; A New Blogger

I am going to be a blogger. I understand that one can write everything such as personal experiences, personal thoughts, diaries, hobbies, and even recipes etc.

 If a person is interested in writing and after he or she wrote something say a poem, or an article he or she may want it to be published in a magazine or a journal. But it is very hard to be chosen for a new pen. When the people from the journals and magazines are hunting for articles from old and famous pens most of the writings of the new pens will go into the waste basket.

So I choose to become a blogger. It is not to make money but it will give me some joy when I share with some other people. I know I am not a good writer and my English is limited. But I think I can write for people to understand and it will not going to be heavy subjects but such titles mentioned above. I think I will be able to do so.