N  95 Paing Htande 

The last time I visited Bagan was many years ago . I think it was in 2004 , the year Thailand was hit by a destructive Tsunami. I remember this because when we were in Mandalay at my niece Nang Mya Win May’s house the event was shown again and again in the news on TV.

It had been on my mind to visit Bagan again but could not do so all these years. But this year we (with my daughter’s family )decided to go and we did it . We had planned to visit Paing Htande (Paing toddy palm

hut ) on our way back.

Paing Htande has been a  popular   place like many other attractions through facebook. It is on the way to Kyaukpadaung , not very far from Bagan. So not before long we reached the place. The first thing we saw there was the simple signboard and two tourists buses. On branches of trees that grow in front of the main hut were hung old birds’ nests for decoration.

On entering the hut which is roofed with palm leaves I saw some tables occupied by tourists. The tables and seats are made of crude logs of toddy palms with matted palm leaf coverings. The tourists are sipping and savouring sweet toddy palm juice with some other foods.

On the other side of the hut is the place for displaying and selling of products from this place ,mostly palm juggery and foods made from it.

As we got farther into the hut we saw about 3 fireplaces where women were cooking palm juice to make them into juggery. When the palm juice has become thick due to incessant stirring women take a small amount of it and roll them in their hands to make a ball which Burmese people like to eat as dessert after meals.The lump which they take into their hands is surely hot, but they would be used to it I thought.

My mind wanders to things that I have seen in TV documentaries. To the making of all kinds of foods such as cheese, jams, noodles, wines, chocolates, with ultra modern machines and equipments with the most advanced technologies and I realized how much we were far behind and are still living in the primitive ages. Hmmm…. better not to think about our lives, our situation , our country….

In the backyard, at the farthermost place there are the toilets, clean and usuable, even not modernized ones. And there are also decorations with umbrellas, some flower beds, a boat, a cart, some round huts with palm leaf roofing, where people like to take photos. These are fascinating to the eyes of our people and many are excitingly taking photos with these backgrounds.

At one place there is a plaster statue of a Burmese man and not realizing who it is  I took a photo with it.

Then I came to the table where my family had ordered and eating some food .This part is mostly under gourd vine roofing and we can see big green gourds  dangling from the canopy. We tasted some palm juice and ate some fried gourd fritters. It did not cost much.

While we were eating  I asked some girls who were serving about the place and came to know about the owner whose name is Paing Ba Kyi. They said that his statue is over there and then did I realized the statue I had taken photo with is the owner. I also learned that he lives in the village not far from there and that he owns toddy palm groves and land around there.At present he was on pilgrimage with his family. I told them it is a great idea to create such a rest area to attract people and even tourists who are travelling.

We Myanmar people lacks creativity and new ideas. When someone starts a new business and it becomes successful people will try to copy it. So we can see many rest areas like Paing Htande around Bagan with different decorations now.

And in Bagan I don’t know who started it . But we can see many places where small puppets are hung from branches of trees to make the place attractive and so can sell their wares. People just copy one another’s ideas. A place like Paing Htande would be born out of somebody’s idea which I think is Paing Ba Kyi’s.I presume he is not an educated town folk but a simple farmer who had lived in that arid land growing palm trees and earned his living from them. If some educated businessman from a large city started a business like this it would not be much unusual , but as a simple farmer  who lives in the country,  his idea is something that should be acknowledged and appreciated as an entrepreneur.