Little pieces

After 4 days of helping a friend tend her booth at the Motherhood Exhibition down at Singapore Expo, I am in need of a little peace and quiet. Stay away from the madding (and maddening) crowd.

The idea brought me back to Nyaungshwe. I was on the last leg of my Burma 'tour de force' and I had no idea of what was to be expected at Nyaungshwe.

The day I got there, I spent the afternoon walking. I walked into a settlement, a little village. Families were gossiping at the verandah, fathers were teaching sons how to repair their 'sampan', etc.

We all exchanged smiles, me being curious about their easy-breezy lifestyle and they being curious why this weirdly dressed Asian sister ended up in their backyards and taking pictures of herself near their toilets.

I found a little spot by the river and parked my tired ass there. It was quiet on my side, but bustling on the other. It was my perfect moment. I could sleep there until another person found the same spot.

This traveller from Xiamen, China, sat beside me quietly. I started a conversation because I am the kind of person who would. I am not a great chatter but I do enjoy a little conversation and after 5 days of travelling alone, a good conversation seems god-send.

So after a quick chat, the traveller (whose name is Guo Xiong) and I sat peacefully by the river till he stood up to leave. I left not long after and on my way back, I strolled past a huge paddy field and saw a glorious sight.

The sun was setting nicely down the plains, covering the land with a strong orange glow. The children who lived near the field were desperately playing to their hearts' content and trying to chase the last ray of light. So were the ducks, furiously paddling up and down the stream in the tangerine light.

I stood there for a while, trying to put myself in the places of the children and their mothers who were waving and smiling at me. They must have gotten this everyday...silly travellers gawking into their lives with expressions bordering between wistfulness and disdain (for the lack of modernity).

And as the day turned dark, I made my way back to my abode, a rickety chalet-like room with minimal amenities, stopping earlier at an eatery for a quick dinner.

There I met the traveller from Xiamen and his two friends. We began to converse in Mandarin about how expensive the food at the eatery was but laughed at ourselves for being idiots because we chose to be there for its free wifi :)

Okay...such a long post for a 2-3hr non-event. If I were to compile the memories of my Burma travel (or any travel for that matter), it would be a never-ending reading material with a lot of thoughts, perspectives, what-ifs and comic encounters. Very self-indulgent. Like now. So I better stop.

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