There were seventeen of us in the group; a mixture of ex
serving officers and relatives of officers who had fought in WWII in
Burma.
We started with a few days in Yangon where we visited
the Swedagon Pagoda, the Taukkyan war cemetery and the Sittang Bridge outside
Yangon. We looked at the battle site near the bridge and Duncan explained what
happened there.
From there we flew to Mandalay, where we visited,
Mandalay Hill, had a look outside Fort Dufferin and did a short cruise on the
Irrawaddy River. David Bredin explained about the fighting in this
area.
A short flight took us to Myitkyina, where Brian
explained the battles in the area of Moguang. Myitkyina is know for its gem,
amber and jade market. We had a short ceremony at the pagoda where the Union
Jack was raised after the fighting.
Next flight was back to Mandalay where we started a two
hours bus ride into the hill station of Maymyo. This was a lovely town. We
visited the church where there were memorials to Gurkhas in WWII. We also
visited the market, the longest teak bridge and the Botanical
Garden.
We caught a flight to Bagan late afternoon. The day
after we visited a number of very interesting Pagodas of the thousands that are
there. The early morning balloon ride was cancelled because of low
clouds.
After breakfast we flew to Heho, which is the gateway to
Inle Lake. By then we were getting used to having many other tourists around us.
It was raining quite heavily by then. After a one hour bus ride, we got into
four longtail boats to take us to the hotel. They were well prepared for the
rain with big ponchos for each one of us. We just dropped the baggage off and
then went by boat (in the rain) to a restaurant for lunch and to visit yet
another pagoda. By late afternoon the rain had ceased.
Next morning was a dry glorious day and we enjoyed the
day's boat trip much more. It was interesting to see the leg rowing fishermen on
their tiny boats. We also visited a weaving factory, a black smith and a wooden
boat building yard.
Next morning we had an early start for our flight back
to Yangon, which was delayed due to low clouds.
Once back in Yangon, we were told that the famous Scott
market was closed, so we could not do our Xmas shopping, very
disappointing.
Tomorrow we fly to Auckland via Singapore.
It has been a very special experience to do this trip
with relatives of people who had fought here in Burma, clearly under terrible
conditions.