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| Fishing village |
It's been a crazy week!!! Back to full time teaching after a long
Christmas break plus other duties that have come with the new year, some expected, others
unexpected but welcome, anyway. I want to share the rest of
my wonderful holidays with you before they
become a blurred and distant memory.
I had been dreaming of spending New Year on the beach for so
many years.... And finally, I celebrated
the beginning of 2015 in Ngwe Saung Beach, in the Bay of Bengal.
I
couldnt comply with the tradition of eating the 12 grapes but made it
up with nearly as many Mandalay rum shots,
got hammered at that party in a bar full of foreigners. I remember
talking to some of the guys and quite a few were teachers residents in
Myanmar. Surprise? We tried to find a party on the beach but it was not
happening so we ended up going to "the party", I guess.
Being a Mediterranean woman, I feel the urge to be near the sea from
time to time, so spending nearly a week on the seaside was amazing.
Besides, I met with my VSO colleagues Soraya and Wendy and it was great
to catch up with them sharing our different experiences as EfECT
trainers and Myanmar life in general. I could have just been lying down
for hours on the free comfy loungers in the luxury resort without
getting bored. But it was only on New Year's Day I did that, for the
hangover bit.
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| Boys drying fish in the fishing village |
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| Añadir leyenda |
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| Childhood memories |
I enjoyed every single thing I did. We went for long walks along the
beach, which is a bit like the main road. The village is really small
and quiet but a lot of daily activities take place on the seashore:
women drying fish in the sand, farmers going places with cows, boats
delivering pigs, villagers on their motorbikes, bicycles or horses,
street vendors selling coconuts or prawns,... We took a boat trip to
Bird's Island to do snorkelling where I saw beautiful fish, barracuda,
piranha and others I cant name, not as big as my boat mates who went far
from the boat, but I'm so scared in the middle of the ocean!!! I hired a
rubber tyre and played at jumping huge waves, a top favourite with the
locals, specially before sunset. How it reminded me of my childhood in
the river Turia with my brothers and sister!!!
We went cycling to a
nearby fishing village where we were the only white people and swam in
the sea with the villagers as an audience. In this village, we stopped
to drink a coconut with palm sugar cubes at a place that looked like a
coconut shop where the guy had hundreds of them. When we tried to pay
for them, the man refused to accept any money. That's they way Myanmar
people are, so generous, they just want to please you. They do it all
the time, so sweet!!!
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| Beach Shack-Bar |
Every late afternoon, we would sit at one of the beach shack-bars drinking Chang or Myanmar beer, whatever they had the coldest, savoring grilled prawns and admiring the spectacular sunset. It was one of the most pleasant moments of the day.
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| With Wendy, Soraya and Moira at Table 7 |
Then, shower time, choosing a place for dinner with seafood in the menu and on our way to the room, a little bit of internet surfing if at all possible. Ngwesaung has electricity only after 6pm and internet at our hotel was supposed to be available from 7pm to 11pm. But, who cares? It's such an unspoilt charming place!!!
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| Drying fish |
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| Pagodas on the beach, why not? |
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| Buying ice cream and making friends |
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| One of those poisonous snakes we see in wildlife documentaries |
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