Memories of Myanmar

Myanmar is the largest nation in mainland Southeast Asia, home to around 51 million people. The country is surrounded on three sides by densely forested mountains and plateaus, and around one third of Myanmar's total perimeter forms an uninterrupted coastline of over a thousand miles along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

I visited Myanmar in October last year and was immediately enchanted. Since returning home from my trip many people have asked about my favourite country. It's a question that is not easy to answer, as I loved each place I visited for completely different reasons, but Myanmar stands out in my memory as a country I will hold dear to my heart forever.

Mountains surrounding Hsipaw

There are many reasons for this. The landscape is beautiful and the people incredibly friendly. But it is perhaps a single evening that retains a hold over my many recollections from that month spent in Myanmar, taking place in a little village high in the mountains surrounding Hsipaw, a town in the Shan state in Eastern Myanmar. Many visit Hsipaw to undertake one of the many scenic, hillside treks, and we were no exception. We were around an hour into the walk, passing through some rice paddies on the outskirts of town when our friendly guide told us that there was going to be an annual festival in the village that night.

It was already a special day, as our trek that day coincided with my travel companion's one year travel anniversary. At sunset, we made our way up to the village temple. Already, a crowd of people from the surrounding villages had arrived ready for the festival. Monks prayed inside as people made offerings. Shortly afterwards, a drum beat began and the young people in the village began dancing in concentric circles, alternating between boys and girls. Some of the girls were in beautiful traditional clothes and danced with soft hand movements that mimicked the picking of tea, while the boys dancing was more vigorous, rhythmically kicking up their feet, their arms draped around one another.

Riding in the back of a pick up truck

Our guide encouraged us to join the women. We did our best to copy their grace and ease of movement. At intervals, the drumming ceased, the circles broke apart, and the boys rushed to stand in small groups in front of a girl they liked. The boys began singing traditional songs of love and romance, as the girls replied. No sooner had it stopped than the drumming began again, the circles reformed and the dancing resumed.

Our guide told us this was an annual matchmaking festival, a once a year chance for young people in the villages to meet and, just maybe, find the person they would marry. To be part of something like this, even for just an instant, is the reason we travel. It felt like a true honour to be there in that moment, to be present, alive and on the road.

That feeling was something of a theme during my time in Myanmar. Getting lost in the countryside and endless temples around Bagan, weaving our way through herds of cows and goats, climbing Mount Zwegabin in the searing afternoon heat to sleep overnight in a monastery, ascending higher and higher into the hills in the back of a small pick up truck, these are some of my favourite and most treasured memories of a trip that changed my life forever.

Waterfall, Hsipaw