If you had told me a year ago that I would be working in
South-east Asia I would have laughed in disbelief. I owe this opportunity to a dear mentor and
former professor, and I thank her dearly for her recommendation. I have just finished my first rotation here
in Myanmar, so allow me to start from the beginning of this journey.
I left Thunder Bay on January 15th, sad to be leaving my
friends and family after such a short reunion, but excited for what was to
come. I spent the night in Toronto,
catching up with some amazing friends who were generous enough to have me for
the night.
And then the real travel began.
I would be flying from Toronto to Vancouver, connect to Hong
Kong, and then once again to Bangkok! I
had a long day ahead of me.
My flight to Hong Kong was of course the longest and I took
advantage of the time to watch some movies. I also happened to be sitting next
to an elderly man who had once been a geologist in the oil sector, working all
around the world. It was nice to hear
about his experiences and his advice for Asia.
The view from my window seat was a highlight, as I was privy to sights
of the “Sea to Sky” Highway along the BC coast, tons of mountains and rivers,
and the Berring Strait.
We landed in Hong Kong to a city shrouded in smog, living
under the simmering gaze of the setting sun.
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| Montri!! |
It was in the Hong Kong airport that I met Jerry, a fellow
Canadian geologist who would be my project leader in Myanamar. Arriving in Bangkok airport, we collected our
bags and grabbed a taxi to our hotel where we relaxed for the night. Our hotel, Montri Hotel and Resort was only
$36 for the night but took us forty minutes to get to. We had arrived at Suvubarmi airport, and
would be flying out the next morning from Don Mueang Airport. Montri was only a five minute drive from Don
Mueang, but seemed to be located in a slum of sorts. It was an interesting walk to the local
Seven-Eleven; I think I asked a street prostitute for directions!
And then it was off to Myanmar. We arrived in Mandalay, stepping off the Air
Asia plane to a wave of heat. Yup, It
was to be a warm winter again.
Myanmar had just recently opened its borders to the outside
world, so it is a country out of time.
The airport was simple, and the customs counters not that secure. I looked around me at the other passengers in
line and saw the tale-tell signs of backpackers. I’m sure they will enjoy their travels in
Burma.
Jerry and I were greeted by a small crew from our company
Eternal. One of whom claimed to be our
interpreter, but he had great difficulty stringing together sentences in
English and couldn’t understand a lot of what we were saying. It was interesting to note that he was a
senior Geologist and we would be working with him! However, it was much harder for Jerry to
communicate with the Burmese as he was originally from Nigeria! He spoke English fluently (as that is the
official language in Nigeria) but with a thick African accent. I’m sure the experience was incredibly
frustrating for him, however it was quite funny to see the disconnect play out.
We were soon joined by Tom who was our Project Manager and
the man who had hired us all. He spoke
to Jerry about the Banmauk project we would be working at before leaving to
another exploration camp where Eternal was mining.
It turned out that our group was one short. We were waiting on another Canadian
geologist, Cheyenne, who had been working for Eternal previously and would be
joining us at Banmauk. She arrived
shortly after and we left the airport at 3:30pm on a very long drive to the
camp.
We passed through many towns and villages on our way North
through the Sagaing region, and were lucky enough to see many a Pagoda (temple)
with their gold-plated tops. An aspect
of our travel that I was surprised to see was that the Burmese were atrocious
litterers! The roads were lined with
discarded garbage, left to decay in the fields that were otherwise so
beautiful.
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| Oh Hi!! |
We ended up stopping in Shwebo, a highway town that was just
like you’d expect to see in a Asian movie.
Storefronts lined both sides of the road with pedestrians and
motorcyclists streaming back and forth. We picked up a few items and were then
on our way. The two lane highway had given way to a one-lane road and it was
chock-o-block driving along it. We passed tons of motorcycles (evidently the
preferred choice of travel for the Burmese), and many wagons pulled by
oxen. We even saw a truck hauling an
elephant!
It was 11pm when we arrived at Kyauk Pahtoe (pronounced
Japituur) which was a mine owned by Eternal and where we would be staying the
night.
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| Our Lodge!! |
It was another two hours the next morning before we made it
to Banmauk. The road was no longer paved
or gravel, just the dirt floor of the jungle.
Our truck brushed aside giant leaves as it rumbled up hillsides and down
ravines, until it brought us to our destination.
 | |
| My Bed!! |
The camp was situated on top of a peak, overlooking several
of the adits that were currently being mined and kept safe by a fence and
guard, limiting the flow of traffic through the camp. We drove on through, passing bamboo buildings
and the mystified faces of Burmese villagers until we rolled up to our
accommodations. The workers there had built us a three-bedroom lodge equipped
with bathrooms and a common area which would act as our kitchen. It had a front porch lined with a fence and
featuring an impressive trim along the roof.
We quickly went about emptying the truck and dumping our equipment in
our rooms. Each was equipped with a
wooden bed frame whose banisters rose up to support a top frame that held a
bundle of soft mesh (I later learned that this was to keep off the mosquitos
during the wet season). The room also
featured a table and a clothes hanger.
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| Das Shower!! |
Jerry and Cheyenne had the same set up but their bathrooms
were a little more luxurious. They
actually had sit down toilets while I was left with a ceramic-bordered hole in
the ground! Their bathrooms were also
only accessible via their rooms while mine was also accessible through the
common room, making my ensuite a community endeavour. Also included were a sink, wall mirror, and
a shower. Well, you certainly wouldn’t
recognize it as a shower. I stared down
at the large bucket elevated on a stool, water tap perched above it, and a
thermal heat conductor within it. It reminded
me of a giant kettle. It seemed that in
order to have a shower I would fill this bucket up, turn on the heater, wait
till the water was nice and warm, and then scoop it out with a basin and pour
it over my body and all over the floor below.
An eloquent solution to a lack of a hot water tank.
Next door to our lodge was the office. It was still under construction when we
arrived but it featured a large open room, and another bedroom with an
ensuite. I peeked inside and saw a
sit-down toilet. I had found a solution
to my predicament!
Further up the hill was the Chairman’s house. This was a very large building much like our
own lodge, but featured more bedrooms and a larger common area. It was to be kept empty especially for when
the chairman was to visit, which was considered unlikely and quite secretive.
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| Disconcerting... |
We were then met by several of the managers at the
exploration camp. Cy Mien (Simon) was
the head manager there and son-in-law to the Chairman and President of Eternal
Mining. He was joined by Ouu La Myien
Sou and Ouu Myien Sou (senior geologist and senior mining engineer
respectively). All three spoke decent
English and were very welcoming towards us.
Jerry decided that it would be wise to spend our first day taking a tour
of the property. We piled into two
trucks, along with a team of young Burmese geologists and students. We hit the dirt road again, weaving through
the jungle. The adits we surveyed all
had the appearance that you would expect from a film about the conditions in
the third world. The entrances were
propped up by lumber and wooden frames, with a track for the carriage full of
rock and ore pushed by labourers with dirt laden faces. It was all rather disconcerting.
 |
| Spectacular! |
We wrapped up our tour and headed back to camp early as we
were all exhausted from our journey. I
hit my bed as soon as I got back to camp, ignoring the stiffness of the
mattress and the lack of give from the pillow.
I was awoken a short time later by Cheyenne for dinner, forcing myself
out of bed and towards the kitchen. Our
lodge faced towards the west, and I was stunned by the sunset as I stepped
outside. The sun sank behind a mountain
range that dominated our own, its orange rays flaring into the crisp sky above.
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| To the Kitchen! |
Jerry, Cheyenne and I lumbered up to the eating hall,
slipping off our shoes (a very important gesture when entering a room) and
joining the managers for dinner. Also in
our party was Ouu Shway, the interpreter we met at the airport who happened to
be a senior geologist. Shway, it turned
out, meant gold in the Myanmar language, so he was literally called Mr. Gold!
We were attended to by several young Burmese women, who
busily filled our bowls with rice and laid out several side dishes. Everyone at the camp showed us quite a bit of
respect and reverence, it was both an interesting and weird feeling. To complete the Fung Shui of the room, a
Buddha sat in an elevated shrine and a small dish of rice was offered to him at
every meal.
Our dinner was fantastic, with the main plate consisting of
rice, complemented by dishes of pork, beef, and vegetables laid out in a neat
manner that added to the enjoyment of the meal.
The food was purchased from a market a few hours away and the meat
cooked over a large fire pit. It was at
dinner that I learned my first Burmese words.
The water I was drinking was referred to as ‘Yeay’, and the tea that
would accompany every meal was ‘Yeay Nuay’, essentially meaning hot water!
We talked for quite a while with our hosts and amongst
ourselves until we felt the weight of tiredness descend upon us. We walked back to our lodge in the dark,
staring up at the stars forming the night sky.
Burma was still in the Northern Hemisphere, and Orion and his belt
gleamed down on us, appearing as our guard in this foreign land. And a guard we were in need of, as we did not
have any internet access and no means with which to contact our families back
home. All we had was a phone in the
company office opposite the kitchen that could only call within Burma.
This was going to be quite the experience!
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