2015 - THE IRRAWADY of MYANMAR - Pottery village & a school
Thu 12 Mar 2015
TODAY WE GET TO SEE HOW POTTERY IS MADE .
Here's some ready for shipping ...
We get on shore, climb up the bank as usual ( it would be a lot less tiring in the rainy season when the water is 30 meters higher ) & make our way into the tiny village ..
The youngster is spinning the wheel with his feet while his mom throws the pot ... I think she has done that before ..
Trying to make a sale ...
no luck this time - what a bunch of meanies ..
Imagine making all those pots - one pot at a time ..
I think this is a girl .. showing off her Karate moves . ...
And she knows how to pose too ...
Firing the pots here maybe ..
but this is firing the pots. They go into a big pile of dirt that has charcoal burning inside ...
Here we are inside a room where the lady kindly demonstrated for us .. I did not see any passengers give any of these people any cash for their time & don't know if the guide did either ...
An ancient looking village - with solar panels ...
KIds playing games with anything to hand ..
These kids were in school ... Some of the passengers gave gifts here. Pandaw have a good way of dealing with gift giving. A few days ago we were in a market & Mr So suggested if we wanted to give at the school, that we buy locally. A far better idea than lugging stuff halfway round the world.
They are singing us a song here ..
OK children - the boring tourists have gone now - back to play.
Watch these ladies take some pots to their boat ...
Oh my Lord ..... Now, that is tricky! ...
We have tied up for the night & the locals do what the locals do ..
The steps you can see are a bit the worse for wear at the bottom. I should have paid attention to that.
A girl negotiates the climb down with her empty water buckets ...
and what goes down - has to go up. Here she sways home with full buckets. Looks like hard work but great for keeping slim ...
I followed her along the road & then down the main street looking for a beer. No beer but I did find some tea & the locals came to see the crazy tourist trying to sit on a chair inches from the ground. Not for the first or last time in Myanmar, someone found me a bigger chair.
Thank you ladies & gents.
Here the souvenir sellers hatch their plans for the morning.
They look for a likely customer & try to make contact. Each seller gets one customer & they will stick like glue to you for ages trying to make the sale. They are not impressed if you buy from someone else either.
I went for a walk through town on my own that evening. Not too difficult on the way out but pitch black on the way back & those stairs I mentioned don't make it all the way to the beach. Oh well - I did make it home after a bit of a struggle.
Posted by hasbeen 04:19 Archived in Myanmar Comments (2)