Last Saturday to early Monday morning, I had been on a trip to the delta region (which is in Ayeyarwaddy Division). It was actually a work-related trip, but nonetheless, it was also a relaxing trip.
I have never been to the Ayeyarwaddy delta region, or at least I've never went past Nyaung-tone. This is the first time I've reached past Nyaung-Tone to Pathein, and then travelling down the Pathein River with a boat.
That delta region is also one of the place where Cyclone Nargis had strike, creating storm surges and killing hundreds of thousands of people there.
Here are some photos taken during the cruise along Pathein River in the delta region.
Fisherman during the sunrise
Fishermen in Pathein River
Villages along the Pathein River
(the 3rd photo maybe a destroyed village along the river)
(Left: Moon on the sky as the sun rose, Right: Sunset on Pathein River)
(Left: Pathein River, Right: (newly planted??) mangrove forest)
Most of the villages I saw along the river (while on boat) are fishing villages. Some villages (or groups of houses?) have been destroyed, so only left with a skeleton structure, but some have already been renovated. I saw many paddy fields on some of the banks, some already ripe, and some which are still being cultivated. As for the people, some are already back to work, either as farmers or fishers, or others. Schools have already been rebuilt, and students have been back in school ever since June or July. I didn't go into a lot of villages, only three of them in total, so I can't really say about other villages. Two of the villages that I went to were primarily fishing villages. Another is a bigger village of all of the three, and is a little bit well-off than the other two (since most of the buildings there were brick-based, where as the others were all wooden).
The three villages that I visited were quite close to each other. They could only be reached by boat, and they are quite near to the sea. Even while on the boat, I can smell a scent of the salty sea water. That's why they had been hit by tidal surges during the Cyclone since they were so close to the sea. Two of the villages were hit harder than the bigger village, since both of them were built just on the edge of the river. One of those two villages had already been rebuilt, and it is a little bit further inland now.
We didn't spend the night anywhere actually. Since Saturday evening, we left Yangon, and reached Pathein very early in the morning of Sunday. Then we took the boat down, visited the villages, and then came back to Pathein, and then came back to Yangon and reached there at the early morning of Monday. So we slept on the bus for both nights. So when I came back home at around 5am on Monday, I went straight to bed, and didn't wake up until 2pm.
Nonetheless, it was really a good trip. I got to see with my eyes what kind of things are going down there now, and I feel really happy to see the smiling faces of the villagers as we walked around the villages. I cannot say for sure that this will be the same for all the other villages in the delta region, but I surely hope that they are all happy, and moving on with their lives.
Comments (5)
These are some very nice pictures! It's good to see they're rebuilding.
Wow, the landscapes are gorgeous over there!
Glad to hear the schools are up and functioning again :3
Thank you so much for this post. I have no idea how thing are going and now I have a glimpse..at least for the villages you visited. I am so glad that they are happy and that they are recovering. You took awesome photos..It is so good to see the true beauty of the Delta and made the last awful memory I had from May fade away a bit.
thank you sis
Thanks for posting those pictures.
Thankyou DAWN. Your trip description is very good. We feel peace and comfort thru the pictures and the 4-villages visited.
MauriceSun.