One day while we were in Hpa-an, Nu and her friends arranged a trip to the beach.
This is what we were told: it’s about three hours away, and then we’ll drive back that night. We’re leaving at 6am.
When I suggested bringing my swimsuit, Nu said they would probably all just swim in their clothes. At that, I decided to leave mine behind and wore jeans and a t-shirt that seemed “swimmable.” Stephen still wore his swim trunks and a t-shirt, since it’s pretty similar to his usual shorts.
When we came out in the morning at 6am, Nu was wearing a nice top–like black and flowy and fancy. It had sparkles. (It should be noted at that Adam was with us, dressed similarly. It was a cultural miscommunication, to be sure.) Stephen & I looked at each other, looking more prepared for what we’d call “a beach day” and 6+hours in the car; we decided we just had to go with it, particularly after asking a few questions and not really following the answers.
We left the house at 6am & left town at 8:30am, with 13 people in a huge van, trekking our way across Burma.
We drove for a few hours, and pulled up to the Death Railway Museum. We felt a bit underdressed, but went with it.
Turns out, it wasn’t really for the history–which was minimal, with three panes of info and about ten blurry photos. Instead, it was for the selfies. The entire place was built for selfies: selfies with trains, selfies with Japanese soldier statues, selfies with 3D art railroad scenes…it was for selfies.
Then we hopped back in the car and drove a bit further. A bit.
And stopped for lunch.
And got back in the car, for a very, very small bit we could have walked. And stopped at a World War II memorial cemetery, where we now we felt really underdressed.
Turns out this was for selfies, too, which took some adjustment. Culturally, you know what cemeteries are stateside, particularly memorial cemeteries. Instead, we watched friends climb into trees and pose by statues, or another group had a picnic.
We now understood why Nu wore a nice top. It was selfie day. So I’m in a whole lot of selfies with my hair thrown up on my head and a t-shirt on.
We did make it to the beach about 3:30pm.
The water was…a little murky and fishy.
The people were…very,very modest. Everyone was fully clothed and then some. They were also fairly fearful of the water, so no one was in more than a few feet of water. Adam & Stephen went out to chest level–after wearing swimsuits all day they wanted to make it worth it!–and received comments from every passerby.
We stayed at the beach for a little over an hour. Then everybody changed clothes, we watched the sunset, and we went home. So though it wasn’t what we expected, it was a nice day!