The year was 1995 that I left my home town, Daik_U and traveled by train to Taunggyi, the city of Shan State; not knowing how great the cool of winter in Southern Shan State was, that I had to face. When I reached Tharzi, I took another train to Nyaung Shwe.
The train I took from Tharzi broke down at a small Shan village, namely Yin-Dike at about eight o'clock in the evening. There was no electric light either at the station or in the village. I realized that I could not continue my journey and also I had to search for a place to settle for the night.
I got into the station and under a gloomy candle light, I saw a fat man, seemed to be a station master. I asked him if he could direct me to an inn or a lodging-house. He replied with a smile that there was nothing except a monastery, at the head of the village where I could sleep.
With the aid of the villagers' instructions, I found the monastery. I asked for the permission to sleep in for one night from the presiding monk of the monastery. Sayadaw (the presiding monk ) allowed me to do so and gave me some blankets and showed me a bed to sleep in.
As I had traveled a long journey, I was so tired and so, as soon as my head touched the pillow, I fell into a deep sleep. But, after I had slept for about an hour or two, I woke up as I was so cold and afraid by then, that I could not dare to sleep any more, for I knew that all my blood would be freeze if I went on sleeping. The time was nearly dawn.
So, I got up from bed and walked to and fro in the monastery compound, gathering some dry branches to make a fire. After building a fire, I made a pot of water boiled. Then with a pot of green tea, I sat by the fire waiting for a new day.
Then, slowly, the eastern horizon turned . . . .
( To be continued in my next post. Thanks a lot for reading and sorry for my old photos. )
Ye Naing
Daik-U, Pegu,
Myanmar ( Burma )
