TrekDigest: 2012

Mount Popa, Myanmar

We climbed to the top of Mount Popa, 777 steps.

Rendition of Nat spirits at Mount Popa

Nat Worship in Burma.

Some Buddhists in Myanmar, especially those in rural areas, worship Nats. Nats are uniquely Burmese. They are spirits or guardians and protectors with dominion over people or things. The worship of Nats pre-dates Buddhism, which became the national religion of Burma in the eleventh century. Nat worship was a form of animism, especially popular with the hill peoples of Myanmar, but practiced all over the country.

Mount Popa, Burma

Mount Popa, an extinct volcano in central Burma, was home of the most important Nat, the Lord of the Great Mountain, and his Sister Lady Golden-Face. In the ninth century they became the guardian gods of the city of Pagan. Nat worshippers travelled to Mount Popa for a feast at the full moon in December. Animals were sacrificed, people drank palm toddy wine and danced. Full moon festivals were common throughout Burma.

Atop Mount Popa, monkey surveys Myanmar forest.

In the town below Mount Popa

Although pre-Buddhist practices, such as astrology, alchemy and the worship of Nats, were suppressed when King Anawratha unified Burma in the eleventh century and made Buddhism the national religion, Nat worship continued. The King eventually integrated Nat worship into Theravada Buddhism, added one of his own to the traditional 36 primary Nats, and replaced other Nats with his own dead war heroes.

Today in Myanmar, Nat worship continues, side by side Buddhism, with pilgrimages and festivals held throughout the country. Nats are similar to Saints. Some drink and smoke. Others protect the environment and dwell in the forest or mountains. Environmental destruction could bring their wrath. Nats are spiritual friends of the Burmese people.

Nats guard Buddha in Bagan. Stop, and look, they seem to say.

Mount Popa is a day trip from Bagan. On the way to Mount Popa from Bagan, we stopped to see how palm oil, palm candy (jaggery) and palm toddy wine are made, the old fashioned way. The drinking of toddy, wild dancing and traditional hsaing music induce the trance at a Nat festival, and assist in the belief that revelers are possessed by the Nats.

Palm Toddy

Grinding to make palm oil

Mount Popa is an important shrine to Nat worship. Monkeys inhabit the temples. Fun to watch but keep your distance as they can be aggressive. The climb up to the top, 777 steps in bare feet, was not too difficult.

Mount Popa does not have the beautiful old Buddha statues, pagodas and temples of Bagan, but Nat worship is still prevalent in Myanmar and Mount Popa is culturally important.

In Mandalay, Myanmar

Jodhpur, India, the Blue City

Jodhpur town square at twilight. Look at the activity, even as the day is winding down.

The tailor sewing, customers at the pakora cart. In the background, trucks and

motorcycles rage ahead near cows, and above it all - the ghost of the
British empire, the landmark clock tower.

Jodhpur - the Blue City, from the Fortress the Mehrangarh

Jodhpur, the Blue City of Rajasthan

After an afternoon train ride from Jaisalmer, we arrived after dark at the bustling Jodhpur train station. We were quickly ushered out towards the cabs through the crowds, into the dark, noisy night. Local travellers were sleeping outside, next to the station. Every free spot of ground was occupied. Something was moving at the base of the walls of the station....quickly and rythmically. Rats. Hundreds of rats, running in and out of cracks and holes in the walls of the station - scurrying around the blanketed sleepers. It was a startling but mesmerizing sight.

In the Fort, Jodhpur, India

Busy, crowded, colourful, friendly.....Jodhpur.

Mr. Sharma, astrologer, in Jodhpur, India

The Mahrangarh

With only one full day in Jodhpur, we headed to the Mehrangarh. The formidable, impressive fortress of Jodhpur, the Mehrangarh, rises solidly on rock above the blue city. It houses cannons, gates and turrets, grand palaces, jewelled rooms of maharaja royalty and an interesting, popular museum. We took the recommended audio tour. Famous astrologer, Mr. Sharma, read my palm and astrological chart inside the fortress. Astrology has been valued by the people of India since ancient times, and astrologers are consulted for many matters, including marriage compatibility. What better place for an astrological reading than India?

The Mahrangarh in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

In the fortress at Jodhpur

Markets near the Clock Tower Landmark

We walked around the lively Sadar market and the narrow streets and medieval bazaars of old Jodhpur. The marketplace was bustling, with crowds of local shoppers, carts with fresh produce and lunch foods, stores with teas and spices, beautiful bolts of fabrics, Rajasthani crafts, and household dry goods of all sorts. The friendly people of Jodhpur were happy to chat with us.

Spices and friendly people in Jodhpur, India.

In the old town and marketplace in Jodhpur

Vibrant Jodhpur

Jodhpur, a city of just under a million people, is rich in the cultural history of Rajasthan. It has a rural feel about it. Jodphur was the most colourful of any of the places we visited in Rajasthan, with a panorama of blue buildings, dazzling neon fabrics, sparkling handicrafts, and brightly decorated auto-rickshaws, or 'tuk tuks', as we called them.

I love my pictures from Jodhpur - some of my favourites of the entire trip. We stayed two nights in Jodhpur, as planned. It's a place worth visiting, on any trip to Rajasthan.

Decorated tuk tuk in Jodhpur - behind a belching truck ...

....loaded with bright fabrics.

Negotiating a tuk tuk ride in Jodhpur. Only two passengers per tuk tuk- that's the rule.

Jodhpur

Next stop......Udaipur via Ranakpur and the renowned Jain temple.

Dieppe, France. A Soldier's Story from WWII

clipping from the Windsor Star, August 1942.

The Dieppe Raid: August 19, 1942

Of the 6100 assault troops to land at Dieppe, 5000 were Canadians, many from Windsor, Ontario. Dieppe was a nightmare and a disaster for Canadian soldiers - over 900 Allied soldiers killed, 2000 captured, hundreds more wounded. Here is one soldier's story of the Dieppe raid on August 19, 1942.

My dad, Henry Charles Read, and his younger brother, William George Read, from Windsor, Ontario, were both soldiers at the Dieppe raid. They were Sergeants with the 11th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers.

As engineers their orders were to get into the town of Dieppe, set explosives and blow up their target, which was a factory. They landed at Dieppe in the dark, before sunrise and before the majority of the Allied troops came ashore. The Germans were waiting for them, and there was heavy gunfire and shelling.

My uncle Bill was wounded shortly after landing. His arm was badly injured and he was evacuated back to a hospital in England. My dad continued on with other engineers into the town of Dieppe where they set and detonated explosives, as ordered.

Eventually, as the slaughter of Allied soldiers continued on the beach, the word came down the line from the Canadian command that the Canadian soldiers were to surrender to the Germans. My dad and a few of his buddies would have nothing of that. As he said, he wasn't going to sit out the rest of the war in a German prisoner of war camp. Instead, they surveyed the land and the beach and found a spot where they 'went into the water'. They waded out into the English Channel, where a Polish destroyer picked them up a few hours later, and they were returned safely to England.

For pictures of the day on the Dieppe Raid

A link to video of the Assault on Dieppe

A link to video footage of the Aftermath at Dieppe, August 19, 1942

Dieppe now......