Thawtar Swe - The Golden Land

At around 10:00 in the morning, the train from North Turu roared with a loud siren, and the passengers at the station eagerly awaited it, rushing to get a good seat before the train slowed down.

The train had left Myitkyina early in the morning, so according to the itinerary, passengers would stop at this station for a long time to eat and refuel the train engine, so the number of people getting on and off was as slow as the number of people getting off.

In Upper Myanmar, Mogaung is a major tourist station between Myitkyina and Katha due to its jade mining activities.

This was my first time in Anaga, and I was surprised to see the crowd at Thawta Sein. It was completely different from the people I had seen at the small stations like Pi Taung and Nam Ti that I had stopped at on the way from Myitkyina. Those small stations were mostly poor Kachin, Kadu, and Karam, but now at Moe Kaung Station I saw bright Burmese and Shan. Especially the girls looked no different from the Yangon-Mandalay people in terms of their clothing. The only difference was in the way they spoke, with expressions like yaw-pa-nyang-nye.

Looking at this audience, Thaw Ta Sein remembered his pen pals in Mogaung who he had never met in person. One of them was “Maung Tun Khaing” and the other was a girl named “Myaing”. If he had written to them in advance, they would have been happy to meet the writer they loved. It was a very fun job to find someone who had never seen him in person, and he had to find them by name. When he got off the plane in Myitkyina, he had a red rose on his chest and said to his pen pal, “

"U Thaw Ta Sein," he said happily, running over to call out.

"I'm Khin Oo."

Ko Khin Oo, a government supply officer at the time, and his wife, Daw Nyunt Nyunt, were Thaw Ta Sein’s readers. They were happy to take care of the writer they admired. They planned to take us to the “Myitsone” area, where the Maykha and Malikha rivers meet, one of the most beautiful landscapes in Burma. However, Thaw Ta Sein’s original purpose was limited and he could not afford to waste time, so he stayed in Myitkyina for only two days.

Daw Nyunt Nyunt said that there was only a kaula restaurant at Moe Kaung Station, so she cooked a rice dish for Thawta Sein, who didn't like kaula.

After looking around, Thawta Sein prepared to eat as soon as the crowd calmed down. Suddenly, a hand was placed on his shoulder from behind and he...

“Hey, where are you going, Bhlaing? Why are you on this train?”

His voice was familiar and commanding. His questions required one or three answers.

Thaw Ta Sein, holding his rice bowl, turned to look at the man and was very surprised. It was a face unlike any he had ever seen before in his life, and his appearance was similar to that of a Shan man. He was fair-skinned and probably about the same age as him.

This man, without any special features, quickly threw the bag off his shoulder and sat down next to Thawtar Sein...

"It's been a while since I last saw you. What happened to that girl? Can't you call me anymore?"

But Ta Sein was even more surprised as he looked closely at the human face.

“You are mistaken, my name is not Bhlaing, and I am not from this village.”

At this point, the man looked closely at Thawta Sein's face and was very surprised...

“Ha..you look just like my friend Bhlaing, the only difference is the voice. If I couldn’t tell the difference, I wouldn’t believe you. Bhlaing was teasing me, I’ll remember. You really look alike, you can’t tell by your looks. There’s a saying in the world that people are alike, but this is the only time I’ve ever experienced this,” he said, then stood up from his seat and said, “I’m sorry, I slapped you on the shoulder and you took your seat.” He picked up his bag and pretended to leave. But Ta Ta Sein thought that if he became friends with that person, he would talk to him…

“It’s okay, if you don’t have a seat outside yet, you can sit with me. If I’m that similar to your friend Bhlaing, you can still treat me like Bhlaing while we’re traveling together.”

"I like it, the way you say it."

The man spoke with a smile and sat down again, "You and I are even more alike than some twins. If you two were together, you wouldn't need to buy mirrors. Just look at each other's faces and comb your hair. Heh...heh..."

"Yes...is that all? I want to meet someone who is so similar to me. Where is he now?"

“The first question I asked you was, ‘I don’t know where you’ve been lately.’ Well, I’m getting ready to eat, aren’t I? Eat. I brought some food from home,” he said, taking out a bottle of water from the long, leather bag he was carrying. “This is a drink to drink before eating. Do you use it?”

Thawta Sein smiled. The man looked at Thawta Sein's face intently...

"Heh...heh...I see a snake with a snake's foot," he said, pouring it into the glass that was ready for him.

“It’s not the best, it’s made with Kachin liquor and monkey blood, but it’s not cheap.”

Thawta Sein smiled, appreciating the way the man spoke...

"Because it's made with monkey blood, you could even call it a precious medicinal drink."

The man said to me, "Do it...you do it first."

"Oh...you're my guest now, this is my property."

“Okay,” said Thaw Ta Sein, lowering his glass of wine and taking out the sausage rolls, fried egg, and fried coconut from his bag that Daw Nyunt Nyunt had prepared. The man opened a tray of large fried carp rings and...

“Try it, we have big fried carp fish from Intaw, I drink it to eat well.”

Those who drink alcohol, once they have met, become very close very quickly.

The man finished his drink and paid for the diamond...

“Now, we are going against the Western tradition. Even after drinking a glass of wine, we still don’t know each other’s names. My name is Saw Tun, I live in Kamay Hpakant.”

At this, Thawta Sein extended his hand...

“I’m glad to meet you. My name is Maung Tin Sein, I’m from Yangon.”

Saw Tun shook his hand...

“Ah... I'm from Yangon, how long has it been since I got here?”

“I arrived in Myitkyina by plane the day before yesterday. I’ve been to the upper Myitkyina, this is my first time.”

“Ah..so this is a new area for you, sir. We have all kinds of Burmese people. You have seen the Yoyin in Myitkyina. Look around.” He pointed to the carriage and said, “That’s Gadu, over there is Kangar. Here,” Ko Saw Htun said, pointing to the two men and women sitting in the seats opposite him. “They are the shrimp people, sir. Ah, you must already know, sir. They are the Jinpa people.”

The gingerbread men also understood Ko Saw Htun's words and smiled with kind, honest faces. All of their children had red teeth and gums... At that moment, Ko Saw Htun opened his bottle of alcohol...

"A little bit of a drink," he said, pouring the drink into the bowl in front of the gingerbread men, and the old man drank it without hesitation with a smile on his face. Then Ko Saw Htun laughed and...

"It's not uncommon for us to drink alcohol. We call it 'taking medicine' in our vernacular. Malaria is common in cold places like this. Alcohol is medicine."

Thawta Sein nodded with a supportive expression...

“So you just spoke Kachin?”

“Yes, “Lau Khu” means alcohol, “Lau Puk” means drink. That’s all I know in Kachin, but it’s just a hobby of mine, so I’m curious.”

The two of them laughed. At this time, Jin Pow Maung and Mae were also eating breakfast (their diet was boiled monkey eggs). They were drinking alcohol to accompany their meal and then they returned it.

He gave.

Saw Tun said...

“If you accept what I give, you can’t refuse what he gives,” the two of them said, and they ate it as if they were tasting it. The Jin Pow couple were happy to see this.

The Kachin woman's large earlobe was adorned with a large, unlit candle-shaped amber earring, about two inches long and about the size of a finger. The man's large earlobe was also adorned with a sprig of grass. Wherever a Kachin man goes, he always carries a large sword. It is now hanging by his side.

Seeing this, Thaw Ta Sein said to Ko Saw Htun, “Here, you are allowed to carry a sword while walking. Even in Myitkyina, young men from Jin Paw are allowed to carry swords, but in our place, they are not allowed to carry even large swords.”

“This depends on the region. The Kachins are a people who live in the forest and mountains, so they need weapons to protect the wild animals. The Jin Pows you saw with their swords in Myitkyina were people who came from their village on the forest road.”

While the two friends were eating and drinking, two young men were walking back and forth on the station platform. When they saw Saw Tun, the tall man in front of them

"Hey...brother," he called happily, and then a small man...

"Hey...where is your brother?"

Saw Tun.. “Don’t go to Namma, your village will also arrive.”

Young man: "Ha...when I get to my house, there are two bottles of my brother-in-law's favorite under the cowshed. If you dig through the straw, you'll find a rat hole."

Saw Tun.. “Ha..that’s right, come on…you guys can take the medicine now too?”

The big man said, "No problem, brother, we've finished eating. When you get to the village, I have chickens at my house. I'll catch the ones I like and eat them. If you want to eat pigeon meat, just ask Maung Shara. He has a good pigeon now."

Young man.. “That’s right, big brother, I have to eat four or five donkeys a day. So big brother, I think I’ve earned five thousand kyats in the past.”

Tun.. “Hey.. I want to get more than fifty thousand.”

"I'm just sitting at home, greedy. Come on, let's go, brother-in-law. Tell me it'll be at my house in about three days."