Tuesday, March 27, 2012


Famous High land region of Myanmar or Shan State


        Have you heard about Shan State, which is located in the eastern part of Myanmar and it is the border of China, Laos and Thailand. Shan State is the largest of 14 divisions by land area and it is divided into Eastern, Southern and Northern Shan State. The state is largely rural with many cities and it is inhabited by the caring ethnic group called Shan people and a few other ethnic groups.



Most Shan people speak Shan language and are bilingual in Myanmar (Burmese). The majority of them are Buddhist and their main occupation is agriculture. Because of its fine climate and temperature, Shan state is suitable for planting, so it has been famous for its garden produce of all sort of fresh fruits and vegetables. Another interesting thing is about itinerant market whereyou couldn’t experience in other states. This means people from many small villages travel to other large towns once a week to make business even though large towns have permanent markets. This is how Shan people are innocent and hardworking. There are also some border-trading centers along the Shan State border and neighbor countries. Muse, which is the important trading center between Myanmar and China, is the biggest border-trading center. Mong Hsu Stone Tract, which is located in the eastern Shan state, has produced some of the finest rubies and sapphires in the world and is one of the ruby capitals of the world.  In Northern Shan state, there is also a waterfall called Marnsarm Fall, which is used for hydroelectric power and it generates enough power for many surrounding towns.

            Another unique thing about Shan state is their ways to row boats. Shan people use their leg to swing the paddle instead of their hand. This is one of the main attraction to tourist to Shan state. While standing on the boat, they swing the paddle without holding any thing but the paddle. This seems very difficult for me to balance.






Actually, Shan state is covered with dense evergreen forest, pine, streams and waterfalls, making the country a natural beautiful land and scenery. Because of being surrounded by green high mountains and hills, it has a cold weather and it became a nice place for summer guests. One of the most popular tourist attractions of the world is in the Southern Shan state called Inle Lake. It is unique for floating villages, floating vegetable gardens, silk weaving and its fantastic one legged-rowers. There are also many ancient places and Pindaya limestone cave consists of thousands of Buddha images.

Pi Mai Tai (Shan new year festival), Phaungtawoo Pagoda festival and hot air balloon festival are the most famous festivals in Shan state and they held once a year. Shan people are hardworking in doing business the whole year, however they stop working during these festival seasons. Shan people wear their Shan traditional costumes during the festivals and Shan ladies with pinkish cheeks are really pretty. Shan ladies are famous for their hard working ethic as well as their beauty. But for more detail you can go to Shan state and check it out  :)

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Holiday time with my classmates


            
           Holiday time with my classmates 

           Finally we did it. We planned for this a few weeks ago, to visit to my friend Luis house. We both taking ESL-26 in this quarter and I knew him at the first day of the class. Since before mid-term exams are over, we planned to go out with friends. He invited me to his house along with another friend named Hark. Luis live in Morgan hill which is about 25 miles south side of Foothill college. The amazing thing was we went to a place around a old dam area which not far from his house.

            One evening of Saturday, Hark and I went together to Luis's house. The another reason we chose to his house is because he live near to gilroy outlet. Most of branded are a lot cheaper at that outlet. So we all went there and did a lot window shopping. After we back luis's house from that outlet we went around Morgan hill down town area. We stopped at a shop and enjoy our night time together. Luis brother joined with us after a while we reached to ------. The wonderful thing is ,there was some cool customers who sing and danced inside the shop. We really enjoyed watching their free performance. Although we love watching their performance we leave from that shop around 11 and slept in Luis house.
            Good Morning Morgan hill. We woke up another day around 8 am and we played PS3 with Luis's brother Jose. Then we headed to a view point near his house. We found out that there was a dam near that view point called Anderson lake and we decided to go and take a look. We have to pay entrance fees for visiting that lake. Yeah, we did the right choice for our photo shooting. Some more, we are lucky enough to meet with a camera-man who live near there and he explained us about the dam. He explained that dam was built last 60 years ago and the safety of the dam is not in the reliable condition. There are many cracks lines along the side of the dam which are repaired. Some dam expert suggested to rebuild the water divider but the rebuilding cost is way too much which can effort. I saw many water level sensors , motion sensors and pressure sensors along the dam area to monitor the movement of the ground and water pressure.
            We went to near small highland which can oversee the whole dam area. There are many beautiful view point and as well as visitor like us.We back from Morganhill around 7:30pm and reached home about 9pm. Tired but I will never forget about my holiday time and thanks tomy friend who hosing for us at his house. Hope we can go out like this again soon.