There is a rather grand but decaying Shan Palace on the outskirts of the old British hill station Hsipaw which belonged to the last Sawbwa, or Prince, who disappeared during the military coup in 1962. His nephew was looking after the property, but was put in jail for saying bad things about the military. Interestingly, the last Sawbwa was actually married to an Austrian blueblood type, who fled to the U.S. with her young children after her Prince was taken away.We hear she is an old lady now, campaigning for awareness about Burma's political struggle, but has never returned. Her daughter comes back for visits, but the home remains closed up.
Meanwhile, a German woman we met at ‘Mr Shake’, (nothing shady, just our favourite juice bar) had said she’d been trekking in the hills just 6 miles away from where we are, and ran into armed rebels. There they were, dancing at a wedding, machine guns aloft. No photos for that one!We're happy cycling around with children holding up flowers for us...Princess Neko!
No comments:
Post a Comment