From Rangoon To Bhamo

Southland Times, Issue 25306, 8 June 1935, Page 17

From Rangoon To Bhamo

1000 MILES UP IRRAWADDY. A recent visitor to Invercargill was Mrs P. L. Fenton, of Uganda, East Central Africa, who with Mr Fenton is at present making a tour of New Zealand. Mr Fenton has recently retired after many years as manager of the Uganda branch of the Standard Bank of South Africa. Mr and Mrs Fenton have travelled extensively in the East and when interviewed by a Times reporter Mrs Fenton spoke of their trip up the mighty Irrawaddy river of Burma from Rangoon to Bhamo. From Rangoon they travelled to Mandalay where they found ancient and modern rubbing shoulders; motor cars and tramcars alongside archaic man-power contraptions and native bazaars stocked with Burmese goods cheek by jowl with imports from Great Britain, Germany, Japan and Czechoslovakia. “The Burmese are a happy, smiling contented easy-going people of Mongoloid strain,” said Mrs Fenton. “The young women are very attractive and slim with lissom figures and beautifully shaped hands and feet. They are proud of their sleek black hair which is arranged in a top coil with a coloured comb skewered through—a chic effect enhanced by a flower over one ear. They dress mostly in colours, in a tightly fitting white muslin coatee called an ‘ayngi’ with a ‘tamein’ or ‘lungi’, a length of silk draped round the waist and caught in a twist in front, this always of a bright colour.’ While in Mandalay the travellers attended a form of variety show held in the open air, where the chief attraction was dancing by a Burmese girl whose lithe movements and clever posturing were amazingly clever. They also inspected a “pwe,” a Burmese entertainment which continues from 9 o’clock in the evening until dawn. There they found men and women dancing in spangled robes of rose, jade green and purple. The women performed prettily with a great deal of movement. The actions of their wrists and palms and those of every finger were found by Mrs Fenton to each have a meaning just as the ancient Greek dancing was the miming of a story. The last stage of their journey up the river was from Mandalay to Bhamo and it took two and a half days through magnificent scenery andwas full of interest all the way. Coming back again they saw to advantage at Nyounghla the forest of oil derricks which conveys a generous idea of the extent and development of Burma’s great industry. These derricks were erected by Americans, but now are largely managed by Scotsmen. At Nyoniaung Mr and Mrs Fenton witnessed a complete lunar eclipse and they were greatly interested in Donabyu where most of the cheroots for export are made. Back to Rangoon again where paddy fields were the most important feature of the landscape, the alluvial lands of the river’s delta producing the greatest proportion of the country’s output of rice. In all, Mr and Mrs Fenton travelled 1000 miles up the river and the journey occupied all of thirteen days. In spite of many years spent in the East, Mr and Mrs Fenton found the Southland winter not at all trying, but very bracing after the hot climates they have been accumtomed to. They are impressed with the grandeur and beauty of New Zealand and their programme includes visits to the Franz Josef Glacier, to the Hermitage and to many other resorts of interest.