Travels with Shelley and Muzzy: The Local Ferry

After a full day on the Lemro River and a final stop at Mrauk U's most recently excavated temple Kothang, we woke early the next morning to catch the local ferry back to Sittwe and from there, to Yangon the next day. We ate at Moe Cherry our last night...one more Rakhiang meal and, perhaps, one too many.

We rode to the ferry as the sun was just infiltrating the foggy morning. After a bone-jarring drive we arrived at the busy dock. We paid our fare and waited aboard while sacks of produce, stacks of woven bamboo fans, boxes of empty beer bottles, familes with lunches and cranky children, and very few farang found spots on the two decks. Foreigners always ride up top, and always get a seat. Ours were two listing beach chairs with slung cloth seats in various stages of disintegration. A nice young man requested a dollar each since our tickets apparently didn't cover the cost of a seat. The last thing I saw come up the two by six used as a gangplank were two women with clusters of chickens tied together at the legs. I was pretty sure the chickens were still alive, at least as long as the ride to Sittwe, and felt fortunate that I didn't have to make the trip upside down with my leg tied to Muzzy.

The idling engine of the ferry accelerated and churned up the muddy river bottom to maneuver away from the dock. At last we were under way. Two men in longyis and puffy black Chinese polyester jackets with furry collars approached us to pay for our seats...again. As difficult as it is to debate in a language I don't know, I stood my ground and indicated we'd already payed someone else for the privilege of sitting in these lovely chairs. It was ludicrous to argue over two dilapidated deck chairs, but my intestinal unrest made me cranky. Our ferry crawled at a snail's pace down the river we'd come up 8 days earlier and while this trip wasn't as cold, it was certainly more crowded. Every available inch of deck space was covered with families on mats or people crouching in the morning chill. Muzzy went aft to stretch out and take photos and eventually I joined him. The port side of the ferry was bathed in the rising sun and by turning myself strategically, I warmed up. Looking over the railings I noted that the ferry was even more ancient than it looked when I beheld it at the dock in Mrauk U. Coats of paint barely held the rusting railings together and the wooden deck was a minefield of uneven boards...but, of course, it hardly mattered since all available space was taken. Upon returning to our seats we discovered that one of them had been re-sold. A game of musical chairs ensued and in the end, the farangs ruled, hollow victory that it was. Because we were both a little worse for wear, the ride was less exciting than the one going up, except for Muzzy's siting of several Sarus Cranes grazing in small groups and pairs through the harvested rice fields. We spent a bilingual debate with some Italian travelers over whether they were cranes or storks. At a little over 5 feet tall, they were impressive with their deep red heads and necks and gray bodies.

Our ferry stopped at every local dock, packing in even more people and produce. Eventually, five hours into the trip, I realized I would have to find the toilet. I dread using public toilets in third world countries. In our 14 hour bus trip in Laos, the driver stopped at a convenient field and men and women went to different sides, squatted down and did their business. The ferry had toilets on the bottom deck, I knew, from the ride up, but instinctively I knew this ferry was even less ammenable than the first one. I stuffed my pocket with a small wad of toilet paper and hoisted myself up from the sagging deck chair. Picking my way through peanut shells and sleeping children, I made my way to the stairway down to the bottom deck. As I neared the bottom step I looked out over a sea of brown faces squatting over every possible inch of floor space. Several women turned their eyes to me as I stood there, frozen...go back? Try to work my way through the packed bodies? I turned to the women and they raised their hands, indicating the direction I should go. It was one of those universal women things. We can't just stand and point whenever we want. I plunged in, finding just enough space for my large farang feet to hit the deck and not someone's hand, heading around to the left, navigating a narrow asile between 5 foot high bales of produce and the passengers, past the "dining" area, a large table where a woman was serving plates of rice with curries, and back to the narrow section by the engines where three toilets waited. As I neared the doors I noticed the two chicken ladies dozing with their backs to a sack of rice. Looking down, the only available floor space in front of the toilets was covered with an array of chickens. Legs still attached by plastic string, the chickens lay in fan-like circles, starring up at me. They were still alive and I was happy about that. I'm not so sure they were. Now I had to avoid stepping on them while I pulled open the warped metal door to the nearest toilet and did a sort of leap into the unknown of one of the more disgusting toilets I've encountered. It was everything I expected and more, but by now I have become adept, even at my age, at rolling up my pant legs, balancing on bricks used for footrests, and aiming at a not so strategically placed hole in the deck revealing the passing river below. I was in and out, touching a minimum of surfaces before the chickens even knew I had been there. I encountered only one cluck of disapproval on my way back to my seat, made by a woman who had to move aside for my foot.

Upon arrival in Sittwe, we watched in horror as a small wooden boat very nearly capsized as it collided with the ferry and several young men clambered up the sides like pirates boarding a ship, swarmed over the railings and battled for position, franctically soliciting tuk tuk rides for the foreigners aboard, of whom there were few. It was a crazy scene and I was relieved to finally turn on the shower in our Shwe Thazin hotel room, drink some cold water, and lay down.