A flood of interest | Bangkok Post: feature

FACES&PLACES

During the floods in Thailand last November, I took an extended holiday in Myanmar. I visit the country once or twice a year, finding it the most interesting and unique in all of Asia. When I go to the town of Nyaungshwe in Shan State, near the famous Inle Lake, I always drop by Shwe Yan Pyay Kyaung, one of the old monasteries in town. It's an eye-catching old teakwood building with huge oval windows, and the novice monks in residence are always friendly. When I visited this time I wanted to tell the monks about the floods in Thailand. Rather than trying to explain the flooding to them, I used the old "a picture is worth a thousand words" idea and brought copies of the Bangkok Post that had colour photo spreads of the deluge. I couldn't tell what the young monks were saying in their Pa-O dialect, but they seemed fascinated by the pictures.