Trip 2015-16. Day 319. Myanmar, Mrauk-U

It seems like women do the most difficult work in this country. They carry everything – stones, bricks, jars with water, sacks with rice and baskets with goods. They build the roads, deliver produce to the market, walk along the hot dusty streets to sell tea and fruits, and still take care of the children and look after their home.
One of the things that struck me in Mrauk-U was the rice drying process. Women bring maybe 30 kg sacks with rice on their heads in the morning, level it by foot on long bamboo sheets, leave it to dry for the whole day and come back in the evening to collect the rice, put it into the same bags and carry it back home. The next day the same women bring the same sacks to the same spot, just to collect it again at night... Extremely hard repetitive work!

What makes Mrauk-U so special is that life goes on around the ancient ruins. Children play football next to black-stone pagodas, farmers continue their daily work in fields between the old stupas, villagers come to wash by the side of the water tank nearby to the historic sites and women carry jars around the 500 year-old temples.