Burma: this'll bring tears to your eyes.
 

For those of us who have travelled to Burma [and those who haven't] and are interested in the REAL story - www.pandaw.com has a daily report from Paul Strachan [founder of the operation] about conditions on the ground in the Irrawaddy Delta.

It's very moving stuff - in every way. He's an impressive guy. I really can't think of a better channel if you want to make a contribution.

For those of us who have travelled on the Pandaw cruises and know the crew the pictures say it all. I note also that the Orient Express Road to Mandalay cruiser sank during the cyclone.

Dogster, thanks for this link. It's so hard to get reporting from on the ground in Burma that hasn't been censored by the junta.

Here's an email I got today from the Burmese friend I have been transfering money to:

I and my wife just arrived this evening back from our adventurous trip from Delta Villages.What I see and what feel are as follow;

VERY SAD

Entire 21 miles long road from Phyarpon to Bogalay , refugees were line up from both sides of the road -hoping to received anything from the well wisher who might want to drop thing for them from their motor vehicles.

Even it was 22 days after the storm, ALL RIVERS IN DELTA ARE STILL SMELLING .Dead rotten bodies of cattle were still floating on the water in some area .Human bodies were taken into the sea but some bodies can still be seen along the river side. No one tried to buried them.
Survivors at the remote villages received no effective help from anybody or any organization.Hard to believe it but it is true.Their life are just like people in Stone Age.They lived by eating some rice discovered under water .Some rice sacks appeared when water flowed down from the ground. They received some rice from some private donors. But amount they received were very few.They were waiting for help from Government ,INGO ,NGO and Private Individual Donor.

VERY DELIGHTED

I have been to some very remote village near Maw Gyun .Village names are Gantgaw, Ngwe Thazin, Hlaing Bone I was able to supplied them for about 7 days ration for 1000 village people. The goods I brought with me were ;

(1) 52 sacks of rice
(2) 2 sacks of onion
(3) 1 tank of cooking oil
(4) 200 package of candles ( 1200 sticks)
(5) 400 pieces of soap
(6) Fish pase
(7) 500 meter of rain proof sheets for temporary roof .
(8) 2 sacks of salt
(9) 200 lighters
(10) cereal and ready made coffee mix
(11) 200 plastic plates
(12) 200 pieces of spoon
(13) 200 pair of slipper for kids
(14) sweets and balloon for children
(15) Vitamin ,Dehydrate Salt , Antibiotic and some other medicine

My friend also bought and gave me 2 big package of used clothing to give poor villagers.
I sent all of the items by ship 1 days in advance to my friend in delta town ( I have many good friends domestic and worldwide ).

A well organized volunteer team helped me to go deliver these thing direct in to the hand of cyclone survivors.
Villagers were extremely glad to receive the foods and other things .I WAS VERY DELIGHTED TO SEE THEM HAPPY. I CAN NOT DO THIS WITHOUT SUPPORT FROM ALL OF YOU.

This is all for now. I will send you some photos.

Thanks, Gloria for this update from Nyi Nyi.

Dogster, I'm heading for Burma and the Upper Irrawaddy cruise in September, and afterwards hope to get down to the delta area.

Mitch, I'll look forward to your report.

Mitch: Going UP from Bagan - or DOWN from Bhamo?

Fat chance of getting to the Delta, I reckon. As you're going to discover, it's not as if you can just wander off where you like. Your progress will be tracked, whether you notice it or not, every INCH of the way.

Mitch, unless you can disguise yourself as a Burmese national, you'll not get the sensitive delta regions. Also, if current trends continue, the absolute last place you'll want to be is the affected area. Without enough supplies and people to treat the survivors, the area will be coursing with disease by August.

The situation sounds like it hasn't changed much since I was there 10 years ago. Then, I made a concerted effort to break from the tourist track with mixed results. I did effectively get a tour of the design trends of local police station interiors in the region. Once in custody, the officers seemed to not know what to do with me, so almost without fail would allow me passage on the next vehicle LEAVING their village.

Dogster: Going DOWN from Bhamo.