Myanmar: A Karen Landscape
I stole 2 days before the Irrawaddy Literary festival to visit Karen State and Mon State in South Eastern Myanmar.
Here are my first impressions of Karen State, from the initial sight of Zwekabin Mountain (the state landmark), past a village to Hpa An, the state capital situated on the banks of the great Salween River.
Pictures can say more than words in this case. More to come over the next few days …
Reader and Writer - Praying Woman - Gardener - Foodie 
Intoxicatingly beautiful. Is this the area that your first novel was about, when they were exploring the forest?
Hi Kathleen and Kath – Yup, easy to get mixed up. After all, I don’t know my Rwanda from my Sierra Leone. And certainly not my Newcastle from my Bondi Beach.
My first novel was about the South East Asian rainforests in Borneo, an enormous island between Malaysia and the Philippines. This area is in South East Burma, West of Thailand and North of Malaysia. It’s a lot dryer here and more sub-tropical scrub and sub-tropical montane. The other place isn’t has photogenic, being just a lot of thick lush trees.
Sorry, please forgive a geographic dunce. At least I didn’t ask you if it was in Vietnam.
Wow Audrey stunning place, very exotic and like our friend Kathleen I would like to know too?