A Lady With a Story

The_Traveler · Jul 31, 2016

Kinpun is often referred to as Kinpun Base Camp because it rose around a few restaurants and houses at the start of the arduous climb to see the Golden Rock Pagoda. The 'town' exists only to serve the Burmese tourists who come by the Yangon-Mawlamyaing train and then either trek the 25 km or take a local bus up the hill.
I was there in 2010 and again in 2014, there were only 3 hotels that took foreigners. People would meet each bus and try to entice you into their hotel or restaurant.
This woman's job was to talk to passersby and get them in and, in the early hours or the times that buses didn't arrive, she worked as a waitress. I was there for three says and, no matter how early I ate breakfast or how late I ate dinner, she was working.
Workers lived in small cubbyholes and rarely got to go down the 25 miles to Kyaikto for anything. Their pay was, according to the manager, about $20 plus room and board/month.

She was sweet and beautiful and a hard worker - and she had nothing in her future but working until she was ground down or married off to someone and had children.

Life is not fair - and its only people with something who think it is.

The_Traveler · Jul 31, 2016

This kind of photos is why I take pictures.
They are an aide memoire for me about travel and my experiences.
I try to edit to preserve the feeling and impact of the scene. It seems that most of SouthEast Asia has this reddish iron-rich dirt that is formed by erosion of rock in warm climates and it is this reddish dirt that forms drifts in ruts in the warm weather and permeates everything to give it an unforgettable warm red cast.

I used to believe that editing was 50% of most images; I think that's a low estimate now.