Naga Land Traveller book launch
Welcoming & Hailing the Naga New Year Festival 2018
S.S.T Tourism Company published ” NAGA LAND TRAVELER ” BOOK in Burmese on 02 January 2018.
For buying, contact to S.S.T Tourism Office
Phone: 01-255536, 393094
Serendipity
By Brenda Davidson-Shaddox
Serendipity – the occurrence of an event by chance that leads to a valuable or pleasant outcome.
When planning my first trip to Myanmar on my own, I booked with the only Myanmar guide I knew to handle my arrangements. It was in the late 1980s when travel within that country was highly regulated. Having a local guide was required. Having a good one was essential. At the last minute, the guide I had booked “got a better deal” and dumped me.
An urgent message to one of two friends I had in that country resulted in another set of happy circumstances. Passing by the office of SST, he took a chance that they may allow him to use their Internet service to get in touch with me. He found the owners and staff so accommodating, he recommended that I book with them. I did so, and those chance occurrences led to what has become a nearly20-year relationship with SST that led to some of the most important work I have accomplished and the development of friendships not only with colleagues at SST, but with a host of people stretching from the Ice Mountains in the Hkakaborazi region in the north to the Mergui Archipelago in the south, from the Naga Hills along the India border to the Shan Hills and the eastern frontier.
Until my visit, SST had handled only domestic clients, primarily local people going on religious pilgrimages. I was their first foreign guest. What they lacked in experience at that time, they made up in extraordinary attention.
Nothing brings people closer together – or drives them further apart, depending on the people involved – than undertaking an adventure into remote country with poor infrastructure in a questionably reliable vehicle. But whatever problems we encountered, my guide TayZay of SST and my friend MyintShwe, always saw to my best interest. As for my part, I found it not only a great adventure and outstanding photo opportunities, but a chance to advise two young men eager to advance in their professions. They already had the most difficult part accomplished – genuinely caring about their guests.
This chance encounter led to my returning to Myanmar at least annually until this day. I ultimately worked more closely with U Nyein Chan, one of the original founders of the agency, and Saw Hla Chit, SST Manager. With either one or the other of these young men, I not only accomplished my goal of photographing every ethnic
