A simple wooden and bamboo house has been our haven for the night. When we wake up here is the surprise ..
Position
The abandoned cottage is on the road from Hpa-An to Thaton. Just ten kilometers outside the city you will find it on the left, near two abandoned trucks.
We find this place accidentally, while searching the place where to sleep. By Myanmar law foreigners can not stay in the tent, so we search a place where we will be invisible.
Description
When I wake up a little surprise awaits me, an abandoned place all and only for me.
I do not have to move, I’m already inside. I go out from the dusty room where I slept with my tent the night before. I open both doors previously closed with a piece of wood and a chair respectively.
In the nearby untidy room there are some Burmese books and magazines. A little further away, one meter from the main entrance, there is a small temple dedicated to prayer and offerings.
Someone closed the front door with wooden barricades, including chairs and benches.
I leave the building still sleepy and covered with sweat.
Which direction to take?
I pass a deep well about ten meters to get closer to the first abandoned truck. I go around once, twice and at the third I open the half-rusty door. A mouse snaps out of the cockpit leaving me just enough time to move the hand from the handle.
Inside is the realm of spiderwebs, populated by different species of spiders. At the wheel, only the driver’s shadow. I move towards the next house, completely empty inside if not for some posters.
In the back of the property there are the bathrooms in line with a row of trees.
The third house shows inside another place of prayer dedicated to Buddha. Nearly a few meters away, the house of spirits. It belongs to customs that recall ancient Pagan rites that still survive among some inhabitants of Southeast Asia.
The house of the spirits (in the Burmese language: နတ် စင် o နတ် ကွန်း, transliterated nat hcai and nat kwann) is a small miniature shrine where, according to a belief of animist origin, dwells the spirit that protects the place where the house is located.
Some shots, before leaving as a gift some cookies that I bring in my backpack. I thank the spirits of the place for leaving space for me, urban explorer, to visit this once inhabited place.
