Anyone that even looks at my articles’ index page will quickly determine how much that I love my family in Myanmar. In the last half dozen years, I have journeyed to the other side of the world three times. It was on my first excursion that I met Ti Ti. At that time, she wasnine-years-old. She and I played Scrabble for less than an hour, but I left her home knowing that I discovered that I had part of my family living in Myanmar.

On my second trip, I spent more time with her parents and her two younger sisters. During my winter break last month from teaching, I spent nearly the entire month with them, except for the visit to Lahore, Pakistan where I visited my web administrator’s family.

However, I have written many essays about discovering my family in what most people here in America still call Burma. While I love and enjoy my family in Myanmar, there are also many places to visit and enjoy in that country. Even though nothing supplants my family, there are beautiful landscapes, lakes, rivers, building, monuments, and innumerable Buddhist shrines, pagodas, and stupas.

Go to any city like Yangon, Mandalay, Taunggyi, Mawlamyine, Ngapali, Bagan, etc. and you will enjoy just looking around. There are places like Shwedagon Pagoda, houses on stilts in Inle Lake, the Golden Rock, Mt. Popa Taungkalat Monastery, Pindaya, and the list goes on.

However, one of my favorite places is the U Bein Bridge not far from Mandalay. While U Bein Bridge is its official name, many foreigners, like me, merely refer to it as the Teak Bridge. Writing about that bridge, brings back a host of happy memories. The bridge is said to be both the oldest and was, until recently, the longest bridge of that type in the world.

U_Bein_Bridge

It was started in 1849 and completed two years later in 1851. It was necessary to build it so that people could cross the Taungthaman Lake. For some reason the Kingdom of Ava relocated to Amarapura, which is located adjacent to the lake, and the bridge would allow more direct access to the surrounding area.

The U Bein Bridge is said to contain nearly 1100 teak posts and span about three-quarters of a mile across the lake. Interestingly, they built the bridge not in a straight line directly across the lake. It was essentially built, at almost a right angle, to protect the bridge from the winds and water damaging the long structure.

Since the bridge is quite low and is within a couple dozen feet of the lake below, the engineers built nine places along the span so the floor of the bridge could be opened to allow various types of boats to navigate the entire lake.

I love teaching, and I have just provided you an extremely brief teaching moment about the U Bein Bridge. Nonetheless, I do have one final bit of historical trivia about the bridge. This trivial fact relates to the name of the bridge, which hardly any person outside of Myanmar would know. What’s with the name, Bein Bridge? The name of the bridge is the name of the mayor of Amarapura in 1849 that commissioned the bridge’s construction.

I’m on a roll; I have an additional teaching moment. In the Myanmar language, the letter U before a man’s name means Uncle or Mr. Hence, the U Bein Bridge was named after Uncle Bein or Mr. Bein. On my next visit to Myanmar, some locals in Taunggyi where my family live might want to honor me by naming a bridge after me. I don’t think that it would be called the PaPa Al Bridge, even though my three granddaughter would push for that name. However, this name would be more apropos for the locals, the Tekkatho Campbell Bridge. Tekkatho means great or lustrous writer.

However, I digressed from the Teak Bridge. It is a must see when you visit Myanmar. However, it is also a favorite bridge of my favorite artist in Myanmar, Than Tun Oo. A couple years ago, Than Tun Oo was my one of my tour guides. We both really enjoyed what he calls the U Bein Bridge. In fact, Than did two paintings for me on that visit, which are on the wall of my bedroom. One was a pen and ink drawing of me with my sunglasses flipped up, and the other was an oil painting of the U Bein Bridge. I love both of them.

Before I returned to Myanmar, I had ordered an oil painting of Dr. Sabedra, Ginger’s vet. Ginger is alive and happy due to Dr. Sabedra’s veterinary skills and knowledge. Moh Moh and I picked up that painting while we were in Yangon.

Future essays will feature other masterpieces that Than has done for me. He is a quite well-known artist in Myanmar. However, this essay is about another purchase that I made. This is a large oil painting of the U Bein Bridge, and it graces my living room. Than’s work is making my home more and more like the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Each time I pass either of the Teak Bridge paintings, I am struck by Than’s use of light as the sun is setting behind the bridge. I really grasp the tentativeness of life having danced with twice. I’m fully aware that I am in my twilight years.

Nevertheless, Than’s painting of the bridge shows the resilience of the Teak Bridge. That bridge has outlived me. The U Bein Bridge was started a century before I was born, which means that it is nearly two centuries old. After all that time, the Teak Bridge is still standing.

Okay, that is an upbeat feeling that I share with Elton. I am almost that happy and joyful about still standing.

However, there is also the haunting feeling deep in the recesses of my mind pleading, “Don't let the sun go down on me.”