It Was Not Just A Card Trick

As I finished reading the chapter I had the sensation of having just visited (or dreamed) a large, sprawling outdoor movie-like set of interacting people, in colorful costumes, all intertwined in a complex plot of illusions. Some of these people have ominous hidden motives, unknown to the others.

Rupert practices his newly-learned card trick illusions on people in a village marketplace and is observed by three tribal Karen boatmen, known by nicknames as: Black Spot, Fishbones and Salt. What they think they see is at the heart of the chapter and, I’m expecting for the rest of the book as well.

The boatmen arrange to pilot the group in their longboats to accommodations in deeper locations along waterways, villages, islands and lakes of inner Burma. Exotic bamboo forests, blooming water plants, and villagers appear, and we learn more of Buddhism, customs, tourism, karma, insurgents, and the plight of the tribal people of Burma. I like these rich descriptions, though bittersweet…

The group shares a sense of earthly Paradise and Shangri-la. We know that this will soon change, having been warned several times as we read the chapter. And then there’s Heinrich… It doesn’t look good, does it?