Ted and Barb highly recommended a stop in Burma-thanks guys, its was awesome.
This country is fascinating, like stepping back in time. Jungle, rice paddies, ox carts, 400,000 monks and 58 species of poisonous snake. Burma (Myanmar) shares borders with India, China and Thailand, three very distinctly different countries. On top of the extreme Asian melting pot affect, the people have been beaten down and abused by their government for a long time. The junta's rule and the resulting contempt from the population is palpable at every step. Imagine voting President Obama into office then having the military say, 'no actually he cannot rule', jailing him and beating/killing every person who stands in their way. That is what is happening on the ground in Burma today. BUT...in terms of life experience, this country ranked among the most moving places we have been fortunate enough to visit.
We met and befriended a man who served under "the Lady" Aung San Suu Kyi who, after being tortured by the military, started a home for the children of anti-government rebels. Sounds nuts? It was. And it resulted in an unexpected highlight of our travels. More on him and his kids next post.
We did very little in terms of must-see touring through SE Asia. Burma has its own little circuit of temples and cities but we bailed on it all. We stopped in the mountain town of Kalaw and essentially stayed there for two weeks. Partly because we were tired of moving day to day and partly because of the people we met there. We did a few overnight treks from this town and met some fantastic folks. Below are pictures from our treks...
Monk and Water Buffalo.
Spider Trampoline: For all of you who have asked us how we kept from getting sick this whole time...well you can now only ask Kori. I went down pretty hard in the mountains one day with a fever, migraine, no energy etc. We were one night into a our trek and our guesthouse was this barn-but we were not alone. In the middle of the night I woke up to get a drink, clicked on my headlamp and this little lady was five inches from my face. At first I thought I was seeing things from my fever until I saw her eyes and realized that she was carrying an eggsac. In my confusion I thought it was a trampoline or evil flying spider saucer. My already abnormal dreams that night warped into something not unlike the 'Shelob' scene in Lord of the Rings. This is a picture of her in the morning.
Monk and his cat at a monastary where we slept along the way
Scene along the trail
Classroom in one of the villages
Kori in tribal garb
Kitchen at a guesthouse
1 comment:
What scale is that mammoth spider, or perhaps I just don't want to know. I feel sick looking at that!
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