Minglaba!!!

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Myanmar First Impressions

Millitary rulling is not the way to go. Though Myanmar lacks a lot of basic infrastructure, phones, internet, electricity, it still manages to be a wonderful place.

Somehow a military run government has created some of the kindest people I have ever met.

I decided to forgoe trying to get a plane ticket and just go overland to Myanmar. I entered the country at 10:02 am on March 15th. Start the clock that means I have 28 days or exactly 672 hours in Myanmar. I have decided to call this country Myanmar because I have learned Burmese in only one of some 35 different tribes that make up Myanmar. Thus the name Myanmar Encompases all of these differnt people.

Back to my story...

I entered via land. The lady at the border office was extrmely nice and called the airport to see if there were any flights. It turned out I couldn't get to Mandalay as planned but I could get to Inle lake, second option. I figure I was going to go there anyways so why not just head there first. I had a "taxi" or a guy on a motor scooter take me out to the airport. We bargained for a while. he started at 2 dollars I got him down to 1.50. Though I think I still got screwed. I ended up giving an extra 25cents as a tip cuz he told me about his 4 kids and how he dreamed of comming to America. That story gets me everytime.

I showed up at the aiport only to have some guy with an AK-47 tell me to wait. I decided it was best to do what he said. The flight was kind of exciting "slash" scary. It worked more like a bus as we took off and landed twice in our twin propeller plane before we got to my final destination. Sidenote: My seat was next to the propeller and it was making funny sounds I fellt like at any moment it was gong to fly of and come into the cabin. I figured if I leaned forward far enough it was going to miss me.

Anyways. Arived in Heho only to find out I was still 1.5 hours from my final destination. Decidied to walk instead of getting ripped of by a taxi driver, ended up meeting two Myranmese people. One who gave me all the info I needed, and the other who offered me a ride on his scooter, for fee of course. He turned off his motorbike at the top of the big hill and he cruised in Neutral for about 20 minutes. Anything to save a buck

Found an awesome hotel in Nyunshwe....called "Remember in". Satalite Tv, Hbo, and my own bamboo room, private bathroom and breakfast, $5. Not bad. Also had a "traditional burmese massage" where the guy walked on my back on my legs. Pretty painful but i went to bed at 8pm because i was so relaxed.

Took a long bike ride my first day. The seat bruised my butt, but it was worth it. Had lunch for about 50 censt. The cool thing with burmese food is that when you order, you really never know what you're going to get. Example: I ordered noodles with vegetables. What did the bring out? Noodles with vegatable, soup, tomatoes, and tea. They also bring all of your food out at the same time. It's always a surprise. I love it


I'm going on another trekk for two days. This should be the most legit trekk I have been on

later yall

also if you want to email me

try this other email address
ablondon@lvha.net

gmail is a reall pain here
thanks
adam

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