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Published: October 30th 2005
Above all powers above all kings, above all nature, and all creative things, above all wisdom and all the ways of man, You were here before the world began. Above all kingdoms, above all thrones, above all wonders the world has ever known. Above all wealth, and treasures of the earth, there’s no way to measure what You’re worth. Crucified, laid behind a stone, You lived to die, rejected and alone, like a rose trampled on the ground, You took the fall, and thought of me, above all.
- Above All: Michael W. Smith
Myanmar: A country that many Americans haven’t heard of, let alone been to. Burma: a little more familiar, yet still not widely traveled by Americans. Myanmar and Burma are one in the same; Myanmar is the name that the government gave Burma when they took over. Both names are used throughout the country but since we as Americans don’t support the government I will use Burma from now on while talking about the country. There are not a lot of Americans that live or visit here. Actually, we tripled the American population in Burma while here. This country is amazing but it made me miss my brother a lot. Wow, did I just say that? Yes, I did. It reminded me of when he was in The King and I, correct me if I'm wrong, but that took place in Burma. (I should have paid more attention to the show and I might have been more knowledgeable about the country.) The people here are incredible. They are so friendly and polite, and unlike a majority of the other countries we have traveled to they like Americans. I spent two days in Yangon, the port city and 4 days a little further up north in Inle Lake. While signing up for the trips in August, I had no idea what to do in this country, I had never heard of it before. I purchased a book titled 1000 Places to Visit Before You Die and I opened it to Myanmar and Inle Lake was suggested so I signed up for that trip, not knowing what I was getting myself into. While there I was constantly pinching myself to make sure that it was real, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, that’s how amazing it was. It was absolutely beautiful. You know how sometimes when nothing else is on TV you flip to the travel channel and they have the “most exotic” places to visit on and you are intrigued so you stop flipping and finish watching the segment. You sit there and are in awe and you say to yourself “WOW! That looks amazing, too bad I’ll never be able to afford that, or too bad I’ll never be able to go there.” (Just work with me on this one.) I felt like I was living in that show. I was speechless. The scenery took my breath away. At first I felt a little lonely and was wishing that I could share this experience with someone. But then I was like, ya know what? I'm sharing this experience with God and no offense guys, but he’s way cooler than you so then I was happy. And whenever I was missing my family and friends and wishing I had someone with me, I just thought about God and I had an ear to ear grin on my face.
Inle Lake is a water town, so you travel everywhere by boat not car, that was so much fun. The lake was around the size of Lake Chautauqua (or maybe it wasn’t, but that’s what it reminded me of). The resort we stayed in was gorgeous. It was only 3 months old. I don’t know if you guys have been to the restaurant Shanghai Reds, but it resembled that a little to me. You get off the boat and walk in across this little wooden bridge over a pond with the big fish in it and bamboo shoots with little lanterns on them, with big lush flowers all around. It was very quiet and peaceful. Unlike India, I could actually hear myself thinking. You would totally just go there to get away from everything in life. It was very relaxing. They had a TV in the room with HBO and Cinemax which was our entertainment for the night as we weren’t allowed to leave or go into town because there was no way to and the resort didn’t have any activities. However, during one of the rain storms the satellite went out so we didn’t have TV. I think that was the first time in my life that I sat there with absolutely nothing to do. I was going crazy, there was noting to do besides breathe. It was good. During the days we did a lot of things, visited many pagodas and monasteries. We visited a school and orphanage and went to some local markets. That was bad, I couldn’t say no to the people because they were so friendly and cute, so I ended up buying a lot of stuff that I have no use for. Oops!
The third day there we went trekking; I don’t really know the difference between hiking and trekking. Well, it was like a walk in the woods, so maybe trekking is not as intense as hiking? It was fun. It was about 2.5 hours. We left and it was sunny and hot. Then about 20 minutes into the hike it started to poor and didn’t really stop until we got back (monsoon season). Most valuable item I brought with me on this trip: A rain coat. It wasn’t the rain, rocks, tree roots, grass brushing in my face, bugs, uneven surface or clay that made it adventurous though. It was the fact that we were walking on a clay path that was probably 8 inches wide with a lot of brush on one side and a cliff on the other side during a rain storm. Clay gets slippery when wet, yeah, it was awesome. It was quite adventurous, I loved it. Towards the end of the hike you had to concentrate on lifting your feet up or the mud would engulf your sneaker and you would lose it. You should see how muddy I was by the end. Random thought of the day: it’s a good thing that I'm not allergic to mud. I lost a pair of sneakers to the muck in India and I lost another to the mud in Burma. Hopefully, I will be able to clean off the Burma sneakers and recover them. But for now I'm living in flip-flops and hiking boots. Oh and another side note while talking about living in certain clothes. Ha, so there’s a water shortage on the ship right now, ha! The ship was too heavy while traveling down the river to the port in Yangon, so we had to dump water. Since its expensive they won’t buy any in port, so they shut the water off on the ship. We get it from 0600-0900 every morning and 1800- 2100 every night, that’s it. No showers, no washing hands, no drinking, or flushing toilets outside those hours. This also means no laundry days. EXCELLENT! It’s been like 3 weeks. The clothes part is fine, I can just wear stinky, muddy clothes over and over again, but it’s the socks. I like socks. I like clean socks. I’ve only got a couple pair left. I don’t know what I'm going to do, if I have to wear dirty socks, I'm going to freak out. Also now when you see my pictures and I'm wearing the same outfit in every picture you will know why. Anyway, back to Burma…
The last night we were in Inle Lake the resort put a show on for us. That’s when I really missed Jeff. Well first off it was a show, but secondly the music and dancing reminded me of The King and I. I was wishing Jeff were there with me to watch it because he would have enjoyed it. I videoed it and he can watch the video with me but still, it’s not the same as being there…
While here I really realized how much we take our government for granted. For the freedoms that everybody takes for granted back home. We cry when a president that we don’t like is elected but at least we have a president. At least we have order and aren’t living in chaos day after day. We are free to do whatever we want, whenever we want. We have the freedom of speech, being able to talk to whomever we want, whenever we want without the government interfering and imprisoning us for saying something that we believe. We are free to congregate with more than 4 people at a time. We have the freedom to worship God, to worship the God that we believe in. In America we can choose who we want to worship, and the government won’t stop us. We can go to church, temple or mosque freely. We can carry around bibles and sing Christian songs without persecution. We can go to restaurants and enjoy a meal and not be monitored by government security cameras. We can talk on the phone and send emails without the government watching and listening to us. We don’t have to live in fear in America. Yeah, our government might have its flaws and you might not like the leader but we have it together. Out of all of the countries I’ve been to ours is the only one with enforced traffic laws, garbage collection, wealth, order (I'm not saying that other countries don’t, just within my travels we have not seen any of this) and I believe that it’s due to the government. We should be very thankful for that.
I'm so glad that my video camera has made it this far, I hope that it makes it a month longer until I get home. It has been through a lot but its keeping up with the abuse I'm giving it. I just finished tape 22. I can’t wait to watch the tapes; I'm such a dork, its going to be great.
Currently I have a viral sinus infection: head, throat, ears, the works. I went to the doctors this morning to get it checked out. I knew she wouldn’t be able to do anything but everybody was bugging me to go so I did. She gave me some lozenges and told me if things got worse to come back and she would try to find an antibiotic that I'm not allergic to. I guess after India there have been a lot of repertory problems due to the polluted air. What can you do?
I'm really excited now for Vietnam, that’s our next port. It will take us a little less than a week to get there. This week is going to be painful with school work. I have a lot of papers and exams. AH! Don’t worry about me though, I’ve made it this far, I can do it!! Wow! Where did October go?
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Sandra
non-member comment
Sounds like you learned a heck of a lot in Burma. I'm proud of you. Do you think our insurance /warrenty will cover us so we can get a new camera when u get back? hehe. I'm on tape 10 or 11 by the way... I also have a virus sinus infection as well. Except I have had a bad temperature for a few days to go with it..I got antibiodics and the fever is gone, but I'm still working on the cold part. Also in response to your Blog....YAY AMERICA! I wish I was at Inle Lake with you, that would have been awesome...