My My Myanmar

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Okay, so I have to be honest before we start this entry. It isn't the middle of January and we are not anymore in Myanmar, Burma. We are really in Laos and it's almost the end of the Month, BUT!, since we had no access to internet in Burma and the email was $1 per message it seemed like a bad time to update. However, since we had such a great time we think Burma deserved some of it's own (wish we wrote it this way) emails. So here it goes.
To start with we flew on Friday the 13th which made Aneta very uineasy but I made sure to fall asleep immediately on the am flight so she would feel right at home. It worked. We arrived safe and sound and checked into a lovely guest house outside the city center. Yangon or Rangoon (summers in Rangoon) is by far the largest city in the country but despite 5 mil people it feels kinda small. And dirty. There is a definate flavor of the neighboring countries (mainly India) but also china and Thailand. We spent the days here (3) roaming around and seeing many Buddhist sights including the largest (I think) Buddhist temple said to contain 4 personal effects of the four Buddhas who have attained nirvana. Oh yeah it's also covered with like 40 tons of gold. This is not a heavily touristed country for both political, moral, and logistic reasons thus we spent some 3 hr walking around town without seeing another white face. Neat after Bangkok's creepy oldmen with young women phenomenon. The food is very basic but quite tasty. We had some great lassi and Indian food and Shan noodles. Aneta is still reeling from the guest house shutting off Rocky IV and starting Cursed with Christina Ricci and Pacey from Dawson's instead. I actually thought it was quite well done for B movie horror smut. Now we plan on taking an overnite bus to Bagan and will fill you in on all the gorey details (a must read) real soon. Stay tuned. Miss you all. Before we go though a quick list of congrats must go out. 1. We travel lighter now that we both passed our boards part I. 2. Morty got 100 countries and celebrates 70 years of scouring the planet and asking taxi drivers if they own or lease. 3. Eli for turning 1 this month. 4. Sloan for turning 6 (big girl - how old your mommy must be) 5. J Loh on turning 25 this month (again). 6.. Guyla on acceptance to Masters at London School of Econ. Way to go! 7. Erika on moving back to Greenbriar, the neighborhood missed you. 8. Last but not least Luba on her upcoming 25th bday as well (again)! Enough for now. J&A

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Photos

Local Transport
Transit around Burma is truly an experience. This is considered roomy accomodations.

Schwadegon Pagoda
This is a giant gold temple in the center of a destitutely poor city. Gotta love religion.

Wooden Buddha
The area around the pagoda is filled with fantastic religious art and artifacts.

Burmese Hacky Sack
Everyone's doing it. Catch the fever!

Comments

[Scott Stevens]

bronze
You guys are SO tan!! You look like you are covered in 40 tons of gold. Whereas I'm green with envy. Congrats on passing the boards, Aneta. S

[Handman]

Glad to see you're alive and well
Man, with no entries for so long I was sure that you two were kidnapped and being held for ransom. I personally offered $20 towards you're bounty. If you are kidnapped, can I have your DVD's? Keep on rockin in the (not-so) free world.

[Dana]

Yipee
Ahh...so good to hear from you...its been a long 2 weeks for us in LA without your blogs. All I can say is "I told you so" on the boards. YOU BOTH RULE ( the casbah)!! Dana

[Pops & Co.]

Congrats
Congrats on J passing that horrible exam. I've managed to keep ya in suspense for about a month, but as you know, Luba took piti on you and found that mail :) Do you guys have plans to get back at all? Looks like you're having too much fun... We miss you! Too many wonderful parties go without you :)

[nic]

who are those black people?? ;-)
Glad to see you made it back without incident. I was wondering when you guys would resurface! First let me say congrats on your boards, I am very proud of you! My favorite part of reading all these journals, is watching you get darker and darker every week, I mean I knew you could get dark, but who knew you guys were really black on the inside ;-)! Love you and miss you lots, Nic ps. I just read dana's last comment about the shopping and I agree, you better come back with some good shit!