Myanmar

Thanks to those of you who took the time to email me over the past month and let me know that my blog has recently nose-dived. Well the reason for this are two fold, I have been slightly lazy with writing and I have been in Myanmar where the idiotic military government have placed massive restrictions on internet use, sustained access to most email and blog sites becomes a total pain after about 10 minutes of continually logging in.

Also there hasn’t been much to write about over the past three or so weeks. Recently I went out to a small town just slightly off the tourist trail and found a local (informal) guide to take myself and a Swiss girl hiking into some remote villages for four days. The guide I met at the bus station got my attention with a post card from NZ sent from some kiwis (from TE PUKE of all places) he met 7 years ago, the guide was a 40-year-old dude who knew more about the mountains and villages than anyone. He was part of the rebel Palaung tribes people who fought the Government in 1988 when they assumed control of Myanmar. They subsequently surrendered but all the people in the area (at least) resent the Government and are hoping for change.

The Swiss girl was nice, albeit violent. She didn’t really like the way I would frequently answer NO WAY! When the villagers asked if we were married. Another wicked thing about these villages is that you can just turn up and go directly to the Chairman’s (similar to a Mayor) house to eat and sleep, and not only is this OK but it shows respect. I will put up a photo of the first Chairman that we met; he was only 29 and the youngest one our guide had ever met.

On the final morning of the trip we had stayed at a very rich (by local standards) Chairman’s house and he invited us to come with him on his jeep to the top of a local mountain to see the progress of renovations on a Buddhist pagoda, this was cool, saw heaps of locals cutting down trees with machetes but we spent too long and missed the bus out of the village. We decided just to start walking and hitch-hike, luckily after about two hours we caught ride with a truck, I got to sit on the roof of the cab for the 4 hour ride while Silvia had to sit down the back with the cargo because it is not acceptable for woman to sit above men (i.e. the ones in the cab.)