my near religious experience

For the past three weeks or so I have been moving from bar to bar around London and a few selected towns in Ireland. Europe is fucking expensive, my record to date is NZ$60 for a single local phone call of duration 10 minutes to an embassy in London. However the highlight of London was on the first Sunday, I found an establishment called ‘The Church’, however at this church you wont be a finding many bibles. It is a pub/club that opens at about 1pm and features live entertainment (Freddy Mercury impersonators, Strippers and Boat races) reasonably priced drinks and a massive atmosphere. However its not all fun, I saw some scientific research being conducted as I walked through the dance floor (over empty cans of beer and Woodstock) I saw a group of guys trying to answer the age old question as to whether hman flatulence is combustible. Sundays too are a big day in London, The Church, was followed by live music and beers at a pub near my hostel. Summary – the only thing that would make me want to live in London is The Church, God bless it!

Arriving in Ireland a few days before St Patrick’s Day was the best thing I’ve done in ages. Dublin was a buzz with Irish spirit. I met and stayed with an Irish bloke that I met while travelling Thailand, this turned out wonderfully, we spent four nights out in town in a row, three of them in anger (on the Guinness not other people). I’ll put up some photos but the atmosphere in Dublin for the Saturday and Sunday were off the hook, almost indescribable. Streets lined with drunken people in good spirit and plenty of ladies. In the city about every second buiding is a pub and the best thing is that they are all full, Guinness flowing and traditional music bleating...

PS. It's pointless to ask me about the street parade, I was nicely tucked up inside a pub.

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.)