Traditional Burma and a taste of Cambodia

Buddha Hello friends! Time is running out and after my return to Bangkok from the Philippines I decided to speed things up again. First I went to Burma (Myanmar) for 3 weeks and after that to Cambodia for 2 weeks. Traditional Burma Going to Burma is controversial because of the suppressive regime. I think however that individual travelers will have a positive influence on the situation. Why would isolation help? Better sending e.g. 5 million tourists (10 million ears and eyes) there. But it has to be said the regime is present everywhere. Big billboards with slogans tell the people of their desires and how to behave. Internet is not allowed and if caught it means 7 years prison. Many undercover agents report people that don't support the regime and talk politics with foreigners. And Aung Saung Suu Kyi was in prison and has currently house arrest, while she won the last elections.

Girl with traditional Tanaka on her face But then the contrast with all this when you arrive at Yangon, the capital: a green city with wide lanes and not too much traffic. People are friendly and traditional. There are many monks wearing their red robes and most men wear longyi's (sarong) while the women and girls put "bamis tanaka" (kind of white clay) on their face as sun protector. Crime does not exist (yet). The Burmese language is unique and consists of circles when written and sounds pleasant. Nearly as good as the Dutch language...

Performance at the Moustage Brothers. (no this is not one of the brothers) Yangon is dominated by a huge golden Pagoda that entered my top 3 of religious monuments instantly. After a few days in Yangon to get tuned and understand the complex 3-currency system, I went north to Mandalay. Another beautiful city stuffed with temples and pagodas. Visited the famous Moustage Brothers in their little theater. One of the brothers is serving a 7-year jail term, because he made a joke about the regime. The rest of the family performed traditional dances and told safe jokes. The best joke came from the audience saying that the Burmese regime must have a sense of humor as they have invented the FEC. The FEC is a kind of fake currency you are obliged to buy on entering the country and a real joke indeed... After visiting the temples in Mandalay and nearby Mingun I went to Bagan, the highlight of a Burma visit. In this historic capital you can find hundreds of pagoda's and temples in a beautiful environment. Together with Gavin, a subordinate of the Queen of England in Australia, I cycled between the pagoda's and saw some of the best sunsets. I also saw a sunrise, but didn't meet Gavin alive at that time...

The pagoda's of Bagan One night we went to dinner and had an amusing talk with the owner of the restaurant. He spoke English but his repertoire was limited: "That was a very good meal. Please tell the cook he did a good job" "My brother has a taxi" "The food was nice" "Yes it is about $10 per day to hire it" "We like your restaurant. Is it yours ?" "No it is not my taxi, but my brother has a taxi" Then we started laughing and he left us not knowing what there was to laugh about as he only answered our question. After Bagan I went to Kalaw a quiet hill-station where I hired Mr. Khai for a 2 day trekking into the hills. Mr. Khai showed me many traditional villages and was very pleasant company. His knowledge of countries is based on the people he has guided and that makes him believe that "all Belgians don't speak with their neighbors" that "Canadian couples constantly kiss" and that "the Dutch are extremely rich". The last was based on a Dutch guy with a watch that also tells height and temperature and was enforced by my digital camera.

With Mr. Khai (left) in a village In every village, where people live a very primitive life, he wanted me to show them my camera. It was clear that the status of Mr. Khai was improved by his friend with his magic camera. Strange thing status. Among travelers status is related to the size of your backpack and the prize of your room. Little luggage and the cheapest room gives you the highest status ! At Lucent the status was based on how many high level managers you had met and how well you repeated their visions. (high level managers call ideas visions). But enough about status. After saying goodbye to Mr. Khai I went to relax for 4 days at the Inle lake. Here I met Dieter and Kris. We did a boat-trip and a one-day trekking. We saw floating villages, monks playing soccer and cats jumping though rings at the monastery of jumping cats. Don't ask me why monks learn cats to jump?

Jumping cats ??!! Food-wise the Inle lake was good too as we were there in the strawberry season. I proved that one does not die after eating 3 kilo of strawberries a day, though my stomach didn't mind leaving!! And then there was suddenly an end (ran out of visa) to my stay in Burma. A country I will definitely return to. After a 2 day stop in Bangkok I continued to Cambodia. A Taste of Cambodia Going to Cambodia means going to Angkor Wat, the Ancient Khmer cities with beautiful temples, monasteries, pagoda's etc. Booked the bus from Bangkok directly to this site and met Karen and Jules from New Zealand and Sandy from England. Together we experienced how it is to drive over a "road" with holes so big you can park your car in it. But we came out of this survival without too much damage and had some good days at the temples. Angkor Wat is great and the town of Siem Reap, where we stayed, is a pleasant laid back village. One of the other highlights was the massage by the Seeing Hands. For $3 you get a perfect massage by blind people and you feel even better because you support the blind in Cambodia. A different experience were the "Happy Herb" pizza's...

Border Thailand-Cambodia Seeing Hand massage

We met Will, an English guy, who wanted to celebrate his 21-st birthday at Happy Herb's. Here they add some extra "herbs" to you pizza and you can choose between light "smile" or big "smile". Together with my Kiwi friends I shared a very big pizza and we asked for "very very mild". We had a couple of beers and I saw them all getting very happy while I stayed in control (like always) ...

Happy without pizza. (Showing the digital camera to Dieter) But not for long and in the end I was the happiest of them all. Well happy? More the idea that my mind was being separated from my body without narcoses It took me a full day to recover and get rid of all these weird visions. Now I understand how hard it must be to be a manager. Controlling all these visions!! They say you can get addicted to Happy pizza's but I know for sure that it will never happen to me. A day later we asked the owner of Happy Herb why we were all so extremely happy while we asked for "very very mild". Then he admitted he didn't know the word "mild" but he was proud he knew that "very very" means "many many"...

The temples of Ankhor Wat After the temples we continued to Phnom Penh a pleasant city with wide boulevards and a beautiful lake. It is hard to believe that in this country is so peaceful after the bloody Red Khmer history, just 20 years ago. Continued south and had 2 days on the beach in Sihanoukville before returning to my base city: Bangkok.

Karen and Jules from Kiwi-land Now I am in Bangkok. Eating Dutch treats like "stroopwafels" and "Drop" and reading a Dutch paper send by my friends in Breukelen. The reasons to come home are getting less...