Burma

I met some Austrialian chicks, started smoking opuim, quit school, and ran off to Myanmar!

Internet is diffificult to find here so I will be posting less often...

Just kidding.

This last weekend I had class on saturday, afterwards I went to the flower festival. Some places make me think of certine people. Certine markets remind me of flea markets as a child and I think of Dad. The best clothing stalls make the think of Crystal. This event made me think of Merrin. It was like nothing I had seen before. Each float was decorated with almost nothing but flowers!

Sunday I had to do my first visa run. Every month I have to go to the border, drop off my visa, and spend 30 min in another country before coming back. Next time I will plan to spend 3 days or more. This time I did it in one day, not fun. Let me tell you.

I woke up late, had a lesuirly morning, and then went to rent a motor scooter. On my way I ran into Kristan who told me I was crazy, and then the scooter lady told me I was crazy.

I relized I had made a mistake when 30 min out of town I started on a dirt road. Luckly it only lasted about a half a kilometer through a construction area. The curvy mountain roads that come next were very beutifull, life was looking up. All the best spots were at places to dangerous to stop for a picture though. Just as I was reaching the height of joy I I got to the land of dust and potholes. I thought it was going to be just fine, another short construction project... No, it took over 30 min to ride through. I don't think there was anything to see but I wouldn't know because I was looking down trying to avoid the worst of the holes. One particularly large whole shook the bike so hard the left hand mirror broke loose. At least I was ruining someone elses bike. Then more mountain roads, very nice, except that my eyes were still burning from the dust. Then came the urban sprawl through the valley all the way to Chiang Rai. Mae Sai was only an hour away! I got to the customs house and the sign on the door said closed saturday and sunday! Oh boy was I pissed. Well about as pissed as I get. Then I noticed a sign that said "passport control has moved to the border gate", thank god. I found a Thai and asked "Border gate yutinai krap." He smiled and in perfect english he told me where to go. Boy did that make my day! A short ride and I parked at the border which was also a huge market. I fumbled into Myanmar, and walked around for 2 hours. Burma is just like Thailand except prices are a little lower and people grab at you and follow you and really want to sell you ciggeretts. Or as one friend puts it "Just like Thailand only under an oppressive millitary dictatorship." They had lots of things I have not been able to find in Chaing Mai, like french wine, and good camping supplies, but I was not in the mood to buy anything.

"When your going through hell, keep going." At one point I had to remind myself of this as encoragement on my ride back. It was dark and cold. I stayed in Burma for to long and it was almost sunset by the time I left. I had brought my rain jacket, thank god, but when your flying down the road at speeds over 80 kmh wind chill gets damn cold so I went preaty slow. Then there was the fact that I couldn't see the road ahead of me so I slowed down a little extra around bends. I kept immagining hitting a rock or something. They say you have bad luck if a black cat crosses your path. Does it count if you accidently run over a dead one? It took me a while to throw off the heeby jeebies after that one, not that I am superstishious or anything like that. At one point I looked up and saw the stars. I pulled over and looked at them for a while, OMG, incredible! So I'm all blissed out and happy again, then I hit the land of dust and potholes, like I wasn't expecting it. I was thinking "wow its getting smokey, but it doesn't smell like smoke", strange I wonder... Then it hit me like a ton of bricks! Wam! My first pothole was a dusie. Maybe it was not the biggest? I was going way to fast for the foresaken land. The dust seemed much worst this time through and I couldn't see to avoid the big holes. My only consolation was that I was going slow enough to be warm. On the way out of town there was a huge smoldering fire, it seemed apropriate, almost like they were doing some sort of satanic ritual to ward off the good spirits that might try to fix the roads. That's what came to my mind anyway. Then mountain roads, at this point I was fed up. I decided to follow a truck at kill me speeds. Maybe not the best Idea, but I thought at least I could see the road ahead of him during the turns. Something about the final suprise of that last construction zone, game me a realization about my eternal optimisim and bad memory. I forgot what it was though. Finaly, Welcome to Chaing Mai! I can not express the feelings I had when I realized that I was 15 min from my bed. I thought about the stories Dad would tell about going back to the ship when he traveled with the Navy.

Another day done.

So, pasathai (the thai language). It seems to be absolutely silly. They borrowed heavily from sanskrit and pali so the alphabet has a simalar layout to sanskrit, but the reasons for the sanskrit layout are not there. They took sounds, then over time they stoped using the original sound. The results are either redundent or extra complex depending on how you look at it. Oh, and you should here them say things in sanskrit... It's a tonal language. They sound preaty funny after listening to Panditji and John for so long.