Log/Pic 12 Myanmar

So these are pictures from my Myanmar (Burma) trip. It was tough going from the time I started trying to get my visa in Laos to get into the country, up until the time I left here. I won't get into all the negative details but I will say that this government has a hold on the people and they are not pleased.

I was very happy to get this photo of an old lady fishing-she was not as pleased.

If your wondering about the stuff on their faces, its a powder turned to paste from the bark of the sandlewood tree. It's a cultural thing practiced mostly by women and some men and children. The designs are different. I thought initially it was to protect against the sun-and it may have begun this way. It was however worn on cloudy days and by people who work inside as well.
I stayed in Yangon and visited temples and pagodas but am really burnt out on them. I went to the zoo and saw Asiatic bears for the first time. I also got to pet a young hippo on his face. At my guest house in Yangon, they would not take their own money as payment. I had to give them U.S. dollars. Again this was a government thing.

The remains of cultural sandlewood after day working in the fields.

I took a trip to Bago and onto Kyaiktiyo and stayed in a little village called Kinpun. It was monsoon season and it pretty much rained the entire time.
Many people took canoes from their huts to wherever else they may be going. The roads were absolutely terrible and lined with potholes and ditches. Regardless of the lack of road maintenance, we had to stop maybe five times each way to pay a government road tax-huh!
I walked to a place in the mountains called Golden Rock. I was actually cold because of the continuous rain and wind. No photos of this for that same reason.
I was not able to e-mail when I was there because the government limits the providers and then screens the ones it does allow. Maybe if I was able to go to Mandalay I would have liked Myanmar better. Pehaps it was because I was comparing it to Laos and in case I hadn't said this before, I LOVED LAOS!

I'm in Cambodia now. Maybe I'm comparing it to Myanmar, but I love Cambodia. I'm still looking for Angolina, but no sign of her yet.

Blog ya later, love Larry