All politics and mass headache thoughts aside, lets talk about the beauty of Myanmar! My first day there I did a trip into a village. I loved it so much that I went back into villages on several occasions.

We rode in horse wagons and these things that are kind of like rickshaws. It's a bicycle with a seat for one person on the side. It was fun strolling through the dirt streets and watching the people smile and be very surprised to see the masses of white students. More than anything it really surprised people that we were American.

I have to say the people in this country are really beautiful. Just on my first day I saw several people who I thought could totally be models. As we walked down the street, scaring some of the children who'd never
seen such light skin, a man held out his crying 3 year old son to me and said "a gift for you". The kid who was already in tears started crying almost hysterically as his father held him out only a foot in
front of me.

He was kidding (thank goodness) and laughed as his frighten kid tried to hide from us in his father's arms. There were quite a few kids who seemed to be afraid of us while I was in the villages, mostly the young ones. I guess if I was a 4 year old Burmese kid who'd never seen blonde hair I would be scared too. We must have seemed like lepers to them.

I really loved being in the villages. There are women on the roads who cook food and you sit right there on the side of the road, buy it from her and eat. One woman had some weird stuff that we thought was
intestines. We couldn't really communicate enough to find out exactly what it was but none of us was brave enough to try it. The doctor on the ship mentions diarrhea every time she talks to us and does a good
job of scaring us enough that I don't think anyone eats anything off the street like that.

In the market they had all kinds of food out. Fruits, fish, and crickets. They eat crickets as a snack. Quite a few people tried them. I could eat a worm or something but not an animal that's going to
crunch in my mouth and leave its legs or antennas stuck between my teeth, I don't do crickets. Anyway, I heard they just taste like grease.

It was just great hanging out in the village but I wish I could have communicated a little more. Most of them only knew enough English to say hello and a few rehearsed sentences, but I guess all you really need is a smile and they have plenty.

It seems the thing to do in Myanmar is hang out at the tea shops. They have sodas and tea and juice and maybe some other stuff. The sodas were good. I had one that tasted like caramel. If you've ever had the
Colombian soda called "La Colombiana" it tasted alot like that. They also had lime flavor and some other "normal" flavors. The tea was just like all the other countries except they put condensed milk in it so it was really sweet. Then when I tried the juice things got weird.

They had papaya, pineapple and avocado. I went for the pineapple… it was soooooooo sweet I couldn't handle it. It was the kind of sweet that makes your cheeks concave and your lips smack. I think they put
some really intense syrup of some sort in it. It was sweeter than anything I've ever tasted before in my life. Needless to say I couldn't finish it! But it was definitly an interesting experience.

The other thing that was fun and new was the Tenaka (which may be spelled wrong). Tenaka is a paste made from the inside of a tree in central Myanmar. I think. Remember I had a lot of communication
problems! So what you do is you take this paste and mix it with some water and spread it over your face, some people had it all over their body. It's suppose to be really good for your skin, keeps it smooth
and healthy, cures acne and blemishes and works all kinds of miracles.

As you look around you see it on women, girls and young boys, but not the older boys or men. They wear it all day long even if they are out and about so its not a beauty treatment you hide at home. Sometimes
the girls drew flowers or leaves on their faces with it. It comes in four smells: rose, flower, sandalwood and natural.

I had a really hard time figuring that out. First they gave me the rose, then the flower. I hate fake floral fragrances so I really just wanted one without a smell but they didn't seem to understand why I wouldn't take the rose one. Thankfully I saw a sandalwood one hiding way in the back so I took that one. The natural smelling one, which I found somewhere else later, smells a lot like the sandalwood but with a lighter smell. I have to say I haven't tried it on yet, but I keep meaning too. I'll let you know how it goes.





in the village




one of the boys who was afraid of me!








woman selling intestines, or something!




fancy restaurant

buddist nun at the monestary




tug of war with the little monks!












village girl with amazing eyes




walking in the village




at another tea shop



at the glass factory, making beer mugs




a plethora of glasses at the glass factory