a message from my friend who just went to burma...
on the 14 of january i flew to rangon in burma

I was looking for some adventure after beeing in bali for a while.i wanted adventure well i had it,big time!!!

I always boycotted burma for it s opression against it s people,but one day i met somebody who made me change my mind.

Things seemed to have change last october when the regime decided to change the FEC system.

you didn t have to change dollars into governement money any longer,when you were arriving at the airport in rangon.

you were free to use dollars and change them in the street

I thought this is the time to go and see this amazing country.i decided to go but

not to give any dollars to the regime.so i did.

i took off in bangkok in an old boeing wich seem to be very old,but looked like it could fly me to rangon.

in the plane i was sitting next to an italian guy called Roberto,we started to joke together and became friends quickly

he was very nervous,i thought he was just nervous about the state of the plane.

i got to know later that Roberto was smuggling precious stones (sapphires and rubies mainly) and some charras (indian hashish).

the hostess said:

~we ll reach rangon in 45 minutes if god(allah) wants it~

i thought oh shit i was right about the state of the plane!

we finally arrived in rangon international airport (not so international actually)after a delay of 3 hours

.i looked by the window and suddenly the whole airport building went black.it was a power cut.

Roberto said to me:

ha!ha!ha! it happens almost everytime i fly to here!!

after clearing the immigration we caught a taxi which seem to date from 1950

and arrived next to sule pagoda in the center of the town.

the next morning i explored the town,and went to swedagon pagoda(biggest buddhist stupa in south east asia)

it was shining like gold in the middle of the burmese sky.

i straight away liked the people very much,smiling to me all the time,and so so kind.

one day i was sitting in the street with a small coffee in my hand,and then i

could really see for the first time the military genta in action

5 people were surrounded by militaries and walking down the small alley

they were forced to civil work and got arrested for political reason.they looked exhausted by work and were carrying cement bags.

the militaries looked at me with their angry faces,and were pissed at me .i ignored them.

i took a bus 2 days later to mandalay in the north.and then met Xavier a french dude and Sarah a german babe

the streets of mandalay were crowded with small vegetable shops,tons of onions and different vegetables everywhere.

people were smiling to me all the time and seemed to be happy to see a white guy hanging around town.

a few days later we went(the 3 of us) to the east next to inle lake,the journey was rough and long.sitting in an old pick up truck,with people on the roof and all around me

i went through the mountains of burma,the road was winding in the jungle.i could see big trees all around,passing small basic villages.

after a 10 hours i could finally see this immense lake,surrounded by big orange hills.it was just so beautiful.all of us were so amazed by the beauty

after a few days we went to bagan in the west of burma.

bagan is a huge area with more then 2000 temples all around,they date from the 10 th century and it s a super place to see

we decided to go but not to pay the entrance fee of 10 us dollars.so we faked some tickets that we had from over foreigners.we rewrote our passport number on it

the day we reached the check point of bagan we were then in big problem.the army didn t accept our tickets and called the police

we were quite scared but knew they couldn t do anything to us.we finally cleared the all story and forced the checkpoint

we had to walk for 3 kilometers towards the town to find accommodation.

we finally jumped on 2 trishaw (burmese bicycles).the drivers were paddling hard on the small road.

once arrived in the town we looked for a cheap hotel.it was very difficult because we had no ticket and no right to be there at all.

after a while we noticed that the army was following us.they were on scooters and there were 3 of them.

everytime i was looking at them they were escaping away.i thought this is it,we ll never find an

hotel here.

i was afraid for the locals who were speaking to us and told them to just walk away.

we decided to go to a local restaurant and hide for a while,and get some food before everything is closed.

we waited for about an hour and then the ~spies~ were away.

the receptionist had no right to accept us in his guest house without any ticket,

so we pretended we would buy it from him the next day

surprisingly he said:

`alright sir`

we walked to the rooms and locked ourselves up

it was worth the effort Bagan was just a fantastic place

after all these emotions my friends and me decided to go to pyay

we took a bus at 3 pm and were supposed to reach pyay at 2 o clock in the night

the bus was stopping sometime and somebody was trying to fix something in the engine.we all thought here you go the engine is gonna blow soon

we were right,at 12 o clock the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere.

the locals opened the engine and tried to fix it,after breaking a few tools they just laughed a lot and started to make a fire on the road.

we just laughed about it too,and thought this is adventure anyway.we started to sleep on the bank of the road,in the dust.

we were already so dusty we thought it doesn t matter anymore.

we finally jumped on a truck full of bags of rice,we had to go only for 4 miles before reaching an highway (in burma an highway is a large unpaved dusty road)

our truck had some problems after a while it couldn t go anymore.we jumped out and finally got an old bus which was following us.

we reached pyay at 8 o clock in the morning,after travelling in a totally packed bus.they were about 25 people in a very very small old english bus

from pyay it took us another 17 hours to the west coast.

the scenery of the west coast was amazing,cristal blue water and different bays with coconut trees around.

there were only about 10 tourist hanging around, on a long white sand beach.

i had to go back to rangon and had another 15 hours journey to the capital.and flew back to bangkok.(back to civilisation)

i ll never forget this trip in the land of rubies.

if you know anybody going to burma in a package tour (you never know) please tell them not to go.

they should go with their backpacks and indepentely

otherwise their money is going straight into the dirty hands of one of the worst regime in the world.

Aung san su kyi (world peace price 1996) is still forced to stay at home in rangon.

she is totally isolated from the rest of the world and have no rights at all.

the burmese military genta is in power in burma since 1962 and the rest of the world ignores it totally.

burmese have no right at all,if they speak politics they can go to jail for 3 to 5 years!!

burma is totally isolated,the news are controlled,e mails are forbidden,and people are under constant surveillance

undercover policemen are checking all the time at what the people do in the streets!!

made it to SF! excited to be back!!! i'll have a cell phone # in a few days.

i am at the airport. got here to find that my 2pm flight is delayed until 11:30pm. oi oi oi. i am told that i will get to LA around 2:30pm. i then triend to cal SW airlines to re-arrange my connection to oakland. they have a convienent 1-800 # but you can't call 1-800 #s from outside the us. duh... tried a milloin ways of reaching them and ended up calling the baggage people who have a non-1-800 # and they transferred me and it was done in 2 minutes. took me an hour and a half on this half. even the #s for the operator were hard to find and only then did i find out for sure that calling the 1-800 # is impossible. oi oi. but its set now.
i get in at 6:15pm

i mentioned weird weather...

in local news, a 5kg chunk of ice crashed through Jan and Bruce Robertson's roof..."The projectile plummeted from the sky at an estimated 400km/h just before 5pm on Wednesday, coming to rest on the kitchen bench only metres from the couple. Mrs Robertson, 80, was cleaning a bedroom and her 83-year-old husband was outside weeding." I heard poor Jan on the radio, saying "crazy weather we are having... what will be next, I wonder? someone could have been killed" the most popular theory is that the ice was man-made and fell from a plane... however, no planes were in the area.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3545139&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

i leave tomorrow!

it turns out that the "best day tramp" was to mt doom (from lord of the rings)! it was the hardest climb i've ever done, definately putting the vietnam mountains to shame. but, since i was shuttled to the start and away from the finish, i had to keep on for the 7 hours. the top was amazing, with unreal scenery on all sides, complete with green-blue crater lakes and hot springs and strange pillared lava flows. luckily the air was cool (and there were 100 other people scrambling up the same path) which made it easier to keep going. but, after 4 hours of going straight up, i made it for a lunch by the lake. i took about 20 pictures so hopefully they can do it some justice.
the next day the legs were sore so i was glad that i had planned a driving day. decided to head east to the largest national park with a famous 3-day "great walk". soon, i encountered some strange weather, things turned cool and rainy- even strange for winter in this area. the visiotr center predicted the same for the next 4 days so i decided to camp in a hut just 2 hours in and come out the next day. the walk was beautiful (and wet!) along a path next to a huge crystal-clear lake. by the time i started to feel seriously cold i made it to the hut to find a family of 4 already heating it up. they had done the whole circuit and were 1 hour away from the boat pick-up spot. they fed me hot rice and invited me to come learn how to milk goats on their farm. they live near hobbitton which i want to see, but apparently you have to tke a tour and pay $50 so i might skip it...
today is a lot of driving NE along the coast. rains have cleared, at least for the moment, so hopefully i will get a warm ocean swim.

ahhh! finally back online! the camping was great! we were very unprepared and got a little lost and locked out of the campground the first night, but had fun anyway. next day, the trip was redeamed when we found an empty park with good walks. i went out for one at sunset and caught a glimpse of a small kanga! was later told by the ranger that "he is a very cheeky" swamp wallaby".
came back to camp to find that a scout leader had showed up to camp nearby. he was scouting for some other camping areas since his local one burned down. stephan played guitar by the fire, we sang for hours, and tony showed us the southern cross.
next day found stephan and i hiking amid towering sandstone, dry bushland and panoramic views of the canyon. the sky began rumbling its warning of rain, a good omen after a hot hike. stopping to inspect a gigantic termite mound, we were suddenly caught in a wall of rain. we tried to hide next to a tree, but there was no hiding from this rain... so we ran around and back to camp. hungry little walkers, trying to start a lunch fire to cook, was like starting a fire in the shower. napped, ate late, went to bed early and was awoken in the night by a very noisy visitor. stephan said "sarah! wake up, its a wombat!". i named him "gus". he rummaged around on stubby legs pulling grass by the roots and making little grunting noises. i jumped out of the van, grabbing my flashlight to get closer. was immediatly given the wombat stare equivalent of "what do you think you are looking at". he was like a grumpy-old-man-bear-pig. a moment later he ran off with little rumbling and thudding and i kept stephan awake, reading everything i could find about wombats.
drove back to sydney, tried to go bowling, but ended up at a movie with stephan and friends. later played guitar and sang until 1:30am. got up at four to get the train to the airport. rtains, planes and automobiles later, i am in auckland, NZ with two hours of sleep, driving south. decided to rent a car so i would have time to actually see most of the north island. planning to sleep out of the back and have a big 10-day road trip. tommorrow i should reach tongarriro national park for "the best day tramp in new zealand".....

surfed all day, swam in a tea tree oil lake. my chakras are just jolly. stepped on a jellyfish but it was dead already. its jellyfish-land out there! luckily got no stings. now i am going to eat some organic vegetarian pizza. i have a rosy glow and am covered in sand. heading back to sydney then camping, so might not get online for 3-4 days.

met a homeless traveller on the beach and we ate organic dates, organic pumpkin bread with organic cashew butter then went to see a fire show, ate free leftovers at the krishna restaurant, met his friend (from SF), discussed politics, logging in tasmania, and digeridoos.

finally surfed today. took a little lesson and it was really good. learned a few things so i signed up for a whole day tomorrow. the plan is: 6 hours of surfing then hop on a bus for 13 hours back to sydney. i am finding that i like australia well enough, but get really excited about the wildlife. so, i arranged a little camping trip with a friend from the farm for my last few days before heading off to NZ.

the new age movement in australia is out of hand. how is it that so many people lost themselves, that billboards and newspapers are brimming with advertisements for self-discovery and "getting rid of pain, grief, jealousy, hate, guilt in minutes" through tantric meditation and drumming? the sound of chakras alligning is deafening. but the sound of digeridoos is nice.

ok, changed my ticket slightly to get a free layover in new zealand... the super-real-final details are:
Saturday, January 24 - LOS ANGELES INTL(LAX) to OAKLAND CA(OAK)
Flight 1809 V
Depart LOS ANGELES INTL(LAX) at 01:30PM and
Arrive in OAKLAND CA(OAK) at 02:45PM

i have a pick-up in oakland alreay but i really want to see everyone! let me know what you all are doing on saturday or sunday nights!?

in byron bay=veggie pizza, surf and spirituality for sale. 13 hours on a bus is a goofy thing. going to the beach but its too windy to surf, so i rented a pink bicycle.

i am very excited to come back to SF! and of course if you know of any cool jobs or apartments available let me know, but really i am not thinking about that yet.

off to byron bay tomorrow to surf it up.

missed with the sunscreen and got a burn like two little red wings on my back. bought a ticket sydney to SF on January 28th. i arrive in SF 6:05pm (hint hint). i want to get hugs, go for a fat burrito, then to the wild side west, and have a big beach burn (maybe not in that order)

today i:
went on my first bushwalk and found a local swimming hole
did a kangaroo photo shoot with "possum", the local kangaroo, who drank my glass of wine...
picked 3,423 weeds

yesterday i:
made a friend and went to an uncrowded! beach
picked 3,245 weeds

had the day off yesterday and went to a sydney beach, with the goal of surfing. but, everyone else had the same idea and it was the most crowded beach i have ever seen. i took a photo just to show you all the MADNESS! to top it off there were bad rip currents so swimming was permitted in a tiny area (about 20 meters wide) which was even more madness. of course, the surfers can't be bothered by warnings or rules so they went all over, but even the good ones were having a hard time, so i just took a nap.
its hot and i have pulled 7,490 weeds. i live in a pink camper. did i mention that this place is a school for disabled people? after work today, went swimming with some of the clients in the pool here, which was lovely.
planning to go to a drag show at the place which inspired "priscilla, queen of the desert".
its official, i am running a little low on money and missing CA, so i am thinking of coming home by valentine's day!

hello! just wanted to appologize to anyone i haven't been able to e-mail in the last 5 days... and to let you know that i am still here, safe and sound and, coincidentally, eating a lot of mangos (i have had 4 e-mails from people mentioning mangos!). i have been on a lovely farm with not much access to anything except plants and chickens. will hopefully get on the internet with some time on my hands (have to leave soon) so i can tell you all about the first two days helping a eccentric old man move all of his belongings (a lot)- i think he's never thrown one thing away in his life... this was a wwoof gig, but not exactly as described. anyway, got out of there and onto this farm just outside of sydney. there are red parrots here eating the sunflower seeds in the morning. more later....

i walked all day, then wandered into a movie, which, LUCKILY, was the one i needed to see! you should all go see "lost in translation" because it is my asia experience (except for being in an unhappy marriage and falling in love with bill murry- that's not me. but the rest, all of the crazy asian mis-understandings, that's perfect) it made me so happy to see all of the every day confusions, being in asia for the first time, put so elloquently.

then i went to a used book store to find a cheap book... UNLUCKILY, i couldn't find anything good. they had garrison keelor but no james baldwin. finally, i saw a sign for "second hand penguins". sounded intreaguing, a whole section of second hand penguin books? but all i could find was "second hand fruit and wine". where were the second hand penguins? then i realized they meant penguin classics. boring. still no james baldwin.

today it is cloudy and cool, a nice change from the 90's on christmas. i am walking again, this time to all the weekend markets, in search of 1 book and 2 shoes.

i was lucky! i got into australia without a visa or onward ticket (which i guess is required but the travel agent didn't tell me and neither did lonely planet). then my hotel didn't come through but there were free phones to call backpacker places and after 6 calls i found one, which is really good. i'm realing about the prices here but i will get over it. i think its even more expensive than SF....
taking a walking tour today. found the fish market (which has more than fish) by the wharf and bought myself a little picnic lunch to take somewhere. there are boat races going on here, in fact its officially "boat day" and everyone is out and about, watching boats and being on vacation.
Sydney reminds me a little of SF so far. only much cleaner, less hectic. great city!

back in bangkok. the island was nice... i was lucky to stay in the last remaining backpacker place among all the development. even though they are getting blackmailed (people burning their bungalows) and have to move to the other (less attractive) side of the island. its sad. i hear the prime minister decided that this island should be immediately developed for tourism and made a rule that all new buildings had to be concrete condo style places... and the lonely planet says there's no electricity! oh well. it was a nice little excursion anyway.

on my way to the post office today, a man started telling me that today was a special day and i should go to wat dee saa to pray to the lucky buddha and then go to wat im to see the standing buddha. he said this is "lucky buddha day, one day only. if you don't go today, you will be sorry for ever!" i'm thinking yeah, sorry forever, since i didn't even know this existed before he told me. but he was very adamant that i should go. he said, "after post office, you come outside, get tuk-tuk with yellow box, not white box. yellow box is government tuk-tuk and white is bad. (i wasn't sure what he meant so he pointed out the yellow box one driving by and i saw he meant a yellow license plate) pay 20B only, no more! today is special promotion. government promotion. one day only to see lucky buddha. you'll be sorry FOREVER if you miss it." i got out of the post office and was debating going to the wat when a government tuk-tuk pulled up . i asked how much to wat dee saa, and the driver thought and said 20B. it was clearly a sign, so i went. it was a buddha carnival at the standing buddha wat im... loud speakers, incense and flowers, tiny birds in cages, etc. i took some photos and left because it was too hectic. wat dee saa was the opposite; there was one small lucky buddha and only one man there, who was very serious about the good luck and really wanted me to pray to get mine. he told me how to pray properly and we prayed.
then the driver wanted me to go to a silk shop. he said he would show me bangkok for 20B if i stopped for him. i went and was a very convincing shopper so he got his gas coupon. then he wanted me to go to another place. he was very insistent so i got out, gave him his 20B and got in another tuk-tuk that would bring me to where i wanted to go.
went to see lord of the rings. 3rd row. very good!
now the question is, am i any luckier? i was lucky enough to find the bus home, but i asked directions, so that's not luck. i'll keep tabs on my "luck" and let you know. i just read my first line where i said i was "lucky to stay in the last backpacker place...." i was lucky already! so if i get luckier, that might be colossally lucky...

i decided to take my own advice and get out of bangkok. the air is making me sniffle. getting on a bus for 6 hours, a pickup for 1/2 hour, a boat for an hour to get to an island for some snorkeling and sun. allegedly there's no internet there but after all, this is thailand.... so we'll see. back by 24th i think.

i hear a rumor that there is going to be a new baby kangaroo by the time i get there. i wonder if i will be allergic? can you have an allergy to something you have never encountered before? some immunologist out there (ann?) should e-mail me regarding that.

i could just write and write about nothing tonite, but i have food to eat and mosquito bites to scratch.