Monkeyrockworld

It’s like magic to be able to float on a boat at sunset, surrounded by these dark faces, smiley, with red beetle nut encrusted teeth. We are floating on the waters, and the sun is dying and bleeding purple yellow all around us, gushing molten light falling from the slopes of the mountains on the two sides.

Like a jewel encrusted in a rugged metal shape, Inlay Lake’s waters shine opulent with mystic colors and gentle waves, while skinny dark faced people run on it. (more…)

It’s not rare to see a horse cart on the right, a woman carrying a huge basket full of goods over her head and a tractor alike machine transporting as many as 10 people on the same stretch of unpaved road, while women with dark faces smeared in golden thanhaka fry samosas and chapatis as if there was no tomorrow. The strength of this place lies in its unique captivating mixture of Southeast Asia and mountainous South China, the background of an untamed mountain valley  filled with humanity and machinery out of a science fiction movie set in 1845. It’s really quiet, and welcoming, and beautiful, because the sky here is so blue that you would wonder what’s wrong in your country’s sky, when compared to this. Pollution is something that here is still largely unknown, and my lungs almost suffer as I inhale some fresh air. (more…)

The Shan State expands out of Mandalay to the East, and reaches out in its vast, sheer mountainous beauty to Yunnan’s western border, and Northern Thailand to the Southeast. This is Myanmar hotspot for trouble, or better, the place where 10% of the world’s heroin production has hardened the plight of these people for a few decades now. The rest is mostly produced in Afghanistan. The Shan State is also where different rebel mountain ethnic groups have been trying to fight back the Burmese junta, and it’s a territory mostly out of reach to foreigners, us included. (more…)

Trying to type on a bumpy, scenic mountain road from Mandalay to Hsipaw. We had quite a few interesting days lost in the bustle and hustle of Myanmar’s two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay. We visited the Shwedagon Paya at sunset, and it was the stuff of legend: just plain beautiful, colors melting in the dark, surreal lights coloring the tiles and a circular array of monks, some tourists, locals and beggars, all together sanctifying the night. Stuck in the middle of Yangon, one of the busiest cities I have ever been, Shwedagon Paya is like an oasis of greatness, a monolith of golden grandeur.
A monk approached me. I think he was totally high, his eyes were watering grey, melting pupils and light altogether. Possibly a fake one, someone trying to steal draped in that dark red vest. (more…)

We spend some hours with Khine in a tea house, we talk and talk and he helps us out planning the best itinerary we can to face an independent tour of Myanmar, the atmosphere around us is a bit unreal, like we are talking in slow motion, in a black and white movie from the 50s. But indeed it’s real, and I drown myself in cups of Chinese tea while we ponder whether its best to take a slow boat down the Irrawady river or to visit Kalaw of Hsipaw… he’s building up a great anticipation. (more…)

The guy sitting smiling is staring at my sleeveless shirt, screening my tattoos, pleased. The kid next to him looks at me like my arms are carved out of gold.
“Tattoos are symbols of the Gods” the old Chinese man says “that means you are strong, and powerful”.

Indeed I am. Well, we all are. After a 2 hours night sleep on the benches of Bangkok’s airport, we still have the strength to set out at 1 pm after a quick sleepie and a shower to meet up with Khine Soe, local tour promoter and eclectic couchsurfer. (more…)

Bangkok’s airport looks like a cyberspace glass inferno, and I am typing with a Malaysian woman using my lap as a pillow, while I try to use a laptop to be awake, and not sleep.

It’s 1 am and as always happens when I have to spend a night in any airport in the world, I wish I was somewhere else.

I wish we were in Yangon already, trying to wrap our heads around the enigma that so far Myanmar has been to me, seriously wishing I won’t have to come back home for the umpteenth time with a sour smile on my face, for whatever reasons.

I decided not to expect too much, but being here at night sleepless and unable to do that even if I wanted just because I decided to be the best man I can for this girl, it’s hard not to at least WISH it will be great. (more…)