Donations welcome for Nepal

My first step today has been going to the main hospital in Kathmandu and register to the volunteer's desk set up just outside and that seems very active; many young nepali are showing up and mainly in the daytime not much efficient help is possible..I will try later in the evening as it seems a little more of a needed time.
I managed to donate blood though, even if I come from Bangladesh and even if it was 2pm and I had had a good breakfast, and even if we were using beach chairs to lie on and there was no medical tape, but I guess every little help is good right now..
I am committing part of my budget planned for this trip to actually buy food and help here personally as the international aids are not reaching sometimes the people that really need and around the city of Kathmandu many villages are complaining and lacking support..
I am providing my paypal account or, if you are in Italy, my postepay number to anyone interested in chipping in and supporting my cause.
My flight back to Europe is on the 8th of may and every donation arriving after that date will not reach as directly as I would otherwise before that!!
Just send me your email address in a comment just below the post or if you have my gmail email account drop me a line and I will give you the details.
Feel free to share it with your friends..
I am not gonna post picture of destructions and suffering, but I will try to get some shots of the smiles and dances of the young kids unaware of what happened to them and their lives, or just of the sun over the Himalaya....

updates from here

Sun and rain alternate themselves over Kathmandu, while locals have been waiting till noon today as it was the 72nd hour from the big heartquake as the seismologists recommend and the media accentuates and people are scared, they are afraid of any little aftershock that till last night kept happening...
The capital is slowly waking up from the nightmare, but it's not easy and it's justifiable, also because for some there is nothing left to restart from, some shops are slowly re-opening and very few tourists are seen around, it's easy for them supported by their government to jump on free flights back home and leave the darkness, the destroyed, the weak behind and show the pictures back home.....
I am not planning to do that, but I am struggling (maybe for my faults) to understand how to practically do something to help, also because some locals seem to be expecting resources to arrive and cash for the rebuilding and everyone is expecting to be told what to do.....initiative and efficiency are clashing at the moment and it's not helping those that really need it, that at least around the area I find myself seem not to struggle as much!!
I am, most likely, not realising and feeling the real truth behind all this as I have lost my "wow factor" some time ago and nothing surprises me or shocks me anymore, but I am here and I feel it's right to support the country somehow, even if I dunno how...and even if the fear of spreading diseases are already being gossiped...
I am quite relaxed so far as I am in good hotel and treating myself with some fresh fruit and some very basic street food that is very sparsely available...

safe (so far) in Kathmandu..

A ghostly city welcomed me, no power, no people as they are all gathering in open spaces under the rain, or at the airport ready to be sent home...
My flight on landing was sent back to Dhaka as Karhmandu was just getting struck again from the aftershocks....so we were put on the national rescue plane that Bangladesh was sending to recover their nationals...extra fuel on before taking off, the captain said, as we might have to wait on air before landing, we ended up staying two hours above the city and then one in the queue to leave the aircraft after the descend..
Some dotted lights in the darkness, and a grey cloud that rurned heavy rain welcomed us in a shocked country, easy formalities and out in the bivouc that scared local and concerned tourists had created outside the building..
I am ok, I am gonna stay here for 12 days and the family vacation is officially postponed to next month...

short (real) stories from Bangladesh...

- The driver had just asked the young coworker (that amongst his duties has hanging out of the door and shout at people to inform where the bus is going!... and help passengers jump on the moving vehicle!!) to check the front tyres cause he heard a noise.

Nothing.. the careless boy gets back on and the driver carries on pushing on his gas pedal with the usual strenght till the third gear (luckily), then a huge blast and the bus that goes little skidding till the he manages to brake it on the side of the road few metres away from some big trees that here work as guard rail and the rice fields just a metre or so below the level of the pavement...

I was sitting just in the front seat just actually above the tyre that exploded and I was the closest to tree if only he had managed to reach the fourth gear!!... little panic in the back of the bus, but in two minutes they all squeezed in another, crowded, bus coming from behind, after having fought to collect the 40 taka (50 eurocent) fare back ..

Only the driver was left and he just looked after me getting me on the next bus coming, that was actually empty and little better quality than the previous two..

I was on my way to a small village closer to the border with the West Bengal province of India and 150 kilometres away from Kolkata, where a huge banyan tree attracts young and older people for pictures...

a couple chilling on one of the roots of the banyan tree...

for the police records...

- "Do you have internet?" I asked the restaurant owner, yes, he smiles and he shows me the five lines of signal reception on his smartphone, the 3G connection is the very big thing here now as well as phones (everybody has got one or more than one!!) and routers providing wifi to share are nearly impossible to find...I struggled with it in the last few days, I managed to find a good one for few hours in a very dark restaurant/bar where young couple meet far from people's (or their parents) eyes and gossip, a very strange dodgy looking place, in a five storey building basement, playing romantic Bangla songs on the large flat screen tv with western and chinese menu...

I get very surprised looks and sneering when (usually it's the third question after "what is your name" and "what is your country") I reply "not married/alone/single!!" to the "are you married?"!!! "Yes it's possible" I say to convince them!!... and they smile!!!

Bangladesh is a muslim country and it feels so indeed, mainly from the few women seen around the streets, no as many calls of prayers coming out of mosques, no many men walking around holding hands...

As I am writing this post there is a little earthquake and we all walk down in the parking level of the 6-7 floors building (my couchsurfing host home) I find myself in, and that's where I have seen as many women altogether as never so far..we are back up after 3 minutes!!!

a little bit the contrary of what I have just written..

- It's elections days in Dhaka (and Chittagong) and my new Bangla friend told me that the city needs two mayors, one for the northern part and one for the southern; there are 70 councils and one woman and one man per council running for the two spots!!

The city is full of A3 papers in black and white with political campaigns messages, I can only understand the picture and the symbol that each candidate has, from the national fish (hilsa) to the kite, from the telescope to the chicken cage!!... as in Sri Lanka, if you remember, to help the illiterate to understand who to vote...

Now my question is, in our countries (so called developed!!) we don't have symbols, for candidates, as we sell ourselves as literate and educated , but how it's possible that politics is still bullshit??!!!
How is possible that we still allow someone just sly and possibly slimy to sell us words like democracy, like rights and economy without real meaning it, why do we still allow these mostly liers being to use the word corruption when they are lobbists themselves..
Let's make politics moneyfree and powerfree and let's see what happens...

vote for the "spinning top" candidate...

- It's a cloudy and rainy and little thunderstom and earthquakes here and there day in Dhaka; tomorrow is my flight and I have decided not to go to the day trip to a small old village nearby as planned, I believe I can survive without it...maybe I will go to market or maybe I will just do nothing and enjoy the fresh air that the rain is taking with...
In the balcony outside of my room a man made pigeon house as I have seen many so far in Bangladesh; some people keep them as outdoor pets or for recreational purpose only and uncaged, others instead (caging them) have them (cooked...) in different spices...

pigeon town....

Banglanised...

The first consideration of this post is a quote that I came across some time ago and that said: Don’t fear death, but life not lived!!

…the other day in the middle of the old town in Dhaka, just when the sky was getting dark, sitting on a scruffy and uncomfortable rickshaw lead by a slim middle aged dark man, stuck in an insane and indescribable traffic where pedestrians were reaching faster their destinations than any other wheeled vehicle around, with thousands of eyes on me, and with hundreds of smiles and head shakes towards me and with not enough oxygen in the air for everyone there, just there in one of the most crowded places I have found myself in, I caught myself thinking that!!

Everyone is scared to die, but how mean would be to do it with little to tell!!...(I just noticed that the death theme is around lately….)

The point is actually not death but life!!! Try to leave your comfort zone, step slowly out of your soft mental cottonwool, give yourself a chance to go out there and get dirty, you cannot imagine how rewarding that can be, in that precise moment I would have done anything to have next to me my parents, or even just my ex, maybe my sister, the people I love, to share that moment that it was simply priceless, breathless!!

Bangladesh is truly embracing me in a warm and genuine hug, “are you traveling alone?” I get asked between 10 and 15 times per day, but I am never alone, I can’t manage to walk more than ten minutes without getting someone stopping to question or welcome me... I have been given business cards and phone numbers from strangers that are willing to make my traveling easier than it already is…

The country is more than unbeaten as destination itself, I haven’t seen any other traveler and it looks like the locals have not either, since very long time..

“Your culture is different from us” Amin, the waiter in a restaurant, told me pointing at me wearing shorts and curious of the bracelets around my ankles!! … “Your country is rich!” Nidaul repeats more than once while he forbids me to pay for my own breakfast, “You are our guest!” Zaman and Khokon remind me paying for my lunch or the traditional tea, with generous sugar and condensed milk, available on any side of the road!

I haven’t been offered though, a fork or spoon so far in any diner, so I am enjoying eating with hands as the old african times and I love it!!

The traffic lights don’t work or exist as they have no sense as everyone breaks every rule, even new ones that they make up themselves right there, so at crossroads you might find a couple of gentlemen in uniform with long and threatening wooden sticks controlling the (dis)order! Or to say, the traffic in Dhaka is sick, illegal, forget Bangkok that in comparison is an enjoyable sunday morning drive in the countryside!!!

Yes, I am struggling little to understand how much my price for everything/anything gets pumped, and when to haggle and when not cause, even then, they are super cheap!!

Everyone in some ways wants a little extra share from the "wealthy" visitor, even the mosquitoes at night are taking advantage…

Yes, I am struggling as well with all the selfies and pictures I get asked to take with random people and with the lack of real “me” time or even space, as I find myself surrounded by twenty or thirty nosy people “checking me out!”…

Yes, I am struggling quite a lot sadly to understand how unfair the world is, how exaggerated and wasteful our lifestyle is compared to nearly any someone here!!

loneliness.....

.....in Bangladesh is impossible...I am a little bit into a wild and remote part of this journey, I am amazed indeed and my diary is enjoying very cool stories for my nephew and eventually kids....

In my last post I talked about reincarnation, that I personally don't believe in, but if that would really be, I would think that in a past life I was some soul, something in India or somewhere around here...!!!

locals wanting to be pictured...(even if they don't look like, see first right!!)

traffic intersection in Dhaka centre...

rocket transportation from Barisal to Hularhat, built in 1928!

it's Bangladesh time..

I am in Dhaka, excited as a 16 years old on his first school trip abroad and I don't really know why, ok, maybe I have to admit that I have a weakness for indian atmosphere and vibes, and India is just next door, yet Bangladesh is meant to be a world on his own, that I am positively looking forward to learn about.....
The welcome hasn't been as easy, actually even more troubled than I can recall my arrival in New Delhi nearly two years ago, as I naively believed the guy from my guesthouse that promised to pick me up from the airport!! After one hour I had to get somebody there to call and remind him!!
Not many people stop here in Bangladesh, not even consider it in their plans, yet surrounded, nearly enclosed, by the big attraction that India is, bordering Myanmar that is there opening up and building slowly a strong touristic reputation and Nepal that tries to keep it high, while Bhutan being the precious one up there.....Bangladesh is skipped, a preconceived deduction that the country has nothing to offer, and maybe that's why I am here?? How many people do you actually know that have been in Bangladesh?
For now I am just excited even to be listening the Hindi and traditional music on the Mtunes channel on the tv in my pleasant and clean room, in the business district few kilometres north of the airport.
I had to leave a wonderful and simple country behind, a country of huge smiles and genuine souls, with a silent yet expressive humanity, that smoothly, I can now say, entered my personal top 10!
The red betel spits from the bus passengers landing on the passing taxis and staining their white doors, the huge amount of underage involved in the daily workforce or the insane amount of street trash (or better your surrounding is your landfill!) cannot cover fully the amazing peace that (somehow!!) reigns, the naively helpfulness and the cute yellow cheeks of the young girls....
In this 19 days, I have been asked more than once if I was "islam" or "christian" or why I was traveling alone and why I was not married yet!!....all questions that I didn't really know how to properly answer considering their social situation...
I could have replied to them "YOLO"!! (You Only Live Once) and explaining somehow that I am trying to experience as much as I can, prioritize some things over others, but on this side of the world where people believe seriously in reincarnation, it wouldn't really work, would it??!!! ...they can potentially do everything in their next life!!!!!

the infamous police station bedroom...(and my bags)

some water festival splashes...

locals and unknown street games...

hitchhiking in Myanmar

I hadn't really got in mind to do it, but actually I was glad at the end I let the old man on the trishaw lead me...I only needed to get to Yangon, the capital and I had all day to do it!
As soon as I walked out of my hotel, he clapped, as they always do, to grab attention, "Shan ma lay" that I thought meant bus station, I tell him, 1000 kyats he say, I smile and I open my palms towards him, then I bring all the fingertips to touch in the middle, repeating it few times!! (that's the sign for 500 kyat here!!), he agrees and I jump on the sellotaped seat next to him.. it's 7:02 am.
After meeting a few trucks carrying some ladies playing recorded buddhist chants, another with a small golden Buddha statue with some hangover looking teenagers holding it and followed by a procession of people and empty streets, we arrive at something that looks like a bus office.
The only bus of the day is complete and left at 7!!..the thrishaw man with his red stained smile, went back to his seat and started to pedaling me somewhere else, he tried his best even crossing in front of a passing bus that was supposedly directed to where I was directed, no chance...
He had a very limited english but he pointed that there was a road were bus passed more often, so he started to gently pedal...rice fields, squeezed snakes on the road, stray dogs playing on the side, some scooters overtaking us and me that I couldn't see any road ahead of us, nor cars..
After 30 minutes I questioned if there really was a road, that I actually knew existed, and he said uhh, uhh that meant maybe there, there pointing ahead of us, but still nothing...his sweat started to fall from his arm on my knee, his cigar smoke coming my way and I started to focus on the landscape to release the stress that the slow ride was generating, I offered him one of my red bananas....
It's 8:10 and there in the horizon there is a white overpass, but quite far and very slowly nearing...
My backup plan is the only day train at 10:45, in the worst of the cases...but at this precise moment we were in the middle of nowhere!!
It's 8:30 when we arrived on the side of a main three lanes motorway, very few vehicles passing but he grabs my backpack and crosses the road to stand by a sign, starting to raise his hand on coming cars!
I thought the bus was my option, but I it wasn't, hitchhiking had been decided somehow and so it was...
I paid the old man, that stated 10000 kyats (9 euros circa) as fare for the service, but that was pretty happy to count the 4000 and something else I gave him, he crossed the road and left to get back to town...(in internet, after, I calculated that we had done 15 km!!)
I was there standing on the first lane as there are not guardrails here anyway, and I was alone with my index up on the few cars coming my direction, I selfied the moment and not even 3 minutes later I was already in the brand new Toyota gt-four caldina of a young family of five!
The only embarassing note of the trip, but maybe for them, it's been when the 1ish year old daughter struggled with her number two in the middle of the drive, but the journey was smooth nonetheless, despite the A/C was extremely low and none of us could speak a language that any other being in the car (we were 3 adults and 3 kids!) could understand (sadly)...at the end the only words exchanged were: "Yangon", "mingalabar", "toilet", "where go", during the three hours that delivered me in Yangon before lunchtime!!
Hitchhiking seems quiet easy here in Myanmar, and even if I heard that payments are required, I was not allowed to pay; locals tend to help us foreigners, even if the government forbids homestays, and they are a little concerned to be seen too close to us, they would do their best..and today I got proof.

my philosophical post 3...100 days

It’s just been 100 days I am into this trip, one hundred days away from my nephew and a hundred days (more) trying to convince myself that things come for a reason and that everything goes the way it has to go!

It’s difficult to control your mind, it’s hard to stop thinking of something if you tell your mind not to think of that something!!

Try, sit quiet for few minutes: don’t think of the word ANTS!...see what happens….

One hundred days as the days I spent in my African journey, which I was just in the middle of, 3 years ago…and nothing has been the same since then when I quit my trip let’s say for… homesickness!!

Life, like the sea, has her big waves, her calm times as well as her tides and her troubled moments…and since Africa I can say I have seen most of them in some ways..

I still cannot find myself since then, it’s hard to challenge yourself into changes in life…

Our mind is weak, very fragile, easily corruptible, we believe we are in charge of it, but are we really? How come we get stuck at a certain points? How come we don’t get the answers to our questions?

I wonder if it is, maybe, that we formulate wrongly the questions?... maybe it is the perspective in which we see things and question ourselves?

I am forcing myself to learn that is the time that will tell, but is it forcing right itself? Changing is not the answer, adapting could be!

Silence is being my solution, able, maybe, to say and express more meaningfully things?

I hope one day to be able to really forgive myself, allowing my fragile mind to forget and accept..

PS. I chose the word ANTS because since few days they are everywhere and I feel them everywhere on my body… and they bothered me writing this post too, coming out of the keyboard!!

the police station room

Yes I did, I spent a night in a police station room….at Thazi train station..

On my way south and back to Yangon to catch my flight on Saturday, my only choice is train that is the slowest and least comfortable way to do it, but at this precise time of the year, in the middle of their traditional new year celebration, the only one reliable and happening!!!

I didn’t do anything wrong actually I just joked with a policeman getting off my train saying that I was going to sleep there with them at the station and he took me seriously showing me right away the room they use for resting/changing..

As I am always seeking new experiences I actually grabbed this chance right there, I have slept in train stations before but never in a private room!! Excited of the very scruffy room and basic foldable wooden bed I accepted the courtesy as a great favour.

On the wall some words in burmese characters, a whiteboard with toothpaste and toothbrushes in the space for black markers, a dirty mirror, the fan on the roof that could only be activated by sticking a small square ruler in the switch, a super tiny mouse wondering around the room and, as everywhere in a Myanmar home, a shelf/window with Buddha for praying, in this case little untidy and dusty..

I couldn’t believe of the opportunity I was being given as weird as it sounds, even though they seemed as enthusiastic themselves; they even approached a shy communication with the only word they knew in italian: Balotelli!! A football player..

On the other side though I felt privileged considering that all the local people were just sleeping lying on mats on the ground next to the platforms surrounded by hungry goats and a dozen of fearful stray dogs!

I got woken up at 5:40, that here is a good 20 minutes past sunrise, by one of the policemen reminding me that my train was in 3 hours!!

I walked into town, where hundreads of, smileless and burgundy colour dressed, barefoot monks were collecting their alms, to look for some grapes (I am in my second day of grape detox!).

washing off sins...

It's water festival, day 1, in Kalaw, Myanmar and it's raining, it's cloudy and grey and also little cold...and I am alone again, after few days with a travel partner, and now I got little nostalgic....but the detox day I did yesterday (just fruits) helped at least my body to recover from too much fried and sugary street food I was abusing of...
I also changed accomodation today (or better stepped up to a single and cosTLy room) and then opted for my favourite activity, strolling in a local market!!
All the people from the villages nearby, the tribes living around came to sell and buy basic necessities, there were only products for them, no stalls selling western stuff...
A lot of colourful people around me; the Shan people are amongst the biggest ethnic groups of all south east asia and here I am in their state adding some curls to their traditions and customs!!
I felt a little bit like if I had jumped in south america though, for few minutes, I thought I was in Bolivia to be honest, no tourists at all to be seen, and amongst colourful spices next to mountains of garlics and eels, wild orange berries (looking just like blackberries but bright orange!, and tasting sweeter) and bamboo shoots I decided to let go and I allowed myself to auto overcharge me when buying my fruits and veggies without relying on my bargaining skills!!
The kids in town are so happy standing on the side of the road with their chinese made water guns (if they are lucky..) or a simple plastic container and splashing any moving being!!
I was happy too walking out of the market and back to my hotel with my grocery until this spicky hair smurf (ops sorry I meant kid!), at first looking doubtful, approaches me with a full small pot of water, but then he laughs and that's when I realised my turn arrived!!!...so I closed my eyes with a semi excited smile and splash, I got nicely soaked!!I accepted it feeling part of the celebration too and like a local, he liked it so much that he filled up the pot twice and came back after me to complete his job!
Temperatures have dropped seriously with the rain and it feels strange to wear jackets and some locals even woolen hats for this event that it's meant to purify the past mistakes, to wash away the sins of the ending year and start fresh and clean the new one!
I wish it was so easy, in our life, to forget or just simply pour water over past situations and flush them away so to feel released and lighter, but the human mind is much more complicated..... or do WE make it too complicated? (et voila', my philosophical note!!)
If anybody has met me, would know that I am not that enthusiastic about celebrations, in general, or drunk teenagers or just wastages, (in this case of water, even the fire fighters are involved in the party, yes... watering with their hydrants the crowd!!!!!) yet on the colourful and childlike looking stage local performances, music and singers and even the burmese version of yellow submarines of the Beatles!!!

local news..

A early alarm to catch a morning bus to Kalaw, leaving behind the 44 degrees celsius of yesterday and enjoying pleasant milder temperatures of the 1300 metres high village in the Shan state...moving from the palm to the pine trees, and left behind a, if not the, touristic area for a more relaxed and friendly spot, still on the western's list..

The smile of the people covers up any difficult or just embarassing situation, it's amazing and I continue to realise that so much we should learn from Asia, yet I know that there is something deeper that the language barrier is not allowing me/us to understand!

Sometimes is a disgrace to notice the amount of garbage piled just anywhere from the back door of a restaurant to the side of a bridge, or even floating in ponds just below people's home! 

The road conditions make any journey little too long or more tiring than it should be..

The country hardly reaches the 1000 US$ of GDP per capita (and for women sadly and kinda obviously, as it happens in our so called "developed" countries too, is 700 US$!), but it is in the middle of catching the big capitalism wave and foreign investments are booming, putting Yangon and all Myanmar in a strategic position up in the list for a big economical growth..

"The era of capitalism is here to stay" a local magazine shouted today! Shouts, of protesting students instead, are shut by the government most of the time in violent way!

In any case Myanmar is slowly placing herself on the world map, and not only touristically...

ice cream shop in Yangon

a lucky and carefree kid..

less lucky and more needy (also to pee!!) kids just 100 metres from the lucky one above!..

the view, for few hours, from the train to Bagan..

the worst train ride ever....

...or probably was just one of the most intense and challenging one...16 hours according to the schedule, 20 officially to reach one of the most popular and historically important part of the country: Bagan and his thousands temples...
The train station was packed but the crowd was quiet and smiley, the platform was assigned 5 minutes before the expected departure time, the train arrived only 40 minutes later..the carriage is just dated and dusty but pleasantly looking comfortable, with a reasonably good toilet and a side room for the backpacks...no connections to other carriages, all the sleepers were carriages for themselves, to go to the restaurant or seating class you would have to get off the train (when stopping in a station!) and get to that carriage..we were trapped!!and the fine for pulling the alarm is just 5000 kyats (little less than 5 euro!!)...I got the little devil on my shoulder tempting me to do it just for fun!!!
Train travels are always fun, they carry so much energies, yet this route in particular was and is well know for his bumpy and uncomfortable reputation and poor maintenance..it's ok I thought, I can sleep anywhere, I will get used to the poor conditions of the vehicle and railways and enjoy the view when sun rises!!
After the first few kilometres we (in the compartment with me a young and mannered turkish boy and a chatty and friendly french couple) started to notice that the bumps of the train could turn potentially dangerous so as soon as sun set we opted to lie down...the feeling was like somebody was moving our bed continuosly, shaking it and then lifting it and pulling it right and left, a washing machine feeling but dry...at one point I started to get concerned that I could just easily fly down the upper berth I was assigned if one of this bumps was too bad, I haven't actually considered that the train could derail just badly to be honest..I woke up endless times and it was always dark..it's been a long night and a very uncomfortable one but I remember I dreamt a little bit too!!!
Sunrising I got up hoping to release the nausea and diziness that the train ride had been giving me with a tea, but I knew what the stomach was really asking me......the countryside was dry and desert like, and the last stretch before arriving at destination just an immense plain of tall and lined up palm trees, some sandy villages and a lot of expressive nothingness...
I must be getting tired of this way of traveling yes I know, I must be getting old and yes I was shocked and shaken getting off the train yet relieved, I was not as excited as when I had bought the ticket from the counter in the morning, but I survived it and I guess you will never know, if you never live it...

report from Yangon..

As Myanmar is getting ready to his new year celebration, the so called water festival that welcomes the 1377 (burmese calendar) with eight days of public holiday, I happen to be in Yangon, the capital...
Yes I happen, because I had planned and booked a bus to another city (Bago), but the bus forgot to drop me off, as everybody else in the bus was heading to Yangon, and when I realised I just said to myself "let's see what happens!!" and took it as a challenge or maybe a sign!!
I hadn't done any homework though, so once at the bus terminal, I just went with the flow, jumped on the crowded public bus number 43 (that is not as straightforward as it sounds because even the numbers here are written in burmese characters!!) direction somewhere by the Sule Pagoda and on arrival (a good hour and half later), started to look for a guesthouse around the area!!
The southern part of Myanmar I have just left is said to be under the political control of the rebels but yet check-points of the police (or some uniformed people) have been very common so far, pretending a copy of the passport and sometimes asking basic questions from me and some cash payments from the bus drivers!
On the (not very comfortable) bus interesting local soap operas are shown, as well as some traditional buddhist chants or good and less good pop music videos, looking around me different people, some holding old fashioned phones with antennas others eating imported chinese mandarines, the guaranteed presence of at least a monk and super cute infants!
The repubblic of the Union of Myanmar is slowly starting to show his complexity, trying to keep up with the 134 different national races, the many mineral resources of his underground, the impressive money coming from the illegal drugs market, the obvious international business speculation and a very controversial military regime..
A very smiley society without a proper identity or maybe just unable to be free and express their true one!
Amongst the odds of this country the obsessed and omnipresent spirituality for their therevada buddhism, with the churches built by the british and some passionate missionary trying to squeeze in, the mosquees and the turbans of a quiet present and lively muslim community and some colourful hindu temples here and there that the indians pretend to have too in their neighborhood!!
On a local magazine I read today an article regarding the arrest for 30 months with hard labour of three people (the bar owner and the two managers, one of whom New Zealander) for posting on a social media a promotional advertisment picture of Buddha wearing headphones!
The highlight of my simple day it was a walk through a night local street turned into a late market where the lights were some tiny candles scattered amongst chicken breasts and amongst fish and prawns displayed as usual on a piece of paper on the floor and inviting bunches of asparagus and cauliflowers; at the end of it a local ice cream shop, a scoop of strawberry for 600 kyats (55 eurocents) that it tasted very "cow", but very natural!!

simple traveling...

It looks like the posts in Myanmar get written by themselves.... or better, I am really doing nothing special to be honest, but I am seriously enjoying walking around and immersing myself (I am not sure if I can use this sentence!!) in little side roads and in the small dirty corners that I come across and trying yes to fight the hot and extreme temperatures of the central part of the days.
Today I took it very easy switching towns (60km away, 2 and half hours journey!) and spending the night in another riverside town surrounded by a beautiful and scenic landscapes of hills and rocks formations, I am in Hpa-An...
I am not getting any excitment in visiting golden stupas and temples even if they do differ from the wat I have been encountering in Thailand and Laos...I am finding much more enjoyable to slowly and very safely choosing the restaurant or if you want shack serving food on the side of the road...maybe stopping to stare at people's home or just discovering different ways to live life!!
I have just returned from a bar where it was on a european football match and where at least 20 people had gathered to watch it....it was a great picture considering that the least paid player in the field would most likely make in a month what all those people do make in a full year altogether...!!!
Yet they were there, drinking Singha or Chang (Thai beers!!) that are actually much cheaper than in Thailand and cheaper than the local beers and smoking cigarettes (that are actually served when you order something in a set holder cointaining few cigarettes and a lighter and acting as ashtray too!!)
In the meanwhile a young novice monk enters to get his alms (a can of coca cola!!) and four, five geckos run after little flies upside down on the ceiling above our heads and a young lady drives through the floor of the restaurant with her scooter that was parked inside the house...(most of the people here actually live and work in the same building using the front part as shop/business and the back as home!!if they are lucky to have a big enough place!!).
In the restaurant next door, all the waiters wear as uniform the Atletico Madrid football t-shirt, everyone with a different number!!!
I am enjoying also the presence of big water dispenser everywhere, in every shop, outside people's homes and just available to anyone for free!!

A photogenic country....

 I have been struggling to choose this four, I could have attached at least 5-6 more as it really seems that they are very cool indeed these pictures of mine...at least to me!!!!
NB. I thank the internet connection for allowing me to upload at least this ones..

the sunset side of this house...

a young local modern man with longy... (today I finally got mine)

colonial "coloured" Mawlamyine...

she asked me to be pictured!!!

from the street I had really believed it was a tree....

Seaweed salad and "street art sport"...

It's gonna be my forth night in Myanmar, tonight, and I have kept noticing that every watch I have encountered had 30 minutes less than mine!! I then asked the old man at reception for confirmation and he told me that in the country there is a different time zone from Thailand and south east Asia and it's of half an hour!!! very Venezuela, I thought!!! but then I smiled and realized that my transportations were not leaving late as I believed..
I am in Mawlamyine that has taken me 3 days to learn how to pronounce and still I hear different ways from locals,... it should be something like "moulamean".
I am considering no night transfers in Myanmar, so yesterday I stopped half way my planned journey in Ye (pronounced ye or je!!, also this was unclear to me!!) a simple town around the Ye river!
I was the only white/tourist around and it felt even more awkward to have people stopping doing what they were doing just to look at my hairstyle (curly hair are not common in Asia..), or the way I was dressed (colours are common in Asia though!!)...
I am still following my street food passion, and I haven't got discouraged from some travellers that advised me not to do so here!! Yes, I am tempted too much by the super deep fried options, but I am discovering an interesting and new culinary world too here.
The young "yellow cheeks" waitress understood my "tartall-d" (the sound for the word vegetarian! in the local language) and tried her best to translate me that she also had seaweed available...
As many people here owning one (surprisingly!!), her 6 inches screen smartphone gave me the answer opening me to one of the tastiest delicacies I have tried in Asia so far!!
Little white seaweeds (resembling tripe) mixed in a thinly sliced tomato salad and a light brownish and seedy dressing that I have no idea what it could have been....but guess what it was melting in my mouth and it was seriously amazing!!!
I left the street side restaurant inspired and amazed by the beauty that traveling is, the simple pleasures of the traveling, smiling to myself and to the kids around that kept staring at me and shouting "hello" and "bye"!
Usually good things generate good things (as well as bad things come with bad things..."welcome to my law of energies!!!") and at the next crossroad a group of four men was playing keeping a small rattan ball on air by foot kicking it, performing interesting touches and at times incredible ones that generated shoutings from the audience (shopkeepers and kids around watching!!)
I got invited to join and I didn't need to be forced and in few seconds I was already barefoot in the middle of the road; a gentleman passing by with the scooter, stopped, parked and joined as naturally, others kept coming and going....
We were playing chin ione, that here in Myanmar is more like an art, I would call it a "street art sport"... a good 20 minutes amongst scooters and cars that at times interrupted our juggling, or just me not being able to be up to their level!!
A lot of laughs though, until the bus from Yangon arrived and the game finished abruptly, two of the "players" were moto-taxi drivers and they had to make some cash for their day!!! the others just left silently as if they had an important meeting to attend!!
I wore back my shoes and kept walking back to my guesthouse sweating but with a even bigger smile....