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!!