annnd... we're back!

Hello everyone! It's been quite awhile since we last updated. My apologies for the delay, we've heard reports of lots of people asking where we've been. We appreciate that! The reason for no blog updates is that we've been in Myanmar, and the government of that country does an exceedingly good job of blocking foreign websites/influences within their borders. Our blog was blocked, as were all blogs, so we simply couldn't do anything. E-mail access was sporadic... gmail worked in quite a few places, but hotmail rarely worked at all and only by accessing via a certain roundabout web address. Anyway, despite that, Myanmar was truly amazing- one of those places that is very unlike anywhere else. There are an infinite number of little oddities that can only arrise in a country blocked and sanctioned by the entire international world.

Our adventure started right as we arrived, when we realized that their money system is seriously screwed up. Hotels take US Dollars and US dollars only. Restaurants and most (but not all) other services only take Kyat (local currency, pronounced chee-it). There are no ATM's in the entire country, and banks can't give money out of US banks because they are sanctioned by us (I had no access to my Chase or Bank of America accounts online, either). We knew those facts in advance and brought a lot of US$, but changing money was a pain. The main reason? The bills must be perfect. Any American money most be absolutly flawless or no one will take it at all, even currency traders in the banks. A scratch, a pinprick, dirt, even a barely noticable crease and they will be turned down flat, and they scrutinize every single bill you have. All banks are government owned, so we assume this is a government rule. To spend the US$, they would have to change or filter it in a relatively friendly country like China, who is probably very aware of counterfeit money. It's quite amazing to pay for something with a near perfect $100 bill (over a months wages for most Myanmar citizens, easy) and have it turned down. What makes it even more ridiculous is that Kyat is hands down the most worn down, nasty currency I've ever seen. Bills are ragged, torn, covered in tape, and often not worth the paper their printed on.

Another of the more constant menaces in the entire country was the lack of consistent power. If one sound will stay in my memory from the trip, it will be the omnipresent sound of diesel generators. Yangon (the capital) is a city of over 5 million people, and yet power is sporadic at best, probably adding up to around 5 hours a day. Standing on the roof of a huge city and looking out over a pitch black city is an eerie site, perfectly illustrating the incompetance and idiocy of the Burmese military government. Truly sad.

From the perspective of the government, the entire country is merely a company: a means of profit. The government was directly involved in all production. I'm not talking about subtle guidance of vital industries, but directly creating goods in an attempt to drive the compeition out of business. Water, beer, jelly, transportation, hotels... virtually any industry or sector of the econmy is dominated by the government, and taxes on private enterprise are so high as to make most competition fold immediatly. We talked (very privately) with many people who mentioned this to us, including an artist on the street who was trying to sell paintings without having bought a ridiculously expensive liscense (he said they would take his motorbike and paintings if he were caught, which is nearly all of his worldly posessions). The taxes on hotels are so high that only a few can afford to be open, as they have to stay at near full capacity to make any money. This made finding a not fully booked hotel a pain, despite the fact that there were virtually no tourists.

All this makes Myanmar and the Burmese government sound terrible. Well, the government is terrible, but the country itself was amazing. The people were probably the nicest group of folks we've ever met. The scenery was absolutly fantastic; the 4000+ temples of Bagan may be one of the most impressive sights I've ever seen. In fact, Michelle and I both agree that it was far more impressive than the already magnificent Angkor Wat we saw a couple months ago. We visited Inle Lake, a beautiful body of water hemmed in by mountains, where the locals live on stilted houses over the water, miles from any shore. They make their living fishing, and occasionally selling goods to any tourists that manage to make it all the way out there. We bought some cool stuff! All over the country we had many in depth conversations and interesting experiences with the locals, including monks that gave us personal tours with no interest in money and lunch provided by monestaries and meditation centers simple because we came by. Even the powerless, dirty cities of Mandalay and Yangon were great because of how different they are from any other city we've ever seen (or are likely to anytime soon).

I can't really describe how pretty some of these places are, and I can't describe the atmosphere the whole country had. Because of that, I won't say any more, I just hope my pictures can do a slightly better job of showing how great of a country Myanmar is (and can be). We took and kept 600 shots, which I split up between 2 folders that you'll see to the right. I'm in the process of uploading them right now. I know most people have neither the time nor the interest to sort through 600 pics, so in the next day or so I'm going to take a much smaller selection of my best pictures and put them up seperately and in an easier to see way. I'll post again with the link to that when it's ready! In the mean time, if anyone wants to know anything about the country, our trip there, or anything at all,. feel free to comment on this! We'll respond, I promise.

We're in Bangkok right now, and tomorrow we are heading south to the famed beaches of the area for snorkeling, lazing around, and rock climbing over some crystal clear waters. Not bad for January, not bad at all.