Oh, and P.S.

This is awesome. I keep finding computers whose script is in other languages and I have no idea how to change them back to English. Currently I am maneuvering the site in Portuguese. The other day I'm pretty sure it was Chinese, but really I have no idea.

Crystal, Johnny, little Ilan and I have emerged after a mere three days from Myanmar, greatful to be back in Thailand and feeling like we barely escaped. While I am glad we went, good Lord, they are in no hurry to invite independent tourists into the country for conveniences and pleasantries. It felt like more work to be there for a few days, than it takes to be anywhere in Thailand for a month. To begin w/the border crossing strips you of your passport and gives you this dodgey "temporary travel visa",which they promptly take from you and hand your pre-arranged bus driver, along w/ a mess of xerox copied forms containing all of your info, one copy for each check point over the following 6hr bus ride. I lost track of how many there were. Once you arrive in your location of choice, you are given your travel visa until you reach your hotel, where it is taken again and sent to god only knows where, to be held until you change hotels or leave. Meanwhile, hotels cost 3-5 times what we've been paying and preferrably paid in US$. The majority of the town we were in did not have electricity after dark and only had hot water during certain hrs in the a.m. The whole experience was a little surreal and I have a new found hostility that I harbor for birds in general, but especially pigeons and roosters.

I have a lot of deep thoughts about the whole two days we spent there, but the primary things that struck me were this: One, the world outside of America is void of insulation in soooooo many senses of the word. In truth, I think it is America that is so incredibly insulated, but coming from that insulation, it of course, feels opposite. From auto horns sounding as loud in the car as out, to muffler, walls, doors, floors, animals, people, dirt, stink, you name it, we are so sterilized and insulated from what life really is and what makes it all tick on a day to day basis. I was so mad in Myanmar by the second night of sleeplessness thanks to the damned neighborhood cock, crowing his head off at 3 a.m. and the pigeons that seemed to be roosting...and fighting...and mating...and pooping...and eating...and everything else pigeons, not the least of which is chorteling and cooing at ALL hours! Christ people, barbed wire! Glass! Freaking space between the ceiling and the roof of the building! ANYTHING! Just make them shut up! Then there's the neighborhood barking squad, the screaming kids, amazingly loud motorcycles and tuk-tuks, and wow, is that daylight streaming in through the slats in my walls? No wonder it's freezing in here and what is...oh it's just a gecko tearing out from behind the mirror in the bathroom. And the bathrooms...now that is a six-pack conversation. I have so many questions and they do not come close to stopping or starting at the Myanmar border. These questions are Asia-wide. Just, tell me what I am supposed to do with sink sprayer? I get the general idea, but...you know, nevermind.

Two: From everything I have read and come to understand about Myanmar, which is incredibly little, take your worst day of internalized oppression and self doubt, a day where you have yourself backed into a corner, paralyzed, and apply that to a nation. There is really just a whole lot of nothing going on where we went. Given, we were in a small, less tourist frequented area, but there just isn't much of anything happening. There are small stores and a market, but very little money gets exchanged. We stood out severely, but weren't necessarily targets. People were kind, but didn't go out of their way for us, which was nice. Instead, it felt like there was a heavy apathy in the air, and I think in many ways, the spirit has been beat out of the people and the country itself. It's dirty, but you don't see the poverty like India. Rumor has it, it's hidden, and you only see what the military government wants you to see. One thing that bugged me, was the fact that 90% of the residents didn't have electricity to read a book by, but there were incredible spotlights on the immense Buddah statue that overlooked the town. I have started to view temples (wats, as they call them) and Buddhism in a light similar to that of Catholisism and it's churches. The people starve, but the people in power have "God"on their side and give the best of the best to maintaining that. But that's another six-pack conversation that I don't need to have with myself right now.

So anyway, there you have it. We are on a layover day in Chiangrai and tomorrow we will part ways. I will catch a bus to Chiang Mai and start peddaling the next day...eeeeeeek! And, it somehow managed to escape me until today, that my travels here are for a total of 3 mos. not 4. Ooops. Suddenly time feels more prescious than it already did, but I will see where the next 2& 1/2 lead me and then decide if it's enough. For now, there are strangers to meet and crazy, incredible food to be digested.

Oh, and P.S.
Those little french fry looking things, really are fried maggots. They taste like peanut oil.