Right then

It's my second day in Myanmar. It's fucking amazing. I've never seen anything like it. Yagon is an unbelievable city. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong or doesn't enjoy the same things as I. Walking around, taking in the atmosphere, smelling and seeing weird stuff, watching the people and admiring the beautiful houses. Are they beautiful is of course a good question since the ancient colonial buildings with bright colors have seen better days. But that's the way I like it. You don't need activities here. Every evening you're still exhausted.

This place is just so colorful in every way. Everybody is wearing longyis. Actually, not all, some have saris, burkhas or even western clothing. Everybody loves sitting in tea shops, anyways. People have weird paint on their faces. I guess for sun protection. Street food is good and almost free. Everything is deep fried, though. There are churches, wats, temples, synagogues and mosques here. It's nice to hear the call for prayer again. The place definitely has chinese influences and I can imagine it's also a lot like India. Some how it also reminds me of Egypt.

It's just so far from the Kafka-like place I had in my head, when I thought of Myanmar. People are more openly anti-government than I expected. And at least here the internet works in a normal way.

However it's also a hars place. It's very dirty, everybody spits red disgusting stuff around. There are a lot of beggars and people stare at you. Men shout at you (nice things though). The cars are older than I am. There are holes on the streets.

I don't wanna get into any kind of trouble here. The guy I changed money with told me that the guy I spoke earlier to just went to jail. Or I misunderstood, don't know. Changing money is funny business. Black market rates beat the official ones so well, that everybody uses them. Plus it's fun. You sit in a tea shop and get feeling your doing business.

When I was leaving Bangkok I was seriously questioning could I do the third world thing any more? All the chaos? Mosquitoes? (still not taking anti-malaria...)_ It was just so nice to have all the things Bangkok has. But when I got here I realised, fuck yeah, this is what I love. It's just so fucking different from home and in fact, anything I've ever seen. And in a way it's not. People go on living even though the governments suck every where (okay, this one sucks big time). Anyway, you can buy Avril Lavine posters and listen to local hip hop here.

The other side of it is that I am really tired. I miss home. I'm fucking lonely. There I said it. It's not all fun and games. I'm so sick of making new friends. I miss the ones I have! I don't think I would have made this far or this for this long if it wasn't for the internet. It's better to be on-line than just to keep all in your head. God knows I have had more than enough time to reflect on this trip.

But don't be worried. It's still fun and I'm learning. Hope you are too.

As a closure, I would like to recommend a excellent book, specially for traveling anywhere. Karen Blixen's Out of Africa.