People and Places in Burma

I just came back from Burma this past weekend. It was one of the most amazing opportunities that I have had since being here in Thailand. We only had four days there so we stayed in Yangon for a day and then decided to take another flight up to Bagan, a quaint little town full of over 4,000 pagodas, 2,000 of them have been fully restored. We were in Bagan for two days and then flew back to Yangon in time to fly back to Bangkok. It was a whirlwind trip, but it was completely amazing and I am excited to share what I saw with you.

Burma has been under an oppressive government and it's official name is Myanmar. The true leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, won the nobel peace prize, and is now imprisoned in her own country, leading a resistance from her captivity. For more information about the current politics of Burma, click here. The government does not allow any one who is a journalist into the country, and a wise traveler tries extremely hard to support the people of Burma instead of the government. The government will jail their own people for talking about the current government situation, so we could not ask anybody any questions about their life or their opinions about the current government situation. We tried our best to give our resources to the people, and shyed away from giving any sort of support to government sponsored hotels, restaurants, tours, etc. We always looked for ways to spend our money in support of the people..

Bagan was an amazing place,and my favorite part of the whole trip was hanging out and talking with the horse cart driver, Pyi Zone (Pee Yo Zo). He was very open to talking about the oppressive government and we had many wonderful conversations. I will post more later, but I'd like to get some pictures up for you to see. It was an amazing time and I would love to go back!
To see the rest of my photos please click here

It really was... THAT BIG!!!!!

Everyone has a fishin' tale to tell. And everyone USUALLY exaggerates how big their fish REALLY is. But my tale might be a little different. We really DID catch fish THIS BIG! (hold out hands as far as you can!)

We went to a fishin' hole that is only about 20 minutes away from Summakorn. One of teachers at our school organized a Mekong Classic Fishin' Derby. There were a BUNCH of us that went, probably at least 30 people. Supposedly the biggest catfish lives in these waters. I wouldn't doubt it!

So we arrive, and we get escorted to our bungalow right on the water. It's an open aframe of a bungalow with some areas to sit and relax and we even had a TV as well. A guide was included...it's funny that he was called a guide, because we didn't GO anywhere, we just sat there and fished and drank beer all day. Our guide packed our bait on the lure, the bait he packed was about as big as a softball, and then he would cast the pole in for us. When we caught something, then we would reel it in, but sometimes the reeling would take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. There was a battle between the sexes in our bungalow, and while we were neck and neck with the guys all morning, we had 3 big ones get away, and they took the lead in the end. We ended up catching 15 fish all together, the boys caught 9 and the ladies caught 6.

Here are the pictures of my fishin' tale....seeing IS believing!!!!

This is our bungalow, it was a great place to just relax and fish the day away!




This is me, reelin' in a BIG ONE!





WHEW... I GOT IT!




Bobbie and Me with our beautiful Mekong Catfish




Andrew and Dan




The longest fish of the day was caught by Dan, even though a dispute is out whether it is the heaviest or not....(I still think mine wins in that category! :) )

Blowin off the dust....

Dear Faithful Readers,

Hello! Yes I'm alive and I'm finally blowin' the dust off my blog. I moved and then was setting up internet and all that jazz, so I haven't been even remotely faithful at blogging my life as before. Please bear with me as I post some past events through the last couple of months. Here are some highlights really quickly. Pictures will come soon, I promise!

December
* Went to Chiang Mai on a volunteer trip with fellow friends and teachers. We got to hang out with a village of Hmong people and learn about their life in Thailand. We also had a little misadventure with an airplane flight and ended up taking a taxi 8 hours back to Bangkok. That's a blog story in itself!

*Cambodia - I went to Phnom Penh and Siam Reap for 5 days. I really enjoyed my time there, but it really made me think. The devistation of Phnom Penh and the genocide that happened 30 years ago is still very prevelent. More on that later...

* Christmas away from home - I wasn't sure I would be able to be away from home for Christmas, but I did it! Thank goodness for Vonage and Skype and Webcams! We opened up our presents via the webcam and Wyatt was excited to see his Aunt Katie on the computer. It was fun, but really hard as well. I am so blessed to also have Pascale and Kevin as my adopted family while I was here, and it was fun to be with their kids for Christmas as well.

*Visit with the Drapes - I had a blast playing hostess to my friends the Drapes. Chris, Chrissy, Matty and Andy. They are a super fun famliy that took a year off to travel around the world, and they just happened to stop in Bangkok. We toured around and saw some things I haven't even seen yet...Bangkok's Grand Palace, a boat tour of the Chao Praya river, The Ancient City, and even Bowling! We had a great time together, and it was fun to have some friends from Seattle to play tour guide to.

January

*School started and we had a trip to Koh Samet to ring in the new year.

*We took a trip to Bang Saphan, Jah's hometown. It was such a relaxing and fun time together!

February
* Moved to a new little apartment (my 3rd move so far...I think I'm staying here this time!)

*Started going to a gym near school. It's the nicest gym I've ever been in, it even has a sauna and a steam room in the bathroom. Gonna get healthy! whoop whoop!

*Went fishing Thai style and caught 15 fish in a giant stocked lake...pictures are coming shortly...