Ming Ne Soda...as the Chinese say....

Were in Minnesota right now and Lindsey just landed a job in Duluth! So...looks like we'll be here for the year. I'm still looking for work, but I'm sure things will work out with the box factory or Pizza Hut. We'll be updating more often when we get moved into our place and start to get life started again. Things have been great here, but it's hard not to have a placed to put your stuff.

On the way home.....

Joey in the chair we brought home from China for him!

Bri and I headed to the Cities for a wedding of my good Hamline buddy, Gentz.

Hanging with my long lost friends from college.....

My great friend Ryan...now hitched.....it was such a good time!

Hey We're in New York

Lindsey and I have had a busy past couple of weeks, from meeting all my friends and family, to going camping, to eating a lot of good food. Here are a bunch of pictures from the past weeks.

Here's Bri and I pretending to be pretentious with our first ever Cosmopolitans and Martinis at a very expensive restaurant in the Adirondacks.

Bri and his buddy Collin (a.ka. Cobra) spent a bit of time rocking out with their high school band and testing out the new Nintendo Guitar Hero game.

Bri and I were able to go on a few canoe trips and an overnight, which reminded me a lot of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota.

This was the big welcome-back party, in which everyone decided to sport the cool skirts we bought for the guys and gals in Burma. This is Brian's family...his aunt Judy, me, Bri, his sister Caitlin, su madre, and paps.

I was also introduced to a favorite pastime of his buddies from high school: yard golf. Creating a course in your backyard and trying to beat each other. I managed to hit it across the fence once, but then I was struggling.

A day trip Bri, Collin, and I went to in the Adirondacks. We canoed, portaged, then hiked a smaller mountain all in a days work.

Brian loving the American brews.....and my first Yueng Ling beer.

Bri and his dad being cute.

Now, we're off to hit up Minnesota! We're excited to see you all soon! Tuesday we'll be rolling in! P.S. Tomorrow, I get to eat fresh LOBSTER!!!

The Baldy & Binzer Blog

Well, we're back in America and all is great. We flew back in on the 16th and had spent that day climbing the Great Wall and also flying for about 17 hours total, so that was a long one. Yet, coming into the Newark airport and sinking our teeth into a steak sandwich at a Steak Escape, was truly amazing. We were back in America. We're visiting my family in Chittenango, NY right now and then we'll be going up to the Adirondacks in a few weeks. After spending four weeks or so here, we'll head to Lindsey's hometown to visit her extended family.

So, with Lindsey and I back from China, my blog has come to an end. But, with every end comes a new beginning...and that beginning is the Baldy & Binzer Blog! Will they find jobs? Will they move to Alaska or possibly Belize? When will they go back to school? Check back in regularly to watch the adventures of Baldy & Binzer.

We're starting to look for jobs again, but still taking it slowly. We're still trying to adjust to the time zone change and get our stomaches back on track.

Here's all of our friends who came to show us off at the train station.

It started to rain at Tiananmen when we were there...stupid Beijing.

Here we are in the Forbidden City, this was probably the only building that wasn't under construction in preparation for the 2008 Olympics.

This was our last day, took a trip out to the Great Wall and then rushed off to the airport to fly out.

Our first meal back in the States! Steak Escape!

Goodbye Panzhihua

"Bye China!"

Well, it's finally here. Tonight is the last night in the apartment and town that Lindsey and I have called home for the past 3 and 2 years, respectively. We have most of our things packed up, have spent the past week running through a marathon of goodbye dinners and banquets, and still don't really feel like we're leaving yet. Our schedule has been so packed that we really haven't had the time to slow down and reflect or realize that we are leaving, but maybe that's for the better. We are both sad to be leaving this place, but it's certainly time to go. The one thing that we will miss the most are the people. The few people we could call friends were the beacons of light that kept up going, day in and day out. If it wasn't for them...and the Chinese BBQ with crushed peanuts, we probably wouldn't have made it a year.

We've spent a long time here and we are so excited to get back to America. Tomorrow afternoon at 3:50 we board the train to Chengdu for the last time. I always love the train rides, but it will be sad to say goodbye to our friends at the station and then slowly pull out of Panzhihua. After we arrive in Chengdu, Lindsey and I will have to say goodbye to our friend Hong Mei who is riding the train home for the summer. This will probably be the hardest goodbye for both of us. While Lindsey thinks she has made about 5 real friendships in China, I count Hong Mei as my only one. After this, we will go out for a dinner with my host family and say goodbye to them. They actually have a new volunteer living at their house right now, so it will be quite interesting to see what someone who just arrived in China is thinking so far.

After finishing all the Peace Corps paper work, Lindsey and I will be heading to Beijing to spend two quick days traveling around before we fly to New York. I'm not excited to go to Beijing yet, but I'm sure seeing The Great Wall and Tiananmen Square will be interesting. Yet, right now I just can't wait to be sitting in the backyard, with a cold glass of lemonade, hanging out with the family. I just want to be sitting around a small fire talking with the people I miss and love. I think driving a car will be pretty fun too.

Oh, Lindsey and I spent the past couple of days filming our town and friends, so if you want to see the past 2 and 3 years of our lives summarized in 1 and a half hours of video camera footage, your going to be made to watch it anyway.

Chinese Wedding!

We just celebrated our Chinese wedding the other night and here are a few of the pictures from the day, we'll post some more tomorow. The night was fun, stressful, and interesting, but more on that later. We took a ton of pictures and also had a 3 man crew filming us for a DVD the school will give to us later...more soon.

3 More Weeks!!!

Well, a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks. Greogory had his birthday, my classes have been finishing, Lindsey had her birthday (I bought flowers and Pringles on a severely limited budget), and then we went to Lijiang (the famous ancient city about 6 hours away by cab). Also, we just bought our plane tickets home!!! So, Lindsey and I will be landing in Syracuse on Monday, July 16th and we can't wait. Our daily ritual is sitting around dreaming up the different things we can't wait to eat. The end to all of this is within site and I think these last few weeks will go by pretty quickly. One Saturdau of this week, Lindsey and I have our Chinese wedding, which will be a great way to see everyone before we go.

Just last week I had 4 of my classes end. The majority of my classes are the non-major students whom you don't develop a real strong connection to because the majority of them don't really care about learning English. Yet, I had my last class with the sophomore group of English Business majors last week and it was actually a little hard to say thanks to them and say goodbye. I'll be seeing all of them around, but it was the last class. I just loved this class because all of them are such individual characters. They have also been really good students for the past two years, one of the only classes to get really excited and participate with some gusto. From loud-mouthed Pearl, to very flamboyant Boa, to shy and quiet Spring, I'll miss them all. I just hope that the majority of them can go on to find decent jobs somewhere in China. Leaving this school next year will be a real hard experience for the majority of them, I just pray it all works out.

Lindsey had her birthday last week and it was quite low key as all the birthdays have been this year, but we did have fun. We baked pizza, Amanda made angel food cake, which is Lindsey's favorite (mental note), and we sat around and drank wine. The next day, we took off for Lijiang for the last time, one of our favorite little places to relax in China. It's swarmed with Chinese tourists, but the weather is cool and crisp and the pizza is hot. So, we spent the weekend there and ate a lot of western food and did some shopping. The most entering part of the weekend occurred on our last night. When Chinese tourists see three foreigners together, they see the perfect backdrop to a photo. So, sitting and eating at a restaurant by an open window can be a little annoying as tour group after tour group flow by. At first, I took my umbrella and threw it open anytime someone was about to snap a picture, which was entertaining. Then, we made a little sign that said 'Photo, 5 Kuai' (the price was later dropped to 3). The sign was just a joke to discourage photos, and it did make a lot of people laugh. Yet, as the night wore on, groups of Chinese business men and a few Chinese couples started taking us up on the offer. At the peak of the business, Lindsey was walking through the crowd drawing in the most susceptible prey with her blond hair and I was barking out the deal in Chinese (three foreigners and you, only three kuai!). We ended up making about 90 kuai in half an hour...not too bad.

Awww...

Classic Chinese Man

Porridge, Pangang, and Partyin'

This last week was pretty action packed. On Thursday, the Peace Corps training officer and my site manager came down for a visit. We went out for the standard banquet with my school officials and then we went on a tour of the local steel factory, Pan Gang Steel. The steel company is the world's second largest producer of vanadium (added to steel to strengthen it I believe) and something like the worlds 4th largest producer of steel. It's a pretty big deal. The only reason that the town I live in exists, is basically because of the steel company. Panzhihua was a very small village until Mao Zi Dong himself picked the site to be the location of Pan Gang, because of its relative isolation. Oh, but I didn't get to go on the tour because I was wearing flip-flops. I understood at first, thinking they didn't want my open toes to get crushed by some misplaced steel. But, Hong Mei had high heels on, my program manager had fancy flip-flops on, and the site manager was wearing sandals. If a vat of boiling iron toppled over and we had to run for it, I sure wouldn't have been the last one out. At least I was allowed to wear the helmet and walk around the outside of the building.

For reasons unknown, the power is out for at least two days every month. You wake up to no power, but everyone seems to know that it will return sometime in the evening. So, on our no power day, Lindsey and I cooked the most 'Chinese' diner that exists, porridge and jiaozi. The jiaozi were the ones we had previously made with the twins on our lunch date, and the porridge was from the local store. Porridge, the standard breakfast for a large majority of Chinese is something most Westerners either hate or tolerate. Porridge, or wet rice as the literal translation goes is simply rice that has sat in water for a while. You can add a little pumpkin or some sugar to try and cut the blandness out, but it's nearly impossible. I for one love rice, but I can't stand 稀饭 （xifan) as it's called. Lindsey actually enjoys it now and makes it whenever her stomach is off.

Lastly, we took a trip to Xichang this weekend. Xichang is a city about 200 km north of Panzhihua. We took the trip just to relax and leave our cave for a couple of days. Lindsey and I bought some dishes with Chinese characters on them, I bought some hand-painted cups, and we also bought the traditional outfits of the local minority. We went to Xichang partly because I have this strange fascination with the minority who live in the region. The people were a slave holding society until the 1960's, they still have their own language, and they don't inter-marry with the Han Chinese. For the most part, they live in isolated villages high in the mountains, but Xichang is now considered their unofficial capital, so many of the locals come in to town for the markets.

Eating in the dark.

The top portion of this sign is in the Yi script. All of the signs throughout the city are in both the Yi script and Chinese. The Yi language is more closely related to Tibetan than Chinese. This sign says "The Xichang City Police Station"


Here's Lindsey buying a baby carrier from the locals. There was probably a group of 50 people standing around to see what the foreigner was doing.


My continuing obsession with the Yi hand painted lacquer-ware. I bought four of these cups to add to my collection, which includes a big fruit bowl and a vase. The clothes in the back are some more of the traditional clothes.

Making Baozi and Jiaozi

Today, Lindsey, Gregory, and I went over to our favorite surrogate Chinese families house (the twins) to make jiaozi and baozi (dumplings and... bigger dumpling type things that are steamed). Basically, they are both simply pork or beef mixed with mushrooms, garlic, and anything else you want, in the middle of a some dough. We set a date to help make the traditional Chinese food and be critiqued on our poor jiaozi/baozi making skills. It was all of our first time making baozi, but Lindsey proudly surpassed Gregory and I's with her baozi wrapping skillz. While it might not seem like there is a true art to the job of wrapping a little dollop of raw pork mixed with spices into a piece of flour, it's pretty hard to get right. Well, at least to get past the brutal Chinese inspection team who point at the poorly constructed baozi and ask, "That ones yours...right"?

"Here's a free lesson for ya" The twins father showing off the moves.


A couple of Chinese-American's rocking their baozi making skills.


Me looking pretty while the work gets done. The girls English names are Daisy (left) and Betty (right), they just turned 17 this last weekend but still look roughly 12. They attend the best High School in the city and their English is amazing.


The twins mother getting ready to steam the baozi.

The woman of the hour. While we could stand around joking, making a few at a time, Auntie here was making all the wrappers and then started the real work after we sat down and started eating the 30 or so we made.


All that easy work paying off, baozi! The best way to eat baozi and jiaozi is by dipping them into some vinegar. You can find large selections of both foods pre-frozen in the grocery store, but the homemade ones are a lot better...but I'd still take lasagna, pizza, cheeseburgers, tacos, salad, cheese, or pasta over them any day.

Every Class Has It's Thorn

If you find yourself unfamiliar with the seminal work of the 1980's hair-band Poison, here is a quick refresher for you. Here are the lyrics to the bands masterwork, Every Rose Has It's Thorn:

We both lie silently still
In the dead of the night
Although we both lie close together
We feel miles apart inside

Was it something I said or something I did
Did my words not come out right
Though I tried not to hurt you
Though I tried
But I guess thats why they say

Chorus:
Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn

I listen to our favorite song
Playing on the radio
Hear the dj say loves a game of easy come and easy go

But I wonder does he know
Has he ever felt like this
And I know that youd be here right now
If I could have let you know somehow

Chorus

I know I could have saved a love that night
If Id known what to say
Instead of makin' love
We both made our separate ways

But now I hear you found somebody new
And that I never meant that much to you
To hear that tears me up inside
And to see you cuts me like a knife

While this might have been one of the simplest, cheese infested rock ballads ever written, I love it now more than ever. I've now taught this song at least 20 times with guitar in tow. The fact that there are only a few new vocabulary words for my students who are at roughly a first grade reading level, is nice. Also, the fact that I can actually sing the song is cool. The thing I love most about this song is when I ask, "What is a rose"? "美化“，my students reply. Then I ask, "What is a thorn"? "刺“，a few students say. Then I ask slowly, "In this song...what is the rose"? Everyone gets very quiet and starts looking at the blackboard, which is full of lyrics. Then, without fail, one student will simply say, "美奴", or "beautiful girl". Slowly, a wave of understanding sweeps across the room and all of the boys in the class will start to laugh and nod in agreement. Somehow, Poison managed to write the perfect song. I've looked for other songs to teach my classes, but nothing has come close to the ease of singability, subtle allusions, and grit that Poison created with Every Rose.

I simply wanted to write a short ode to Poison and their song Every Rose Has It's Thorn. Who ever thought that a 1980's hair band ballad would work, and rock, so well in a classroom.

May Holiday Ramblings

Last week, starting on May 1st was the Chinese May 1st holiday, or Chinese Labor Day, as I just recently found out. The holiday was created in the 1980's as an antecedent to the week long holiday that occurs in October. "If we give the whole country a week off work in October to increase consumer spending, doing the same thing in May will probably cause the same economic results". And so it has. Most people travel around China or return home during this time. My students primarily stayed at school to play video games or they found part-time jobs to earn roughly $3 a day trying to convince people to purchase cell phones or computers.

Lindsey and I went to Chengdu at the beginning of the holiday because I had a conference to attend with the Peace Corps. Officially, the conference is called COS (close of service). All the volunteers still left in our group (44 out of 57) came into Chengdu and we watched a slide show of pictures we submitted, talked about adjusting to life back in The States, discussed jobs, and enjoyed each others company for the last time that we would be meeting as a group. All in all, it was fun to see everybody, but I certainly haven't formed any lasting bonds with the majority of the group. There were some great people, but the fact that we are stretched so far across China, have no money, and seldom meet up, meant that my vision didn't cloud up with tears of nostalgia during the slide show.

Out of our group, it seemed that most people are ready to go home and are not that sad about leaving. There will be about 6 people who are staying in China, 3 of them with the Peace Corps. Otherwise, people are either going to spend the next couple of months circumnavigating the globe discovering lost civilizations and then posting pictures of it on their blogs, going to school to get a Masters degree in International Relations with a concentration in Law or Human Rights, or finding a job. Lindsey and I will be finding work.

This May Holiday, Lindsey and I had planned to travel to Western Yunnan to a town called Zhongdian, which recently changed its name to Xiang Ge Li La (Shangri La). While it is certainly not the mythical Shangri La, it is located in the traditional geographic confines of Tibet and houses a large monastery. So, it's probably alright. Yet, in the end, Lindsey and I were fairly worn down after traveling into Chengdu and then taking the train straight back. Lindsey developed a cough, subsequently got sick and then I got some gross infection thing on my leg, which I originally believed was a pimple, Lindsey made me call the Doctor, which in turn led to my laying down with a heat pack on the thing, taking antibiotics, and then writing the few remaining Chinese characters we can actually remember on my stomach. So, the week wasn't a lot of fun, but we were able to rest and relax a bit. We spent a lot of the time looking for jobs and I even had a phone interview for a Computer Technician job in California. Right now, the future possibilities are Alaska, California, Maine, Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina, all of the places Lindsey has applied to. I've been looking for teaching jobs, but what I'd really like is a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) job, working with a small town. Then, in the fall I'll begin applying to schools to start a Masters degree in either Geography or International Relations the following year, and then who knows where we'll be.

Only 2 more months...

Oh, and he's my barber. He'll cut your hair unevenly for only 3 kuai (36 cents), but he's really friendly and all the old Chinese men sit around at his shop playing cards and chatting.

Speech Competition

This past weekend Lindsey and I were the judges for an English speech competition. The winners of the competition will go on to Chengdu, and then possibly Beijing to compete in the National competition on CCTV9 (the only English language station). The speech competition theme deals with the upcoming 2008 Olympics...as it seems everything in China does now.

There were three groups of kids, primary school, middle, and high school. All of the kids English levels were incredibly impressive compared to my students and simply for their ages. I just can't imagine assembling a room full of primary students in Syracuse who could converse at an Advanced level in Chinese. The competition went well but it was hard to eliminate some of the students. It was hard to see 'cute 8-year old buzz cut boy with glasses' and 'hyper active yellow shirt girl who I gave a fake phone number to' get knocked out of the running with a flick of our pens, but it had to be done. It was also a pain because there were three other judges, one of whom Lindsey and I assumed didn't even understand English. So, when she weighed in her choices, we had to give her the smack down to get the kids we picked declared winners. All in all it was pretty painless but it was sad to see some of the kids shed tears after they lost.

To partake in the competition all of these students had to attend classes on Saturday for three weekends, two of which Lindsey and I both taught (creating two very impartial judges). I went last week for the first time and stepped into the classroom of 25 Middle School age students with no concept of what they needed or what I should do. This has happened to any teacher that doesn't methodically write out all their lesson plans prior to class, so walking into class and winging it was nothing new for either Lindsey or I.

I taught the middle school students for the first half of our 2 hour class and Lindsey started with the primary school kids. The middle school kids were all really attentive and...still. They listened to what I was saying and asked good questions, even though the lesson I taught didn't help them at all and wasn't even relevant, in retrospect. Then, Lindsey and I switched at the break and I went to teach the primary school kids. The best word to describe a class of primary school kids forced to attend a full Saturday of English classes would be 'movement'. I wasn't bothered by the sheer energy that a room full of 8-10 year olds possessed, I just thought it was hysterical watching this 'sea of squirming'. Yet, after 20 minutes of trying to talk or teach them anything, I just divided the class into teams and started the greatest answer to filling 20 minutes of English lesson time, Hangman. The kids ended up loving it as much as my 20-year old students. It might not have taught them anything, but I made it to lunch and didn't have to try and hold any kids still in their seats.

Winner of the honorable 'Best Dressed' award.

3 More Months and Easter

I was trying to think of something to write, but bombed on ideas. So, I guess I'll just inform all you avid readers that I'll be arriving back in the U.S. on July 13th. Lindsey and I are counting down the days (99) until we leave. We really can't wait to get back to New England clam chowder, good beer, people that speak a language we always understand, family and friends, and of course, the pool at my family's new house. I think I'll be a little sad about leaving, but I sure won't be balling as the train pulls away from Panzhihua. I do love this place for all it's idiosyncrasies, but we're just looking forward to the future.

Just this past weekend Lindsey and I held a little Easter party for the other volunteers here in Panzhihua. I made a rocking pasta sauce from scratch, then we made pasta, garlic bread, cookies, and colored eggs. It was a good time, but nothing noteworthy happened.

In other news, I decided to start learning Italian. Why you may ask in confusion...let me tell you. It takes roughly seven years to achieve fluency in Chinese and truthfully I'm just bored of the Chinese language. While it looks great on the resume, I'm never going to speak Chinese fluently, nor do I want to or need to. The level I'm already at will be perfect in the States as a secret language with Lindsey, impressing Chinese restaurant workers, and making fun of my friends. Truthfully, what else do you need? So, I figured I'd fill up some spare time by working through an online Italian course. My Mother suggested Spanish because it would be more useful, but Italian actually interests me and it bring me closer to fulfilling my second grade goal of becoming Italian.

I suppose the cliche would be saying that, "I don't know where the time went!" Which in part, is true. I really can't believe that I'm almost done here, but it has been a long time. In many ways, I feel as if I've lived an entire life in China, a life that will be difficult to convey to my family and friends because of their limited participation in it and a lack of true comprehension that can only come from seeing, smelling, feeling, and knowing this place. When I return home, I'll be stepping back into shoes that may no longer fit. Yet, I'm excited as hell to run through the airport and see my family after two years and introduce them to the new member of the family.

Burmese Days

Well, it was a long trip but Lindsey and I are finally back in China...actually, we've been back for about two weeks now. Anyway, if you even knew that we were gone for the past five weeks, you probably would have known that we took a little winter trip to Myanmar (Burma). Overall, it was a good time, but it definitely had its ups and downs. For one, Lindsey was sick a great deal of the time with 'tropical sprue', a fun, antibiotic resistant, intestinal friend. Also, Lindsey and I came away from Burma with some realizations about what we want to get out of travel in the future. So, now I'll spin a yarn about some inane things concerning Burma...enjoy.

One of the first things I noticed upon our return to China, was the taxi cab. It was new, shiny, modern, and when it started down the road it was so fast and smooth I turned to look at Lindsey in wide-eyed wonder. No shaking, no hole in the floor, no driver apologizing because the cab broke down 100 meters from the airport terminal. This was nice. I was enjoying quality. The roads we were driving on were littered with street signs, and they had been paved recently! It was possible to drive on them at speeds of 30 mph and upwards without dodging a sea of potholes that stretched on for miles. Then there were the buildings, all of them new, and they emitted this strong aura...which led me to believe that logic was involved in their planning and construction. On the streets, every man was wearing a coat and trousers and the women were strutting around in their fashionable knee high boots. Nothing had changed in China, but it all looked very different.

Burmese cities are dirty, they are crowded, noisy, hot, at times scary, yet they are filled with exotic colors, scents, and people. On a 100 meter stretch of road you can easily stroll past a Methodist church, a 19th century British apartment building, a Buddhist monestery, a liquor store, a Hindu temple, a Muslim mosque, and then trip over a huge gap in the pavement. The old British colonial architecture sits on every corner, repainted over the years in bright greens, reds, blues, pinks, and yellows, to mask the decaying facades, yet at the same time, making them distinctly Burmese. The Burmese people, all modestly dressed, wear longyis, the traditional skirt-like garment tied at the waste. The women and children adorn their faces with a chalky mixture of sunblock and moisturizer called thanaka. On the corners, billboards loom with advertisements featuring 'bizarro world' products because of the U.S.' continuing trade embargo. The country looks as if it were built from the combined purchases of 50 years of international garage sales. I loved it.

I wanted to put up something small that talked about the country and what we saw. Don't worry, I'll add more later. It's just hard to sort through such a long trip and summarize it into a nice, tidy, 500 word essay. If you have any questions you want answered...about the pictures or anything else, just post them in the comments here.

If you didn't know, I uploaded a lot of pictures here: Burma Pictures

Another Semester and Another Vacation

Another semester has ended, my third in fact, and when I look back, it is quite amazing that I've been living in this country for so long already. Yet, It's actually hard to remember what America is like now. I think the best way to explain this is a line delivered by Morgan Freeman in the movie Shawshank Redemption, "He's institutionalized," Red said, referring to Brooks, the old librarian. What he meant is that at first you might not like the walls, you may even hate the place, but after a certain amount of time it becomes a part of you, and then something you never dreamed of happens; life on the outside doesn't make sense anymore. While I haven't spent 50 years in a penitentiary, the analogy works pretty well. It's been nearly 1 year and 7 months now if you haven't been counting and this semester moved a lot more quickly then either of my first two. I owe this to the fact that I am neither ignorant nor going insane, but have simply hit a stable pace and finally understand how things work here. For example, when the end of the semester rolls around and your students deliver their bi-annual 'criticisms' to your boss, that's just part of China. Everything simply makes sense now, in its own strange, Chinese way.

Well, in a couple of days Lindsey and I will take off for Myanmar (Burma) the largest SE-Asian country. If you don't know anything about this place, besides the fact that Mr. Peterman, Elaine's boss from Seinfeld traveled here to live in a cave and smoke opium, here is a short introduction on Burma and why were going there.

The country is led by an insane military junta that is renowned for its human rights violations and border skirmishes with various ethnic groups that are still fighting for autonomy. To this day, the Myanmar government does not have complete control of the country because whole states are held by ethnic armies. The military lost democratic elections that took place in 1988, but then enforced a country-wide crackdown on demonstrations when they did not honor the vote. The rightfully elected president was then arrested and remains under house arrest to this day. For many reasons, various groups see tourism as an act of complicit support of the military junta. Yet, many others believe that travel to Burma can open up the eyes of locals as well as the outside world to the conditions of Burmese life. Lindsey and I think that if people are reminded of the injustices that occur in Burma, and that they are reminded that the widely unpopular military government still exists, maybe change can be wrought. We will be bringing English language materials as well as donating money to Burmese schools, monasteries, and locals as much as possible. By researching the ways that the government receives tourist dollars, we will avoid helping the Burmese government as much as we can.

While social justice is one of our reasons for traveling to Burma, there are a few selfish ones as well. Firstly, Burma is simply a beautiful country with breathtaking scenery and unspoiled forests, rivers, and oceans. It is also purported to have some of the friendliest and most inquisitive people in Asia. Also, it has yet to be fully exploited by the waves of tourists that crush into places like Thailand and Vietnam. It is also highly undeveloped, the majority of cars, boats, and trains plying the country are decades old. The Burmese population is mostly Buddhist and there are still groups of Animists who worship spirits called Nats. One of the things that Lindsey and I cannot wait for is the food. Sitting between Thailand, India, and China, Burma has a mix of all three cuisines. The various curries and seafood that are available for under $1 a meal have me shaking in anticipation.

If any one is nervous, please don't be. The places that we will be traveling are quite safe. I don't think we'll be hitting the ethnic borders to join any volunteer mercenary armies on this trip, we'll save that for our Chechen tour of Russia on the way home. Yet, the possibility may arise where I eat one too many crab legs while basking myself on the white sand beaches of the Indian Ocean and get indigestion, but I'll try to be careful.

If you would like to look at any pictures or learn more about Burma, here is a link. I'll probably add a post or two while were traveling, but we will be leaving soon and counting the time spent traveling through Burma and China we'll be gone about 4 weeks. Oh! I forgot, if you have any questions at all about Burma that you want me to answer...just post them in the comments.

Myanmar Travel Information: Name says it all, also has lots of pictures.