you get the humour?.....

heard this story of a ledgend in mandalay;
he was cutting down a goverment owned tree (which is highly illegeal) when a police officer comes upon him. The man does not panic but thinks quickly, he remembers that the punishment for cutting down a govt tree is 9 yrs in prison but the murder sentance is only 3 years.... he did not hesitate to kill the officer for a lighter sentance....

a part of me wants this story to be true, but true or not it is insightful of the ludicrus laws of the regime and perhaps how onw day it will come back to bite them in the ass....

beautiful on the outside....

the worst thing about the mae la refugee camp is how picturesque the setting is. without knowing who was inside and for what reasons to a westerner it looks like a beautiful, charming burmese style town set on the backdrop of beautiful mountian ranges and lush greenery.
of course inside it is a totally different story, people struggling for their lives and living in constant fear of being deported back to  burma to oppressoin landmines, rape, forced labour and torture....
we visited on a special day, there was a graduation ceremony for a bunch of students so there were huge celebrations. the most amazing thing was that in one of the speeches (there were many!) during the ceremony a professor talked about hope, faith and finding the blessings in the current situation, she also spoke beautifully about rebuilding the land and the people. such positive and proactive attitudes in such exterme circumstances was incredibly humbling.

so on a lighter note, had an eventful day on saturday - on the way to check out some impressive waterfalls with tom of belgium (they have over 1000 beer there...) and got into a bit of crash on the motorbike - nothing really damaged but will be a bit stiff for a couple of days i think. and it was totally not my fault, some of the drivers here are rubbish - even worse than me!

burma - land of gold.....

so this is my first blog... hmmm
burma baby!
had a great time and i will back track on some of my times there in other posts, but need to give a shout out to all the amazing peeps in met over there. Aung San Suu Kyi said that the Burmese are known a some of the most hospitable people in the world and everywhere I turned she was proved right.

I'm now in Maesot, which is on the Burma/Thai border. Over 50% of those who live here are Burmese and most of them are illegeally here. The town is really chilled and not too many tourists. Speaking to some of the Burmese (they are allowed to talk here - in Burma they are too scared to say a thing) i'm learning that they are constantly having to keep the Thai police happy by bribing them. Some pay up to 100 baht a week - when you earn 2000 a month this gets expensive...
Everyone was pretty shocked by the earthquake, many people have familys that may have been effected but the info is sketchy, so i guess they will just hope.
Hoping to go meet a couple of released political prisioners and check out a waterfall nearby and on sunday i might be able to enter one of the refugee camps!
in burma, everything closes at 11pm, so there was no real nightlife...nice to be able to sit in a pub a bit longer now, cristophe is leaving tonight so i think we will push closing time as late as possible
would put some photos up but comeputer here is a bit crap!
cool