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Allow me to begin by making sure you all know I have not lost my knowledge of the English language entirely.. I am still laughing at the hilarious random spelling mistakes in my previous entry.. just goes to show how much malaria meds and jet lag can mess you up.
I am in Bagan, I made it through the arduous 10 hour journey on an overcrowded overnight bus. Arduous perhaps is a little strong but try picturing sleeping on a bus while the roads are not paved.. it effectively feels like going through strong turbulence.. so much so that around 3.30 am a poor elderly man started loudly wretching and puking, triggering an icky chain reaction of gags and wretches. ya, come to think about it, arduous was exactly the word I was looking for, if not physically at least psychologically.....
I am now in the heart of the tropical area so all I've got to say is: bring on the mosquitos! So far it appears that a generous dose of mosquito repellant can keeps the bites at bay ( and by generous I mean I am f***ing flammable and probably toxic to come into contact with) but I do fear that the wrst is yet to come and that by night they may mutate into bloodthirsty b****es and bring their A game to the plate, bringing to mind the gruesome truckerspot in from dust till dawn.
Bagan seems to be a lovely town, rural, where getting your way blocked by a herd of cows is not uncommon. Much like its Cambodian counterpart Siam Reap does with Angkor, Bagan thrives through the tourism generated by the presence of the 2,200 temples still stamding in the area. Lucky for my hdhd ridden mind these temples show great variety between each other as they show specific influences from neighbouring countries, Thailand,India,Bangladesh and China, nevertheless at times I have to keep myself motivated by playing 'guess buddhas ethnicity'.
Another positive note in favour of this town compared to Siam Reap is that they have kept it strictly traditional, for example taxis do not exist, they only have horse pulled carts and it is highly unlikely to run into a stretch of road filled with pubs where Aussies are having a beer, watching a game and getting fish pedis at the same time. And Thank God for that, may I add!
I know that I should probably take advantage of the rocking weather down here and catch a tan while I can but as I see the locals go through much trouble to make their skin turn fair it seems offensive and quite foolish to give myself melanoma for the sake of vanity.. Locals here do in fact believe that fair skin is a sign of beauty so they carry around umbrellas to shelter themselves from the sun and more often than not wear thick pastes made out of ground up tree bark on their faces, in hopes that it will make them look white.. unfortunately, much like spray tan it gives them an unnatural citrussy colour. Thanks to this and to some lovely local girls hanging around a truck stop on the highway gettins hammered in 6 inch stiletto heels I now have a very clear image in mind of what Jersey Shore's snookie would look like if she were sou east asian and trust me, it is a mental picture I easily could've done without.
Throughout these two days I have noticed a few interesting/curious customs:
1.Burmese Buddhist monks are tattooed like crazy. This seems relatively odd to me, I simply cannot understand how such an ancient and spiritual form of art could ever translate to being 'gangsta' in the western world..
2.Some people will be seen praying with big rocks by their sides as they believe that every time they ask The Gods to grant them a wish they should lift the boulder, if the boulder were to ever feel light or easy to lift they take it as a sign that their wish has been granted.
3. 99.9%of the male population wears a traditional costume made up of flip flops,for esy removal upon accessing temples, a white traditional Chinese linen shirt and a floor length silk skirt wrapped around and knotted, kind of like a pareo but thicker and with dark geometric patters. This is absoolluuuutely disturbing as it gives me a chance to notice how even most men here have a better physique than me and can pull floor length skirts off without looking like they've fallen in a potato sack.. unfair!
4.locals make the typical kissing *mwaz mwaz* sound to attract people's attention, just like we would rudely snap our fingers or call out 'hey'.. so I need to keep reminding myself to chill out and not to get bigheaded because no, they're not startled by my unparalleled beauty, they're simply trying to catch the waiter's attention. #shatteredselfesteem
smoochies
g2g sleep it off now, got an early train to catch!!
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