Martian

Movements in the Union of Myanmar, briefly-

Seventeen hours through the pouring rain walked from Kalaw to Nyaungshwe, took 3 days. Inle lake, a place where the farmers build islands of dirt out of decaying plants dredged friom the lake bottom and piled into small islands. A ride on the roof of a sardine-packed pickup truck for seven hours. Meiktila, a crossroad city where everyone behaved as if they'd never seen a foreigner, or at least not in a long time. It was a bit intense, the stares and giggles, but my anxiety was alleviated by the hospitality of the son of a watch repairman and his family. My femur was longer than the ditance between the back of my seat and the back of the one in front of me on the ride to the parched plains of Bagan. The temples out number the tourists here by several thousand, although there are more palefaces here than anywhere else I've been lately. Thailand, to where I return in two days time, will feel like Chicago.

Probably just a mild warmup for the foreignness I'll feel in rural China.