Kimbopping: Day 62 Yangon, Burma

**I preface these posts by saying that I got stupid sick on this trip so I diverge from writing about days and more about events. There were days that I did nothing but sleep and read Harry Potter while steaming my sinuses with Tiger Balm, the most amazing substance on earth!**

Getting to Burma included an early alarm clock set for I don't know....5am or so. I almost had a heart attack as I got out to the airport bus street to find out that a bus to the airport had to pre-booked. I think a little birdy might have mentioned that to me the night but it went in one ear and out the other. Thank god I wasn't the only one who made this mistake. I found two older men that were looking to get there as well and we split a cab.

The Bangkok airport is massive just like the Korean airport except there are about 10923420983 people trying to get where they need to, unlike its Korean counterpart that rarely looks a quarter full. It also is not the ideal place to be tired, hungover and did I say tired? I made it to the gate surprisingly with money, visa and well without my painting from Laos....that got abandoned somewhere, but wasn't it only a matter of time?

Arriving in Yangon is like nothing else. There are no massive highrise bulidings and instead a huge Buddha. Going through the airport I had the same concerns as my fellow travelers. Will I make it through immigration? Are they going to gut my bag? I made it through with only one slight disapointment. I was supposed to be greeted by my guesthouse but instead had to shell out for a taxi. Thems the breaks.

My guesthouse is adorable. The people, the place and the travelers are great. I had a good time getting in and taking a precious nap, did I mention I was tired? Then I decided to not be a loser and head out to the Shwedagon Paya, a huge pagoda complex and the jewel of Yangon.

I spent a few hours walking around taking pictures. I talked with a few people. One being a man who was washing the statues and told me about his travels to the United States to see his son graduate from college. It was fun to take pictures and chat a bit but I was still tired so I sat down for a spell to wait for the sun to set to get some night shots of the pagoda.

As I was waiting a monk sat next to me, introduced himself as Sheyan and explained to me that he was learning English in hopes of becoming an instructor at his monestary. We talked for a long, long time. He asked me questions about my family, my life and what I think will make me happy. I found out that he has a brother and a sister. His mother died when he was young and became a monk at the age of six. He also sees himself as staying in the monestary forever. We then strolled around. He showed me how to pay respect to the Buddha and how to pray and use to bell to alert Buddha to my wishes. It was nice until I couldn't shake him. I really wanted to wander around and take an embarissingly large amount of pictures but couldn't with my monk hanging around. Then he asked me back to his monestary. This first was exciting but did I mention that he was learning English. I thought we were going back right away, looking back I think he wanted me to come another day. I sadly bid farewell to my friend and took off for the guesthouse in hopes of a great nights' sleep.

At the guesthouse however, I was persuaded to sit and have a beer with a few guys outside all coming and going from Burma, so it was a good way to find out information and such.