I had two major reasons as to why I decided to stay in Burma for a long time.  First was a self discovery; I wanted to know how much connection I still have to this native country of mine.  The second reason was to try to assist people who were affected in the Nargis cyclone.  It was a perfect opportunity for me to fulfill something as I’ve become more interested in social issues and I just didn’t want to be someone who do the talk and not walk the walk.

First I met my cousin who was radically different from the last time I met him.  He was an incredibly quiet person the last time I met him but now he claimed that was because he had an exam that time.  But I heard a good explanation from my aunt’s husband.  The thing is that during these past few years my cousin has been around the world and having these experiences rid him of his shyness.  He now communicated to me very much like a typical foreigner.  I was actually kinda shocked at some of the stuff he asked me.  Shocked but I laughed my ass off at them.

Anyway I had a pretty good initial time.  My aunt’s husband who I’ll address as uncle Bom is a great guide.  He’s also full of information and is quite hilarious.  I’m absolutely thankful to meet someone like him who definitely know how to have a good time.  His job is basically trying to get people out of the country to work; generally as menial laborer and then he takes a cut of their check as payment for the help.  He is also someone who has extensive knowledge about pretty much anything in Burma whether its business, social issues, and everything under the sun.   I bombard him with alot of questions and try to retain as much as I could.

Now during this time hanging out with my cousins and other people, I started investigating on how I can penetrate the red tape surrounding the Nargis situation.  My initial attempts failed as some people I asked were a bit hesitant about letting me tag along.  The reason is that I’m not a Burmese citizen and foreigners are absolutely not allowed to travel to the danger zones; and as an American it is probably worse.  They didn’t want to take the risk as something might happen if they catch me in the group.  Plus what would I do also?  The initial attempt was with a medical group and since I have zero ability in this area, it would totally be pointless for me to go along.

My mother also forgot my national ID which would make things much more easier for me.  But talking with a bunch of people with connection in ADRA they mentioned that if I just have a guarantee paper I should do absolutely fine.  They mention that nobody will probably even ask to see my papers as I look like a Burmese and I can also speak the language decently; I could always claim it was a Karen accent (which is a major tribe in Burma of which I belong to).

Anyway I got into a lucky break when I went to visit the daughter of the grandma whom I sent to Canada previously.  She is now back in Burma since her visa was rejected and told me to call her when I got there so I could meet her family.  Well I had a great meeting with her.  First I met her son who scored really high on the national test and was relatively a friendly typical shy Burmese kid.  I then met someone very interesting.  A middle age man who is apparently her uncle.  When I told him that I work with linux, he was like oh yea?  Well I joked to him that he is probably the first guy in Burma who understood what linux was.  He then told me seriously what he used to do.  I was very surprised at what he told me.  Actually quite surprised that I would find someone of his caliber right smack in Burma.  Then I found out he apparently came by to say hi to the grandmother who was in Canada now.  Basically he was in the ITish business back in the day and now is doing business in HK.  I am pretty sure he has quite a few zeroes in his bank account.  Apparently his brother is also a famous surgeon in the US.  Man I was right smack in the middle of some very successful Chinese-Burmese.  The lady’s husband is also a very accomplished doctor and is well known.  As a matter of fact I mentioned to him that I was interested in going to Lappita to help out as a volunteer.  He then told me he knows the main guy who ran the NGO in Lappita and instantly called him.  Then he handed me the phone to talk to Mr. Teddy as he was known.  I was a bit taken aback as I didn’t realize I would get instant access.  He asked me what was my specialty and I told him computers.  He said “Oh yes we need some computer help here.  Why don’t you drop right by asap?”  He wasn’t sure about the transportation but I told him someone else can help me with that.  So that was it.  I was totally stoked that I basically have the greenlight to seep right into an NGO situated right next to some badly hit villages.

After I left, I recounted the tale to uncle Bom.  Now the funny thing was that uncle Bom told me that he actually is one of Mr. Teddy’s best friends and they went to school together.  He said that he was meaning to call Teddy to let him know about me but I guess I beat him to the punch.  He called Teddy the next day explaining to him who I was.  Because of the Christian connections, Mr. Teddy know my family and is well aware of my mother (she is well known in some circles for her math teaching).  So it doesn’t get any better then this.  From a stranger he wanted to help I’ve basically turned into a semi-family member and is being guaranteed that I will be taken care of.

So now the problem was with transportation.  How the hell am I going to get there?  The roads conditions are incredibly bad (oh yea I had no idea til my ass got a beating) so driving would be hard.  I could take a bus but then it would be better if someone went along with me and plus buses are more likely to be investigated by soldiers.  My mother wanted to take me to the city where she grew up and show me around.  She also mention that I should visit some really nice spots to visit such as Inlay Lake.  But my mission has totally threw any plans of a long term vacation trip around Burma.  To me it was much more important that I help out with the disaster and the tour thing I can do any other time/year.

It was salvaged when uncle Bom decided we all should take a road trip.  He rented a saloon car and about  8 people went along for the ride.  My mother salvage the plan by going with me.  Her hometown Myaung Mya was right in the way of Lapitta so we would do a one day trip inside the city.  And then the following day uncle Bom was going to take me to Lapitta and leave me there for however long I wanted to stay.

Thereby concluding this blog post.  This is just the beginning and alot more to come.

The Canadian trip to Vancouver was about 2 nights and 3 days of activity. I have to say the flight (Cathy Pacific) was pretty awesome. I really love their entertainment system on the plane. Its pretty slick. Unfortunately I didn’t have a good initial impression. When the plane took off and slowly tried to gain altitude, some weird yellow liquid started to leak on the luggage compartment above our head. Of course it only has to drip in two different places. One was a few seats behind us on some white people, and the other was right on the head of the grandma I was transporting to Canada. I used the spare socks they gave us to wipe the liquid before it gathers and form into a sizable drop. Luckily the dripping stopped after the plane reach its height.

An interesting part of the trip was the fact that the grandmother I was transported was under the “wheel chair” help system. This basically means someone comes and escort us ahead of everyone. No more long ass waiting in line. I realized how awesome this was especially when I arrived in Canada and was promptly taken ahead of all the people that came with us and taken to our own little immigration area.

When we went outside, there was like 8 people waiting for this grandmother. I introduced myself to everyone and they all tell me their appreciation for what I did. They then really showed me their appreciation by the way they treated me.

First of all I stayed with the eldest sister who is married to a half Karen man. I remember the point the grandma tried to make about that after she found out I was almost a full blooded Karen. The reason is the fact that most everyone is married to other Chinese in her family and she probably didn’t want me to feel left out or maybe she just wanted to make conversation. I had a really good discussion about Burma with the eldest son who was well informed and was really into politics. Learned some interesting point of views and different angles relating to the whole Burma situation. Anyway I stayed at a nice room and the eldest daughter’s husband took me out and about Vancouver showing me the sights. Also took me to two different restaurants everyday and introduced me to family friends. I got alot of videos of Vancouver thanks to him.

Of course I needed internet access but I found out they didn’t have one. So being resourceful I scanned the neighborhood and found a few connection with WEP encryption. I made short work of one and promptly borrowed the connection for my Canadian trip. I felt bad about it but I really needed to use the net. I hope they don’t mind

Anyway they gave me tip money for the escorting service which came in handy for my Thailand and Burma trip. I’m glad I did this favor because I gained alot from the experience. I never would have expected how well it would turn out (there’s more in Burma).

I also found out that I have absolutely no reservation about doing this favor once I set my mind on it. I mean how many people would be willing to do something like this? I totally felt comfortable and melted right into the role. I mean just a few days ago they were complete strangers.

I was suppose to go to church and see the rest of the people I missed but I decided to sleep in. I slept in all day to basically recover. I haven’t gotten this smashed in a long time. That night I went to talk to the 3 person I’m helping to go to Canada. Well as we’re filling the paperwork, we all just started talking about random things. It was probably one of the most enlightening moment about Burma for me. In 2000 I did go to Thailand and Burma but during that period I wasn’t who I am today. I didn’t care too much about things back then and my curiosity about that region was not as intense as right now.

I was told that Rangoon was hit hard and it wasn’t as minor as they have mentioned in the media. It also took a few days for help to arrive. Residents had to help themselves for a while. Water shortage was resolved by individuals pumping water out from the ground and sharing the water wealth.

Right off the bat when I mentioned my Burmese name, one of the woman checked the name in some sort of paper that has to do with quality. I was told that since my name moved up in this name chart; it was a good name that will bring luck so I was told. I damn well hope so.

This part of my trip is interesting as it relates to me cutting short my initial plan of visiting BKK for two weeks to 10 days. I gained four days of free vacation to Canada; two of which was the flight time. The way it happened was that I went to the travel agent friend of my mother in BKK to pay for the flight bills. When I was there, the travel agent (Mrs. White) told me if I wanted a side job to help these three older ladies; one a grandma with a permanent residence card to Canada, one the daughter of the grandma and a friend of the grandma. The low down to the story is basically the fact that the older grandma wants her daughter to accompany her to Canada but since they can’t speak in english or thai, it would be impossible for them to apply for a visa in the Canadian embassy in BKK. I agreed since I felt obligated to help and felt that it would only be a day of help to fill the form and apply for them.

Unfortunately the whole process took a long time requiring a few trips to the embassy and me chuffering them around for a bit. Interestingly though I hit it off with the three older ladies which seems rather unlikely in the beginning. But I have developed alot of interest for the situation in Burma and so since I’m not shy like I used to be a few years ago I went ahead and started talking to them about Burma. From them talking to me, I started my initial gathering of information. This is the first time I’ve talked to people with first hand experience with the Nagis disaster. They were living in Rangoon when the storm hit and although the city was only hit with wind it left widespread damage to sections of the city.

So I got up early in the morning when my sister IMed me at 3:30am thinking I was still up. Well I wasn’t; but after the msn ding and my body refusal to sleep more then 5 hours woke me up.

Got out of my room around 7:30 am to get my free breakfast. This “The Blooms” hotel I’m staying is pretty decent but I do notice plenty of white dudes coming in and out with their hookers. This must be one of those places where cheap one nights deeds are done. I feel sorry for the cleaning ladies.

Anyway I got my breakfast and met up with the three old ladies whom I was helping out about their immigration problems. Well after finding the building and running thru all the hoopla getting electronic cards to go up the ladder and to the floor of the embassy, turns out the damn thing closes on Fridays and weekends. OK fine.. Monday it is then.

So I arrive at my old Highschool (EIS) soon there after. Right off the bat I found a few people and totally caught them off guard. One of them was an old friend named Fred who is a teacher. I went upstairs to his room and I asked if “Ajarn Fred” was there. Man you know how weird it is to call a friend of yours an “Ajarn”? Anyway I went in and he walked passed me and then he looked at me and didn’t recognize me at first then he remembers. He’s an interesting fellow that guy. He graduated with a dentistry degree but after taking a year to teach he got addicted to it and totally forsaken the path of fixing bad teeth. I thought about it. Whats more fun? Cleaning someone’s dirty mouth or kicking the mental brains of little annoying kids (and its definitely much easier to do in this country then in the US where kids are brought up to be little punks). I’d say the latter.

I also went to my former secondary/middle school which totally looks a lot uglier then I used to remember. This is the place where I went to school til grade 7 (from grade 2). I remember the first day I went into the class. I was this Burmese kid who didn’t speak a word of English and Thai. I just sat there in the class and cried when my mother left. It was pretty freaky in that situation. Of course there were other horrible memories. Like for example, me wearing coconut oil in my hair which emits a scent that was not appreciated by my roommates and even more so when mixed with sweat. Another time was me being forced to shave because I had lice in my hair. Oh and wearing the traditional Burmese facial cream (tha na kah) which also stopped as it was preventing me from fitting in. I was just about to talk about a boner situation I had too but I stopped just on time.. on wait I didn’t.. oops.

So afterward I got on a motorcycle taxi and went to Pra Kanong. See Pra Kanong is a magical place; at least during my younger days. There is everything you ever wanted there. All manner of foods just transmitting all their awesome smells into your nostril and totally unhinging your already full stomach to accept more stuff. There are also a ton of kanom glittering with shiny alluring glows. On the left area is the market place where you can get all the fresh foods. Sliced and diced fishes and such. I remember the first time I was in that area. My mother was buying a fish and I was literally rocked out of my mind when I saw the seller pulled out a wiggling fish, pulled out her meat cleaver and tried to chop it. But this fish was a fighter and was struggling effectively. The little woman with a meat cleaver let out an annoyed tone from her mouth and she turned the cleaver on its other side and smash the fish. That stunned the fish and like a freaking ninja, she took that split second to chopped off the head. There’s also the shady 5 baht porno theater around that area.. or was it 10 baht? shit I can’t remember.

As I walk along the road I bought some dark chicken balls with spicy dip. This is the life right here. I’m slowly walking along smelling everything, chewing my hot spicy balls, feeling the sweat build up from the heat, felt my mouth burn from the sauce. Sweat and grime slowly increases in intensity. Damn there is nothing that can repeat this feeling.

But one thing really annoyed me to no end. As I ran out of the sweaty chicken balls, I noticed I couldn’t find a single damn trash can to throw away the garbage. What the fuck! While I was trying to find a trash can, I ran into an older teacher from my old HS. I asked him why there isn’t any trash cans and he said some people set up bombs in trash cans before and they got rid of it. He then said he was joking. I’m not sure what the hell is going on other the fact that there was no place to throw my trash and my hand just refuse to allow me to just throw it into a dark corner. Finally after wasting a few minutes of my time, I said fuck this and found a spot with alot of trash and put up my share to keep Bangkok dirty.

So I got on the skytrain to go to Silom. I don’t know why I listened to random taxi driver opinions. Seems most of them turned out to be worthless. First I asked a driver how far he thinks Ekamai road was and he told me it would cost like 250 baht and 2.5 hour drive. Well shit it was more like 30 mins and 70 baht. Way off. Well then why the hell did I listen to the driver who gave me the tip to go to Silom/Siam area to pick a ride to go back to my hotel. Well when I arrive there nobody know where the fucking road was anyway. I had to ask around til I met some motorcycle people who knew where it was but were going to charge me an arm and a leg for it. I said sure.. I was just tired of asking around. Got on the nice bike and this one I had to wear a helmet. Not sure why some areas they give you the helmet to wear while you don’t on others. Anyway we had a close call on the trip. In one area, a taxi sorta bumped into the motorcycle. The motorcycle driver of mine turned around with this I’m-going-to-fucking-jump-out-of-my-bike-and-cut-you-into-two-pieces-like-an-angry-ninja-on-steroids. It was pretty cool.

So after I got raped by the price of my bike fare, I showered all the sweat away and feeling all good. I didn’t have any plans for the night and was just going to do some online work. There was a chance that I was going to go out as one of my close friend said he might be going to a protest/rally against the government that night. I wanted to go along and video it but he said it might not happen as the weather was bad. As it turned out he did call me but it wasn’t to go to the protest but rather to go to route 66 and get smashed! No sorry.. I did it to myself. He drank very little while I almost drank the whole bottle of Bailey. He then said he was going to take me to a Japanese restaurant owned by his friend. When we arrived there he ordered some Johnny Walker Red and started mixing it. I drank quite a few cups of it. Some of his friends arrived to join us. By then I was more then a little tipsy. One of his friend was this Thai dude who was fucking hilarious or it was just the alcohol which made me think he was? Either way he and I laughed at everything like it was the funniest thing since midget porn. He used to live in LA and spoke to me in the standard Thai accent which exponentially enhances the comedy he was doing. I gotta say.. it was a pretty awesome night.

My friend finally got me a taxi at 3am and told the guy the road. I don’t know how the hell he did that because I can never tell the damn Taxi where I wanted to go. He was able to do that on his first try. He couldn’t send me home because he got a ticket and being caught driving would bust his ass. He did call me to make sure I was back at the hotel though. I fell into a semi conscious state when I was being taken back to the hotel. I did wake up on time as he was nearing the hotel though. I paid him and got out and notice that my bladder was literally about to explode. I ran to the elevator and hit my floor number, frantically trying to move in different ways to control my bladder. I was like trying to dance all over again (and believe me thats not a pretty sight). I ran to my room and quickly rushed to the bathroom and let out what seems like the rushing fountain of hell.

Then I jumped onto my bed and died.