Arrival

Well I made it to Myanmar, and not without hassle of course. Got stung for $200 for my handcarry bag in Qatar because it had all my computer/electronic equipment in it and was way too heavy. Some of you I’m sure will snigger and roll your eyes at that, I’m sure. Oh well!

As the plane was coming in it looked like a snow covered landscape, not because of cold, but because of the clouds reflected in the rice paddies. If you’ve seen the rains in India on the news, you can get some idea of what I arrived into—a nice tropical thunderstorm to remind me of why I love Asia! It was very green (in sharp contrast to the dry desert of the Middle East) and muddy. I could see the puddles even from the plane, and the runway itself had around 2 inches of water swirling over it. I’d forgotten how quickly the visibility disappears is like during a monsoon rain. It’s quite spacious yet not sprawling because there just isn’t the same population problem here like there is in the rest of Asia.

It was a little outdoor airport, and I …