Off line and off to Burma

Rangoon, Mandalay, political suppression, Aung San Suu Kyi, western trade embargoes, gin and tonic, a special place in my mother's heart.  Just some word association that comes to mind when I think of Burma.  I am spending the rest of this week preparing for a short break over the border and I can't wait.

Chinthe - Chinese guardian lions

I have lived in Asia for a little over eight years and for many of those I have waged a small internal war with myself over whether or not to go.  I am not sure what has made me change my mind, but certainly the recent events in the country have helped to reassure me on some level that it would be ok to go.  Also several friends over the years have visited, loved it and felt it was the right thing to do.  I may also just be getting old and therefore losing such a tight hold of my once staunchly held principles....


My mother lived in Rangoon from thirteen to seventeen and growing up it was clear that it held a special place for her.  She would always serve rice with the large slightly dented brass serving spoon that came from there.  There was the battered lacquer box on a shelve that had once sat in her home and a few black and white pictures of her in the garden of her house.  Yes she lived a colonial diplomatic existence, but for 1953, post war and away from the harshness of Europe, Burma as it was then, must have been a completely different world, totally different from what she knew, romantic almost.

Therefore from now until 2 January 2012, I will be off line and off to Burma.  Happy Christmas everyone.