(PICTURE: Road trip in construction worker helmets.)It's all the little things that stand out from Myanmar. On the day that Huyen and I rented a motorbike, we went pretty far away from Mandalay. We ended up on some very small, very primitive dirt roads. Eventually we found some ancient ruins we were looking for which turned out to be pretty unimpressive. Regardless, the road trip was great and took us through lots of villages that I'm sure don't get a heavy flow or tourists...or any tourists ever.
On the way home we stopped to eat in road side tea shop. When we sat down, everyone turned to look at us. I've had this experience before but it was definitely Huyen's first time. She looked at me and said, "Everyone is staring at me." Not letting her steal all the glory, I chimed in, "I think they're staring at both of us." The whole tea shop went silent. You could hear the figurative pin drop. The only noise was a familiar voice coming from near the kitchen. The voice said, "Yippie-kay-yah." The words weren't in Burmese. It was English. Bruce Willis English. Let me just set the scene a little clearer:
This was a weekday.
It was 2pm.
Nobody was working.
We were in a tea shop.
In the middle of the countryside.
Somewhere between 1,000+ year old ruins.
In Myanmar.
Man, Myanmar is sooooo weird!:
