A 'quick one' from near the german border

Plans change. Again and again. And then some more... So even though we had no plans whatsoever to go this far east in the Netherlands, we're writing this blog from almost ON the german border. I can't see Germany from here but i wouldn't be surprised that if someone would take me upstairs and put me on the windowsill i would see Germany through the trees... Anyways.. A quick update. Being back home in France was awesome. Time passed way to quick. Katinka, Bart and their 3 kids were next on the list. We say their new abode. Very impressive. A nice party on a boat was an easy way to see/talk to everybody on one side of the family.. Christmas eve was at Gran's home. Christmas day was gone while driving through the Netherlands to drop Gran of at someone's place, drink tea there and head on to were we were supposed to have arrived way earlier that day... Yesterday we had a great day in Amsterdam. One of Sandra's friends came over from England. And Katinka came as well. So did Cathja (were we are now) and of course Nicole. Again time made a run for it... A few days left to spend here and then back to France. As soon as we're in Bangkok i'll post all the pictures and of course more stories

Arrived!!!

We've arrived safely and fairly sound in France. We'd had some trouble finding our way around at Charles de Gaulle airport but with Sandra's usual amount of luck we even managed to get the TGV (train de grande vitesse; speed train) even though we were late and Sandra had to run (which was quite a feat i must say, we had SO much luggage). Now we're 'recovering' (nicely). A bit of wine on the side (to steady the nerves.... Of course).

I'll write more as soon as Sandra has managed to connect her laptop. This french keyboard is driving me bonkers. The 'M' is not where it is not supposed to be. And the 'A' , 'Q' and 'W' have all traded places. Not to mention the other 'irregularities'.... Time for some more wine

In transit in Bangkok

A quick update since internet is expensive here. We've arrived in Bangkok already several hours ago. I must say i find the shops quite boring after a while. The only shops Sandra likes are bookshops. So no use hanging out with her for too long (that girl can seriously get stuck in a bookshop).
This morning started good already. At first the hotel gave us a wake-up call 15 minutes AFTER the time we'd asked (and with only 15 minutes to spare before the taxi would come and pick us up). I had slept fairly well but Sandra had not (mosquitos tend to prefer human flesh above skunk). And good that we were awake already. We did have the most awesome car to the airport again (Kyaw Kayw had arranged that before he left), an oldtimer mercedes. At the airport they gave Sandra a hard time because of her luggage. She thought that since she had paid for 2 seats, she could bring 2 pieces of handluggage. NO, only PER PERSON. No matter whether you had paid for 2 people. So that sucked but eventually all luggage got on. Now we hope they won't make the same problem with all the next flights. After all, apparently at Thai airways you can only have 3 kg of handluggage. Sandra has 2 pieces apart from a small 'handbag'. And both of those are way over 3 kg!!! We'll see. Well , i'll post this before time is up...

A long busride

When we came back from Bagan to Yangon we suddenly at around 9 o'clock saw a lot of smoke from the front of the bus at one side (our side). we thought the tire had exploded or something similar but it was a little bit different . A broken shock breaker. And as you can see it wasn't something that could easily be solved.So first a fire was made next to the road so other cars would see the bus and we got a bit of warmth (it was a tiny bit chilly). Amasing how some people love the boy-scout thing.. It was always the same people who tended the fire and went for more wood. Eventually most of us retired into the bus and caught a few hours of sleep. The new bus had to come all the way from Bagan (which we had left 6 hours behind us before the breakdown) so somewhere in the middle of the night/early morning we and all our luggage got transferred. 23 hours after we left Bagan we came to Yangon. And we still considered ourselves lucky. We had a very good driver who had been able to keep the bus on the road even when it slightly curved (if he hadn't.. there would have been a hug tree in our path).

Visiting kyaw Kyaw's village

In the village there is not much water so once a week water is brought from the river to these huge containers where people go with their bullock carts so get the water they need.

Us, on our way for the last mile or so from the Jackory factory to the village in one of burma's most used forms of transport... Can't say it was very comfortable. But then again, maybe i should have said NO when they asked me if i wanted to sit on back of the ox.

We were quite the attraction in the village. Nobody ever goes there (it was our Sandra & me) 2nd time there. Now the others understood why Sandra wanted them to come with us. The attention was shared. And David must have taken tons of pictures of all the kids. Every time a new kid showed up. The group became quite big.

On our way back we 'hitchhiked'. We had no clue at what time the pick-up was coming or whether it had already passed. So when after 45 minutes we got a lift, we got in as quick as we could.


Two days later, we went back. KK's father had made a whole burmese style lunch especially for us. Well mostly for Sandra since the girl stopped eating meat along the way somewhere. And of course she never ate fish to begin with. And i must confess, KK's father is a very very good cook.

Flying out

Tomorrow we fly back to Europe. Our plane leaves Yangon at 8.30 (so we have to get up real early). We'll arrive at BKK at 10.10 (half hour ahead of Burma time) after a flight of little over an hour. Then we leave Bangkok again at 17.30. We arrive at Muscat at 22.55 local time (with a stop in-between *sigh*) after 8.25 in the air. We fly from there at 00.20 to arrive in Bahrein at 01.00 local time (i have no clue if there is a time-difference here), a very short flight. Take-off again at 2.05 to arrive at Paris at 7.20 (local time again) with over 7 hours of flying time behind us . And then we have to make our way to the south of France still. Sounds exhausting doesn't it? Sandra keeps reminding herself that it'll be great seeing everybody again. And as an added bonus... 3 full weeks of mosquito free days and nights!

Back in Bagan

We did a nice stroll over the market the day after we had arrived. We'd met the others on the bus from Yangon.
Of course we were immediately cornered for Thanaka. Especially Sandra since she was the only western woman in the group. Me, i don't need sun protection. And the nice smell of Thanaka doesn't last long if you're a skunk....



Me, with my favorite 'veggies' :fresh chillie












Introducing everybody to Burmese tea. And pickled tea which you eat with peanuts, dried beans, roasted sesame seeds in any way you like. Preferably from a nice lacquerware box.

Relaxing at Ko Phi Phi

When we left Bangkok we thought we were only going as far as KRabi. But on the way we did change our minds. And even though we were only on Ko Phi Phi for a very short time, it was really really nice and absolutely worth it. On the day we went over, the sky was a bit grey but that didn't dampen our spirits in the least. We even made some nice friends along the way. Some of whom we found again on long beach the next day.

Kyaw Kyaw enjoying himself. Heck , so was I as you can obviously see.




Sharing experiences.....
And Ko Phi Phi in the distance...

There some serious good quality food on the island and Kyaw Kyaw and me really enjoyed all the 'fishy' dishes... Sandra of course kept eating her vegetarian one. Even this wonderful tasty lookign dish didn't tempt her.




Who did mention clear blue waters? Don't you just want to be there and jump in?

In Chiang Mia

We were quite a while in Chiang Mai (due partially to Sandra's dentist visits). And we had such a good time there. We spend most of our time with Kuatrina, another almost resident in the hotel were we were staying. And of course we spend many a time playig pool (or in Sandra's case watching the game) with the people from the hotel. Tim & Tony (not on pictures here, i plan to get a pic next time though), Jimmy, Lin, San & Chin (they also both managed to evade my camera).
I love maps so i couldn't resist taking a look over Tim's shoulder he was explaining something.

Kuatrina & me were such good friends. I loved talking to her but it wasn't always easy to get a word in when she was chatting with Sandra. They both are so good at it!

A little love & hugs -pose before we were leaving......

And the evening when our invited guests came over to taste

Our guests preparing for a nice 'dig in'. They all brought something to drink (beer/vodka/whatever so the stage was set for a very nice evening. Tee (our cooking expert) even opened up his (in) famous herbal-whisky so most of us left that evening in a less then sober state (and with a very satisfyingly full stomach)


Ginger, one of the cutest dogs i've ever seen, on her way to one of the local bars.

More Pai cooking class pictures

At first of course we had to read up on what we had to do.

Me here, inspecting my 'raw materials'.




And afterwards being a chef with ingredients and available wok. Of course the others did well too. See how high the fire is underneath Sandra's wok. Making the curry after you've done all the preliminary work takes only minutes....

Kyaw Kyaw is adding the final touch to his dish

And here are our curries. Don't they just look yummy?

A little update

Sandra & Kyaw Kyaw packed their bags this morning (Sandra dumped everything she doesn't need for the next 3 weeks in KK's bag. I do feel a bit sorry for him. His bag must weight tons by now). Kyaw Kyaw is leaving tomorrow on the bus to Bagan. His nephew is having his novice ceremony ( a big thing in Burma) and his younger brother is at the same time being ordained as monk for a week. Now he's contemplating joining them for that week. Sandra thinks it is a good idea. It'll give him time to think things over. And the festivities will hopefully get him in better spirits. He's been a bit down lately. And has a bad cold. So all in all, he can do with a bit of fun (the 2 days of festivities) and tranquility (the week in the monastery)

Sandra on the other hand is thinking about how to fit as many family and friends into a 3 week visit. And when she's not thinking about that, she's wondering whether she should buy sleeping pills for the first time in her life (she's definitely not looking forward to the long flight to France). Me, i'm sure i'll enjoy it. Especially since i have a whole seat for myself. I'm just hoping the flight-attendants will be nice to look at (hey, a skunk has to do something if his travel companion has been knocked out by sleeping-pills).

We (Sandra & me) will be transferring to a hotel in Yangon down-town. It is a place where Sandra & Kyaw Kyaw can't stay together in one room so usually they'll only use this hotel (very conveniently located and very reasonably priced) when they're by themselves. It'll mean that Sandra'll be frequenting her usual internet cafe, so i'm quite confident i can put some more pictures here (with Kyaw Kyaw gone she's bound to spend at least twice as much time in the internet cafe).

No better news

Yesterday we had the appointment with the French consul (i was safely hidden in my usual bag but i heard every word). He was really nice. For one thing, he met us to explain why the visa was denied, something that he isn't obliged to do. But it would help us in a future application. He explained about the Schengen rules. And unfortunately one of them is that the applicant needs to give proof of income. This doesn't necessarily mean that he has to have a fixed job. Things like having an apartment or 2 that are rented out count as well. What does not help is having a big bank account. Or even coming into the office with a case full of money. And since Kyaw Kyaw has always been working free lance and without official guide license, he can not give this prove of income. The consul said that even though he wished he could help us, he could not. If he would give the visa and customs at the Paris airport would stop Kyaw Kyaw and call the embassy for the visa file, they would find that it wasn't within regulations. And the consul would be fined. End of story for this time.

We just find it strange since we're quite sure that on a few occasions visas have been handed out to women even though for them it is almost always impossible to show this proof of income. But then again, maybe men and women are treated differently.

Anyways, it'll be just Sandra & me for Europe this time. Looking on the bright side of this otherwise quite dark cloud, i will now have a seat completely for me alone. And since it is a rather long flight (with 2 stop overs apart from Bangkok), i'm quite sure i'll be enjoying the stretching of my legs. I know i'm not that big but even i do get cramps sometimes when i've been stuck in the bag for a long while.

Sandra & Kyaw Kyaw will be busy this week thinking about possibilities after we come back from France. Kyaw Kyaw will need to find something that'll give him the opportunity to give the required proof next time. And that means that Sandra & I need to find a way to stay here for a while longer as well. So Sandra will try to find a job here. Me, i don't know yet what i might be doing. Studying Burmese sounds like an interesting option though.

Dissappointment

Over the last 2 months we've been trying to get Kyaw Kyaw a visa for France/The netherlands. First of all we tried the french embassy in Laos since that was where we were when plans got more concrete. Here they told us that since he was Burmese he could only apply for a visa in Burma. Bummer. So when we were back in Chiang Mai (Sandra needed to finish some dental work), we called and emailed the dutch embassy (there is no embassy for the Netherlands in Burma). No problem. Both on the phone and per email it was said. Even though Sandra specifically told them that we were travelling around Thailand at that time. Per email we got the website with all the information on what was needed. And to our surprise it said right at the top: Only Thai or people residing in Thailand could apply. *sigh*. But it was said in the email that we could also apply at the german embassy in Yangon (for a dutch visa). Well if we had to go back to Burma anyway it was easier to have everything arranged via Sandra's dad (who lives in France). He sent everything needed to the French embassy in Yangon. Kyaw Kyaw and Sandra filled in everything that was requiered at the Burmese side. And i think we'd covered everything and all. And we were pretty convinced that a visa would be granted. After all, it is only for a 3 week visit. And everything was arranged.

So to our utter astonishment and dissapointment we got a 'NO' from the embassy. They couldn't tell us why but we're allowed a meetign with the consul when we come back from Bagan (we're taking the bus tomorrow). Now the only thig we can hope for is that we can convince the consul to change his mind. But i suspect chances are slim...


It would have been so much fun to show Kyaw Kyaw around. After all, as a well travelled skunk i have covered much of the Netherlands and France. But there are even parts i haven't been to yet. And of course meeting family and friends would be so nice. We still go Sandra & me but it would have been so much nicer if we could have gone the 3 of us. For one thing, Sandra hates flying and i don't want to arrive all squeezed to bits because fo some turbulence along the way. I think that that is Kyaw Kyaw's job.