The Rosebush

Okay, stop worrying, I’m in Bangkok for the next 2 weeks. x You can text me on my new number. If you don’t know what it is, ring my Mum and Dad and ask them. xx

Hi everyone… thanks Martin for your message.  Yes I’m okay thank you, scared now, but okay.

People were shot and killed here today, just a half mile or so from my office. We were stuck inside and not allowed out :(  There are rumours that the curfew has changed and will now be in place from 6pm to 6am.

I am meant to be leaving for Bangkok on Saturday morning - this depends on whether or not the airport remains open, whether my tickets arrive tomorrow and whether I can get transportation to the airport.

Will try to update the blog regularly.  Thanks to all those of you who have sent me messages of concern - it’s really appreciated….

 Protests - click here for pictures.

I am not scared. I am scared only for the strong, brave people who are finally finding the courage to stand up to the government and fighting for human rights.

THANK YOU, BBC, for making this front page news and giving this country the attention it desperately needs at this critical time.

And if you’re following the news, thank you too.  You may or may not realise what good you are doing by educating yourself about Burma and the serious events which are changing things by the hour.

It’s very exciting… and it’s frightening. Something has to give, and all we can do is hope that people won’t start getting shot again, like they did in 1988.  Please hope and pray for the people of Burma, who just want peace and freedom at long last.

If you’ve been reading the papers or watched the news, you’ll know that things are hotting up here.

I have put some interesting pics up in my gallery.  (Small link to the right)  Please DON’T leave comments on these pictures at the moment, but feel free to email me questions or comments to the usual address.  Video may come soon. 

So anyway, I am safe and well at the moment.  After yesterday, I am staying out of trouble and have no intention of taking any more risks.  However, I might accidentally land on my camera outside some people’s houses at 8pm this evening….

Watch this space.  If you leave comments, please be sensitive.

Hi all,

Pics are up from my day out in Twantay.  It’s a little village on the other side of the river from Yangon, about a 45 minute taxi ride.  We basically went for a little walk not far from the pagoda. We found a little shrine with some Buddhist nuns who fed us bananas and offered to show us the nearby monastery.  So off we went and peeped in at the sleeping monks.  Nearby we could hear chanting and the nuns told us that there was a class going on in a little room upstairs.  We asked if we could have a look and they said yes, so we climbed the steep sloping stairs and found a room with about 8 or 9 young monks and an older monk, who was obviously their teacher.

We said hello and took some pictures, and Colm gave the young boys his camera to take some pictures - they seemed to really love this and were taking pictures of each other.

After this, Mandy, Colm and I went to the local pottery to watch some pots being thrown.  We met up with Annabel and Davie and went for a beer, then spent quite a long time trying to decide how to get back to Yangon - we could try to find a bus, pay through the nose for a taxi, get an illegal boat down the river in the rain or hitch a ride with a banana truck… Annabel, Mandy and Davie opted for the taxi and managed to get a reasonable price and Colm and I went for the boat ride…

This turned out to be a great idea, although it was cold and rainy and not especially comfortable - the views were lovely and it was great to travel leisurely down the river and arrive in Yangon by boat at nightfall.  Definitely a good call, even if I didn’t necessarily appreciate it fully at the time as I shivered my way down the river!

We  had a fantastic day and it was so damn good to get out of Yangon and see a bit of rural Burma. It reminded me of Inle Lake a little bit and it was lovely to see some greenery and not hear the sounds of the city for one day.

This morning, Colm went off to Bagan with our friend Stig and he’ll be there for a couple of days before finding a bus to Inle lake.  He’s back on Thursday so I’ll look forward to hearing all about his adventures!

I’m going off to J’s to have some yogurt! Yummy.

Some new pics are up in the gallery from Friday night.

It is taking AGES to upload pictures, and I do have some more really lovely ones from a day trip I took with some friends on Sunday, but I’m running out of time, so will upload them when I can!

 Enjoy, and don’t forget to leave comments if you like

Well after another whirlwhind emotionally-packed almost-fortnight in the UK, I’m flying back today to the country everybody’s talking about. 

Should be interesting to see what happens over the coming weeks…. keep my head down and hope things settle OR that they explode completely.  Either would be better than the current situation I suppose.

Yes, it has been a very emotional couple of weeks and if I thought coming home would clear my head, I was wrong.  This morning I woke up to bright sunshine and the realisation that time really does fly.

Sorry if you’re reading this and I didn’t get to see you this time around… Don’t read into it, it’s been a very difficult time trying to fit people in.

Really must finish my packing now….

Will write more from the Golden Land.