Thoughts on Burma, A Year After

Village Chief, Kalaw ot Inle Lake Trek

I saw this travel writing contest in the internet, the goal was to write about a place that inspires you to live life without regrets. And the first place that comes to mind is Burma. I wanted to go to Burma because I was curious to experience traveling in a country closed-off from the rest of the world – or as they say ‘where time stood still’, I wanted to see and explore the thousands of stupas and temples in Bagan, and see the magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda. I did all of it, but traveling in Burma for almost three weeks was definitely more than this. The people and situation in Burma humbled me. Coming from a third world country, I’ve come to appreciate the sense of freedom despite mere resources (compared to the first world) I enjoy and how much I have been taking them for granted.

I wrote this piece having the theme and my experiences in mind, ready to send it to the website. Until I read the guidelines of the writing contest again and realized that I read it all wrong. So I decided to just share it here in my blog.

Calaguas Island : Beach Weekend and Travel Guide

Calaguas Island

“Aaaaaahhhhh!” our boatman screamed as we were about to tackle a big wave. After getting drenched from this big wave, I looked back at our boatman and saw him squatting and scooping water out of our small boat using a small can (or dipper). This was the first of the three times I saw him do it during our 2-hour boat ride going to Calaguas Island. And we were only about 20 minutes into the ride. Imagine how terrified I was during that looong boat ride (read here why). I was seriously checking my life vest (a poor one at that) so many times, thinking of ways on how I would survive if ever our boat topples over. That boat ride was torture for me.

But it was all worth it after seeing this – those different shades of blue and green, of the 1.2 km stretch of fine white sand of Calaguas Island.