Hello Myanmar! Mandalay – the pagodas’ heaven and how we became captives of goodness

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Burmese with a cart

25.11

We enter Burma – now officially Myanmar: a country we don’t know almost anything about. What we know is that it is a Buddhist country and after many years of military dictatorship and a few days ago the elections were won by a democratic leader: Aung San Suu Kyi who had spent many years as a political prisoner and won Nobel Peace Prize. All the travelers we met who had been there were very impressed by the country and said it’s very special and the people are extremely hospitable and nice. This is all the information we have for now. Continue reading

Last Himalayan trek and walking through the fearsome canyon, the monastery with the 1000 years old wall writings and the mummy nobody knew about

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Parang River

26.08

Last day of rest before the final seven days of the trek. We spend the whole day at the beach, enjoying the sand, reading books, bathing in the nearby lagoon where the water is warmer. I know bathing is supposed to be something mundane, but we couldn’t take a normal bath in the last ten days. The only thing we could do was to wash one selves rapidly here and there. It is known that Tibetans don’t bathe for months, but now I totally understand them. It is just impossible – even in August, which is the warmest month here, it is still tricky to do it. Continue reading

Mystic rituals at amazing monasteries, golden Buddha statues, secret magical temples and sleeping on the swampy wet ground before Sisir La Pass

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Views from Kashmir

14.07

After some intense cooking and a freezing bath in the river (it is absolutely necessary to wash oneself even in the cold water – 4-5 degrees Celsius (39-40 Fahrenheit) where I almost got hypothermic) we are ready to start hitchhiking. We go to see the monastery for one last time and we find a room with some very old writings on the wall which up to now was always closed. Continue reading