Finally Back from Burma - land of banned internet and $12/min phone calls to the US.

Burma was a very plesant surprise - after reading and hearing that Burma is one of the poorest nations in the world, and having experienced the dirt, grime, pollution, and disparity of Cambodia, I braced for the worst. However, it turned out to be a very intriguing, enjoyable, and generally plesant experience.

Funny story - within my first 10 minutes on the ground in Burma, I was already bribing government officials: The government (aka millitary juanta) has some messed up scheme to rip off tourist and to hoarde foriegn exchange. Because locals (officially) aren't allowed to possess foreign exchange, and because foreigners aren't allowed to hold kyat (their local currency), every entering tourist is required to change $200 USD into the equivalent in what they call Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC's) - a sort of monopoly-like quasi-money that both foreigners and locals can hold. The reality of it though, is that every local tries hard to hold as much foreign exchange as possible (to hedge against the high inflation of their local kyat, amongst other reasons), there's a huge black market exchanging USD and FEC's into Kyat, and that $1 worth of FEC's is worth much less than $1 USD.

To make an already long story shorter, I didn't want to change the full $200, because you're basically getting majorly ripped off by the govt if you do - so I ended up bribing the foreign exchange officer with $5 to change much less -- I just thought it was amusing, bribing officials.

Anyways, this world cup game (Korea and Italy) is getting a bit exciting, so I'm going to turn around and watch the game instead, and finish writing later.