31 May | Yangon, Myanmar> went around w/ J today on their food-related rounds (for their work) .. 1° t' eat a traditional breakfast of mohinga + then to a wholesale market on th outskirts of town .. then to a palm oil wholesaler we happen'd upon .. 1 of th main reasons they came here cuz they researching th environmental + nutritional impact of palm oil production (Myanmar now mostly imports palm oil from Malaysia + Indonesia who have burnt down huge swaths of land t' grow it + Myanmar's considering doing th same) .... their driver/translator = muslim so ∆iffrent perspective .. not that we notice really in daily interactions but Myanmar not a good place rite now for muslims (in case u aint informed) ....

SamPar Oo market

rambutans

jackfruit

emptys

Diane-Arbus inspired shot

asparagus + sum sort of fava-bean looking thing

chilis!

shrimp meat

dried fish

fish paste (note incense wich dont help nun .. u kin only imagine th smell..)

palm oil containers

betel nut pusher

leaves (left) used w/ betel nut

durian man

> anywhere u go in Yangon @ inny time u sit in traffic for hours on end .. just not fun .. makes us not want 2 leave th hotel much .. or for that madder travel anywhere .. + then when we hear storys like what went down @ th Cincinatti zoo this week we start t' relate more to Ted Kaczynski types .. not that we's about to mail-bomb randumb peepole (tho 1 deliver'd to Trump wd make our moondough a better place) but this planet cd certinly do w/ far less humans .. everywhere we go th same story .. weave manedged t' fuck up every far corner of this planet ....

1 June> dint feel much up t' venturing out t'day fo reasons menshun'd above .. went 4 a walk around Kandawgyi «lake» but even that depress'd us .. seeing all th open sewers leading rite int' her .. more a sewedge containment pond than a lake .. smells like it .. looks pretty tho probably cuz th green algee thrives on all th poop + garbedge

Shwedagon pagoda

duck palace on Kandawgyi lake

surface of Kandawgyi (undoctor'd .. yes that green)

> finish'd Orwell's Burmese Days (fitting ending i suppose .. [SPOILER ALERT!].. if u cant beat them [th bigot colonizers] well, just kill kill yorself + why not shoot yo dog while u at it) .. + start'd on Aung San Suu Kyi's Letters from Burma .. a bit ∆iffrent purspective then Orwell .. rather than ship out she passively resist'd then spent 20 years under house arrest ..

2 June> went out to downtown/Chinatown + Bogyoke market .. nothing to ride home about .... ate @ Aung Mingalar Shan .. 4 th most part the food here = plain good .. not great .. not as good as Thailand but better than India .... ready t' go «home» .. wherever that means ..

banana vendor downtown

grasshopers for sale in chinatown

rambutans

along th waterfront

ducked out of th rain into sum buddhist temple

along th tracks

Bangkok airport> finish'd Letters from Burma as we arrived to Bangkok .. intresting if u intrested in understanding Myanmar .... series of weekly articles all the same length that Aung San Suu Kyi wrote for some Japanese newspaper .. sumtimes seem'd she dint have much to say so just wrore about whatever for the sake of writing .. other times she complains about trivial things like long car rides or how trying it is posing for photos .... how she'd bring a book to some photo session .. but she definitely portrays Burma as an Orwellian police state (she uses that word a few times) .. funny in the wake or reading Orwell's Burmese Days wonder how much living in Burma influenced him writing 1984 .... + the piece about the decline of food quality for economic + political reasons particklerly interesting given the reason why our better ½ = here .. reading in the waiting area of Yangon airport .. some of the most incompetent check-in processes ever weave encountered .. they say patience = a virtue but patience also breeds apathy ..