Images from our (Burmese) New year's holiday

Old and new Burmese bills - note the denominations (e.g. 25 Kyats):

Upon arrival at the Island just outside Mawlamyine:

Village life on the island; love the goats.

Sunset over Mawlamyine:

And outside of Hpa-An - this funny little monk was shooting at us with his laser gun.

In the same area, we saw more buddhas than anyone would care to see in one place.

and took a cool boat.

Standard monks in Hpa-An, collecting food:

Climbing up Mount Zwegabin - steep & hot and somewhat picturesque.

Once we reached the top, we were so tired, sweaty, and sticky.. but we couldn't go look for food or water before we took about 30 pictures with the stubborn locals (who then didn't even smile!!)

We then found the best place to have a drink once you climbed up and down a mountain in 40 degrees:

At a conference

Today was a water and sewage conference at a fancy hotel.  One week after starting my job, I was sent to represent the Israeli embassy. It was interesting..not only content-wise.

- I was the only non-Asian in a room of 100 people.
- I was the only under 45 in that same room.
- When it was time to take a group photo, they called to the stage only the "distinguished guests". I was pretty sure I wasn't one, so I stayed seated.
- It quickly turned out I was in fact a distinguished guest. For the coffee break, I was sent into the private VIP room where coffee was served to tables, with a side dish of a shrimp dimsum, a spring roll, and a mini sandwich. Awkward coffee break; awkward conversation, weird selection of food for 9am.
- I discovered really interesting things, like the average household in Yangon only gets 8 hours of running water a day (we get 24), and that only 5% have access to the sewage system (that's us).
- Lunch in the VIP table consisted of a 9-course chinese meal which we inhaled in about 40 minutes.
- I normally consider myself pretty comfortable with chopsticks, but not for these nine courses, and not when I'm sitting with ten older, suited, Japanese people. So I couldn't REALLY eat all the courses.
- They finally provided a fork on the ninth course.
- When I reviewed the menu retroactively to check out all the different animals I just ate, it turned out the thing that was my favorite by far was in fact a marinated jellyfish.

Tomorrow - back to the office!

Weekend at the beach

Much delayed.. pictures from our first weekend at a Myanmar beach - Ngwe Saung.

Bamboo bungalows - best served with a hammock.

Oh, the joy.

Locals & coconuts

Sunset walk on the beach..

Surprisingly beautiful shapes in the sand.. never seen anything like this before. 

And for the finalé on the way back - elephanties!!