Sick at home with manicure gone bad

Arrived home late Tuesday evening sick with a serious head cold! I have been busy with trying to sift through a months worth of mail, having people here all day shooting a novela called Realciones Peligrosas and trying to see family and friends. Before I left Hong Kong,Nery and I had the manicure and pedicure. What the hell is up with Chinesec manicure's? I cannot get them to last more than 5 days! The same nail polish OPI, the one I use in the U.S.. Does anyone know of a salon that does manicures that lasts more than three days? I will not be posting for the next few days as I am taking some rest days with my family in the D.R. I do have a photo of my nasty chipped nails, stay tuned!

Resting, recovering and preparing

This Saturday morning I have sorted out most of the photos and trying to fight a cold that was trying to invade my body, but with the help of Emergency C, vitamin B12, and Ester C, I think I have this thing licked! Nery should be arriving home just about now and I am trying to get organized for my travels on Monday.  The more I think about Myanmar the more in awe I am of the people and their sweetness. To have no running water, no electricity and have to cope with the challenges of the weather, bugs and everything else thrown at them, and yet they seem to be so kind, inviting and warm. Don't get me wrong, we did see a mother screaming for her teenage daughter, waiting for her to cross the tracks, with a baby in one arm and a clenched first in the other, as her daughter approached, she clocked her in the face full throttle! I had not seen someone get hit in the face in such a long time, I was in shock. Nery caught the entire thing on video. Of course, the girl eyes welled up, but no way did she allow a tear to drop. The mother after a few minutes gave the girl money to go buy medicine for the baby. Mother's remorse, I guess. You could see the anger in my face and me exclaiming WTF in the video. 

So my story of the trip that we call "crazy business", here it is....

When Nery told me that she was coming to visit, I started getting quotes for Vietnam and Myanmar. The quote for Myanmar came in at $360 pp for ten days, and 2 for $680. I thought wow, this is really cheap and decided Myanmar it was! We knew that we had to pay everything in cash, since no credit cards are allowed and they do not have ATM's. We arrived to the hotel and our guide presents us with the bill that says $2,680. My mouth dropped, David the owner of the company failed to put a comma in his price and the boy wanted his money. Well, on the customs form it states that you have to declare everything over $2,000.00. This was the beginning of our trip. I told the kid we had been deceived and I was only going to pay him the $680.00 and the $60.00 for the visa.  I took my money out and started counting. He kept on insisting that my money was old and he could not take it, and then asked "Don't you have any Benjamin's". That was it! I had had it with this punk, I told him I was not an ATM and that I could not print money, that he had no choice but to accept my money. Nery and I went on to Bagan the next morning.  

For the next eight days or so we were gently threatened, if we didn't pay the rest of the trip would be cancelled.

This is no way to enjoy a vacation, I finally told Sue, our guide to tell the man to stop calling and stop threatening us, or I was going to go home and he would never see any money. I wanted to see his eyes and have a conversation in person and that I would meet with him upon our return to Yangon. Meanwhile, all of the hotels that were stated on the itinerary were not the dumps that we stayed at, so we started asking hotels their prices, so we could get an idea of their cost. In Yangon, we met with the two men that were sent to collect their money, again we danced around the fact that David forgot to place a comma in his quote, David by the way is French and very well knows what a comma signifies. The men decided they wanted to estimate the costs of the hotels we did stay at, the airfare and the expense of guides and driver.

They came back the next morning with an excel sheet and everything they wrote was complete. B.S.. I started to raise my voice, told them that I was done with their bullshit and I was going to pay them what I thought was the correct amount. I had to step out of the hotel for a moment to cool down. They could not believe that I raised my voice and they started looking around the lobby to see who was watching. I came back and paid them $2,000. total told them I was done, and goodbye. They were in disbelief, I told them, that I was not stupid and that they were insulting my intelligence. They tried to continue the negotiations, Nery and I shook their hands and went off on our tour, after I had them sign a note written by me that I had no further obligation with them and that they were accepting my $2,000.00 

Beware of Hein Thuzar Travels and Tours, Goto-Myanmar.com. The most ironic part is that on his itinerary he states "Don't worry, just come!" 

Here are a few more photos of the beautiful people of Myanmar!

Rain Rain go away!

Nery and I walked most of Wan Chai today in the on and off again rain! We decided to pamper ourselves a bit, I had a manicure and Nery had a pedicure. We then walked and shopped, fortunately for my husband, everything is three sizes too small or too short for me! We then decided to get our feet massaged, and went to Happy Feet, this was an interesting experience to say the least! My lady was doing reflexology on my feet and when ever she would pass over my thyroid area on the foot, I would have excruciating pain which made me break out in to hysterical laughter. My lady said she could not imagine me giving birth laughing the way I did! I then had cupping, and Nery had and acupressure massage. What is cupping you may ask, Cupping is an ancient Chinese method of causing local congestion. A partial vacuum is created in cups placed on the skin either by means of heat or suction. This draws up the underlying tissues. When the cup is left in place on the skin for a few minutes, blood stasis is formed and localized healing takes place. Cupping therapy has been further developed as a means to open the 'Meridians' of the body. Meridians are the conduits in the body through which energy flows to every part of the body and through every organ and tissue. There are five meridians on the back that, when opened, allow invigorating energy to travel the whole length of the body. It has been found that cupping is probably the best way of opening those meridians. Afterwards we continued to walk and shop and finally had dinner at Le Fleur, in Wan Chai. Nery leaves back home tomorrow morning, safe travels my sister, it has been "crazy business" fun! I love you.

Here are a few photos from Myanmar, get ready Amber, you are going to have some work to do!

good morning!

Back from the "Crazy Business" of wonderful Myanmar

Nery and I safely returned to a full day of walking around Hong Kong Island. Myanmar! WOW! The best part of our trip, the people that are described as gentle, humorous, engaging, passionate and more. Small bits of information, Myanmar 89% Buddhist, 4 % Christian, 4% Muslim and the rest "other". There are no Mc Donald's, no KFC's, and less than 0.1% of the population uses internet, a cash only economy, no ATM's and no credit cards.
The men wear long skirts called longy's, the women and children and some men wear nakha as makeup and sun block. Both sexes chew battle nut and smoke cigars. In 1962 General Ne Win took over and in 2010 political prisoner Aung San Sui Kyi was released from house arrest. In 2011 Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar, only after Vice President Nixon came to visit in 1953. Lonely Planet published their travel guide on Myanmar in December 2011 an Americans are now flocking to Myanmar.
The big cities are full of dust and pollution, you can eat street food for about a $1.50, and if you want meat or chicken may $3.00 dollars. The best part of Myanmar are the people, serious at first, but give them a smile or a hello and you will be invited to tea or even to share their food. I quickly purchased and wore Longy's and the women and men loved seeing me in them. And then I wore a Pa O head wrap, I do not know which one got more attention! The loved it, the markets were clamoring with excitement when they saw me coming with the men's skirt and my head wrap. I cannot say enough about the peoples kindness, this certainly out ways the air pollution, the dust, the mediocre hotels and everything else that can be expected from a country that is lightyears behind the rest of the world. Bagan and Inle Lake two amazing places to visit. I hope to return to visit the Chin state and the orphanage near Inle.
I am still sorting through the photos, but I thought I would share a few with you. Too many stories to tell!
Good Morning!

Anxiously awaiting Nery....

Today I am waiting for Nery to arrive, she will be here in five and a half hours! I am so looking forward to my first visitor, even though we leave tomorrow for our adventure in Myanmar. By the way, there will be no blog for 10 days as they do not have internet in Myanmar! I tried to keep busy this morning by going to Wan Chai, the next neighborhood over from Pacific Place. A densely populated area and the only one in Hong Kong that does not have government housing. I decide to shoot some of the market scenes, as it seems that everyone buys fish and meat for the weekends. You really need to have a strong stomach to sit and shoot for a while, thankfully the nose becomes numb to the odors after a while. The streets are always congested with people and products pushing their way through the crowds. Ken tried his hand at Chinese painting and I think he did remarkably well for his first time. I think I have two project in mind so far, I will see which one pans out. I will let you know when Nery arrives and how her journey went. God know who's  tail that is in the 3rd photo.

Remember Me.....

Given my luck the past few days of visiting places that are closed, I thought I would give the cemetery a shot, not much chance of them being closed. I started with the Muslim one, sits on a corner and is almost at a 75 degrees angle. These are the signs they have posted, they also have one that says beware of snakes! Ken would not like that! Some of the folks are from the first world world war and many are from the second world war and I could not read most of them, but I read they were from India originally and are here now. I then proceeded to the Catholic cemetery, and at the entrance they have this sign that is rather morbid, not because I am afraid of dying, but because there are thousands upon thousand of bodies here that probably had no idea they would lay in Hong Kong. After the Catholic, I went to another one, no denomination, Christian, and the only one that had birds singing, even though they are all next to each other, this one is the only one with happy birds. I always visit cemeteries when I travel to places to get a sense of history and whom has passed. These cemeteries are full of Scottish, British, Portuguese, and every other nationality. I guess this just confirms my desire to be cremated, instead of in a broken, forgotten place that has no special meaning to me what so ever. A photograph on my tombstone, or on a niche, what if it was when I was having a bad day? But I guess any day is better alive than the alternative of having your photo displayed. While I reflect, the Muslims said it  best on their plaque, visiting graves can remind people of the "hereafter". And so it does, regardless of me visiting them or not, I am thankful to be alive. I think I will like it best, if I could be like the last tombstone that said "Forever in our Hearts". a nice thought. I then decided to walk home and found a temple on a side street and went in and I prayed, to my God, their God and all the Gods, for the health and happiness of those I love and know.

I think when you walk through these places that are all next to each other, you realize that we all are born, we all live and we all die, regardless of religion. We are all human and until the HUMAN race understands this, I guess people will continue to die and continue to bury, because of extreme ideals, philosophies, religious beliefs. I am sure God did not intend for man to hate each other as much as they do. Be kind to one another and maybe you will be lucky enough to remain in someone's heart forever. 

p.s. I looked up to see if I could find information on the H.M.S Winchester, Wikipedia has varied thoughts as to what may have happened to this ship, one even says it is off the coast of Florida. Go figure. 

Factoid: Hong Kong's: POPULATION: 7,122,508 GDP PER CAPITA: $45,550.61 per capita

p.p.s If you click on the photos they should enlarge and you can tab to the next one.

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