Saving Myanmar

In an earlier post this week, I mused about a possible global push back against the military junta of Myanmar once everyone began to see how messed in the heads these guys truly are.

A week now has passed since the cyclone hit and still the generals are toying around with visas, relief and voting polls.

I've been watching the news reports out of one eye all week long, dutifully clicking on a Burma headline each time I see it's been updated. I've turned into somewhat of a media junkie when it comes to Myanmar, but I just can't help myself. I am astonished.

This morning I spent some time with my coffee and my Internet, reading deeper into the crisis.

I came across a BBC article in which British politicians were wondering about the moral obligation that we as human beings have to the people of Burma.

At this point, have the generals proved themselves to be so crazy and inept that we have a moral obligation to invade the country on humanitarian grounds in order to deliver aide?

A journalist for the Asia Times thinks so. This morning, Asia Times published an article written by Shawn W Crispin titled The Case for Invading Myanmar.

In the article, Crispin claims that a US invasion of Myanmar makes sense. An invasion, lead by the US and backed by the rest of the world, would go a long way toward restoring America's rattled reputation, he says.

Toppling the junta would clear the way for Burma's already democratically-elected president, Aung San Suu Kyi, to finally leave house-arrest and take her rightful spot as the country's leader -- a move sure to be supported by the majority of Myanmar's people as they are the ones who voted for her.

Is the idea of invading Myanmar far-fetched and silly?

I'm not so sure. What I am sure about, however, is that if the United States actually did step into this crisis and invade Burma, I'd be much more likely to support it than I would some of its other foreign policies.

Going Greyhound to Mexico

Today, GoNomad posted a story I wrote about taking the Greyhound to Mexico.

Yes, that's right. I crossed the border on a bus.

Our end point was a pretty little town called Ensenada that is the heart of Mexico's wine country. It's just two hours south of San Diego on the Baja's Pacific coast.

While there, we toured a bodega, sipped some vino, downed a margarita, nibbled hot churros, and stumbled into a room where Al Capone was rumored to have played a hand of poker or two.

If you'd like to read all about it, go here:

Visiting Ensenada: A Bus Trip to Mexico's Wine Country

Also posted this week is an essay I wrote and published a few years back in the local paper. The link has been archived and hidden behind passwords, which means nobody is ever able to find it. So instead, I found it a new and approachable home.


Wanderlust and Lipstick is a web site that encourages women to get out there and travel. The site's author, Beth Whitman, actually posted two of my older travel tales.

First, What we Leave Behind, is about an encounter I had with a man on the streets of Havana.

The other, On Guard Against Giardia, is about getting sick in Guatemala.

Cyclone Sadness & Madness

Just like everyone else, I have been stunned, angered and saddened by the cyclone fall out that is happening in Myanmar.

Myanmar has maintained a front spot in my mind since I traveled there two years ago.

Hubby and I only spent five days in the country - a time frame that was both too short and too long.

Too short because there is so much to see in the country. Because transportation is difficult, we didn't get to half the places we had hoped to see. We never made it to Mandalay, for example. We didn't reach the ruins of Bagan. Nor did we visit the now devastated region.

At the same time, the days we did spend in Burma filled us with questions and unease. We witnessed disturbing ecological destruction as well as poverty, inequity and forced labor, like these local people pictured above who had been forced to build a highway by hand.

Of all the places I have ever traveled in my life, Myanmar is honestly the one place I have no desire to ever step foot in ever again. I am so glad I experienced it, but I am so glad I'm no longer there.

Watching the cyclone fall out, I am of course horrified that the military junta is dragging its heels on letting foreign aide in. It's a clear indicator of just how messed in the heads these guys really are.

I can't help but wonder whether or not this massive blunder on their part isn't going to spell the end of their reign. Maybe they are delaying aide because they are trying to punish their own. Maybe they are doing it because they are power paranoid. Their motivation doesn't really matter. The end conclusion is the same: The leaders are insane.

Last fall, the world watched as the military rulers smashed a local revolution. In the end, the world stood by and let it happen.

But maybe, maybe this will be a tipping point that will convince all governments and average Joes everywhere that Burma's leaders need to be toppled. Maybe this will spark a global effort to oust the junta.

Bizarre Foods with Kelly

TiVo is a wonderful thing. Now that I have it, I can't imagine my life without it.

Sitting down to watch TV at a scheduled time?

Waiting through commercials?

Both are a thing of the past now that TiVo has entered my life. It lets me record shows that run at strange hours and check them out at my leisure.

One of the shows I've come to love as a result of my TiVo is a Travel Channel offering: Bizarre Foods.

The show blipped across my radar for a couple of reasons:

1) Just like me, Andrew Zimmern - the host of Bizarre Foods - calls Minneapolis-St. Paul home. He's got radio bits and TV bits and magazine bits all over the Twin Cities. I knew about him long before he started showing up in strange places and eating strange things on the Travel Channel.

2) By chance, I discovered that his show is actually produced by a company that is headquartered just down the street from my house. It's a Minnesota crew that cuts and edits his stuff into the show it eventually becomes.

3) Last fall, an email showed up in my inbox from a woman I never met. She was a staffer with Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods show and she was researching weird things he could eat in Chile.

After a bit of goolging, she came across my past blog entries about Chile. She sent me a message to see if I had any bizarre food suggestions for the country.

I told her that when in Chile, Andrew Zimmern had to eat a hot dog loaded with mayonnaise and avocado. I remembered that these hot dogs were everywhere and that both Quang and I were repulsed by them.

Actually, I'm repulsed by hot dogs any old way they are served, but Quang isn't. He loves them. Yet just one look at a Chilean hot dog, hidden under one whole inch of mayonnaise and another whole inch of guacamole, stopped him cold. No hot dogs for him.

But guess who did eat one?! That's right! Andrew Zimmern!

Finally, finally, the Chile show aired. It ran in the beginning of April and I just got around to watching it the other day. And he ate it! He ate it! He ate a mayonnaise-guacamole hot dog in Santiago, Chile!

Punky Junky Style

You don't get hair like this without some uber strong gel.

Ever since Quang discovered Punky Junky hair gel in Mexico a few years back, he has been a fan.

He only bought one bottle while there though, and when it ran out, we couldn't figure out how to get any more.

We googled and googled. We discovered there were lots of Punky Junky fans out there, but short of making a run across the border, nobody knew how to get their hands on any.

Some smart guy finally decided to start importing the stuff and selling it online. I made my first online Punky Junky purchase last fall. Quang finally ran through the bottles I bought back then and last week, I had to go online and buy more.

I graduated from the little bottles to the big bottles. Although Punky Junky comes in a rainbow of colors, I decided to stick with the purple hue for no other reason than nostalgia. That was the same color Quang bought back in Mexico.

Today, the new big purple bottles arrived in the mail!

Oh joy!

Now Quang can keep his hair spiked and sharp.

Vertical Ethiopia in the Midwest

I got up, got ready and headed down to Minneapolis' Midwest Mountaineering for its Outdoor Adventure Expo.

I was going to hear one of the event's featured speakers: Majka Burhardt.

She's this fascinating gal (a Minnesotan turned Colorado girl) who is a mountain climber, traveler and writer.

She's on staff at Climbing Magazine, she is a guide with the Colorado Mountain School, and she just put out her first book, Vertical Ethiopia, which is a coffee table photography book of her recent mountain climbing expedition in that land.

I thought I was just going to hear her speak, but when I arrived at Midwest Mountaineering - a mom and pop version of REI - I discovered a whole event going on that I wanted to attend.

I did catch the Vertical Ethiopia show -- which was brilliant.

But I also twirled through the vendor booths chit chatting with hostel owners and tour guides running operations as far away as Peru, Patagonia, Tanzania, Mongolia and more.

And all of them, all of them, had some sort of Minnesota connection. These avid adventurers, these ex-pats living in another land, had all been raised in Minnesota.

I ended up hanging out at the expo much longer than expected as it felt so good to be surrounded by fellow travel fanatics who all happened to be from my home town.

Photos © Gabe Rojel - from MajkaBurhardt.com.

Vietnam Redux

For the second time this month, I spent the day in a local 8th grade classroom talking about my travels in Vietnam.

The kids were all world geography students and they were eager to see photographs from a land so far away. And yet they were able to pick out things in my photography collection that reminded them of home.

This shot of me eating a Vietnamese version of pineapple on a stick got a big reaction each time it flashed on the screen, revealing the true colors of all the kids in the class: They were Minnesotans.

A true Minnesotan knows all about food on a stick.

Wonder why? You obviously haven't been to the Minnesota State Fair.

Quotable Me

A new travel guide was released this month titled Best Girlfriend Getaways Worldwide.

It's the follow up to a title that came out last year: 50 Best Girlfriend Getaways in North America. Both books were written by Marybeth Bond.

But the exciting thing is that this second book, the newest one, the worldwide one, quotes me. Yes, me.

I interviewed Marybeth Bond for an article published on GoNomad about women and travel, and in the course of our conversation she said, "Can I interview you?"

Of course! As a writer, it's not often that I find myself on the answering side of a question. Usually, I am the asker.

Two quotes by moi made the final cut in the chapter about studying abroad. I said...

"As a teacher, I had summers off, so I have studied history, creative writing, music, dance and languages in Rome, Prague and Havana. I did the program in Rome through Loyola University in Chicago and the one in Prague was through West Michigan University. Educational programs give you a reason to dig into a culture, put down roots, and discover a place at a slower pace. I also liked the safety and social aspects of living in a dorm with other students."

"I wanted to improve my Spanish, but I didn't know how to find a good, affordable Spanish study program. Limiting my search to Guatemala, I did an internet search for 'Spanish language school, Guatemala' and reviewed the web sites I found. I wrote to the schools, asking for a list of references. Then I emailed past students. I asked about the schools and the host families. They were very honest with me. After all, if you've had a fabulous travel experience, you love to talk about it, and if you've had a bad experience, you want to warn others. I learned which schools to avoid. My advice is to email for references."

New Articles Up

GoNomad posted a new story by yours truly yesterday.

It is called Pack Your Lipstick and is about four travel guidebooks published in the last year that all offer travel advice strictly for women.

I interviewed the author of each guide in order to write the story. It was inspiring and energizing to have four enlightening conversations about women and travel with women who think about travel as much as I do.

Also out this week is a story I wrote about four teens at a local high school who won the championship title at the state cooking competition. They go to San Diego this week to complete against 30 other teams in the national cooking competition.

Imagine that -- a high school cooking team! There was no such thing when I was in school. And even better - I was so impressed that out of this culinary team of four, only one was a girl.

Let's hear it for men in the kitchen!

Chef photo by Mark Trockman.

Free Rice for Everyone!

Somehow, between all the Internet surfing I do and all the people I interview, I ended up at this totally awesome web site: Free Rice.

Before you follow the link, be sure to read this warning: Free Rice is addictive.

Here's why. You go there and a series of vocabulary words begins cycling on the screen. You are asked to click on the correct definition. If you get the answer right, grains of rice are donated to a hunger program somewhere in the world.

The more vocabulary words you know, the more bowls of rice you fill. The more time you spend on the site quizzing your vocabulary smarts, the more hungry people you feed.

The site is run by the World Food Programme and is supported by advertisers.

Check it out. As I said, it's addictive, but at least you're doing good.

How many addictions can boast that?!