Along comes a visitor!

Hi all,

Well we know we live off in a pretty remote corner of the world, far off from those we love, so when we have a visitor we really try to show them a good time! Kate comes from Australia, and is a friend from the wat. She came only to see us, and so we did our best give her the royal red carpet treatment. First up was Todd's birthday, which he took off from work so they could have the day together. Off on the bikes they went to temples, noodle soup shops and much more. Then it was dinnertime at J's Bistro, a surprisingly delicious restaurant with a beautiful setting. All in all a nice birthday for Todd.

On Friday it was my turn, and Kate and I wandered around downtown Yangon, meditating at the temple that masquerades as a traffic circle, and then visiting the tallest building in the city for the view. We also took the time to indulge two shared passions, a love for Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potter (I've finished the last book now, and let's just say at one point I had to take a break from reading it to give my pounding heart a rest!). It's great fun to have a chat with someone who loves P&P the way I do, running over favorite quotes and diving into the characters and themes, "Oh Mr. Darcy!".

Our weekend outing was to the glorious Shwedagon temple. This absolutely stunning temple has both the beautiful and the bizarre. Along with stunning temples and meditators in every corner, there is a large Buddha that you can fan, scary looking local deities, and everyone's favorite, the birthday animal shrines. We each visited our birthday animal to do some blessings, mine's an elephant, Kate's a tiger, and Todd's a guinea pig. We pour water on the Buddha image and our animal, and this gives us (supposedly) good luck for ourselves and our families (this one's for you Mom!). You never know, these blessings might be the real deal, so if anyone is interested, we live in Yangon Myanmar, and if you visit us, we can take you to Shwedagon too.

lots of love!
Meghan