the boy who loved food & Buddhas - 1

It has been a good 3 months. Ah, Yangon, the city that charms yet frustrates me. I came here at the peak of summer and cried out loud. I did not understand how people can survive this harsh environment albeit their Thanaka and longjis. The weather was alarmingly unpleasant then and I came unprepared for the 1st time in my South East Asian travels. I had read little about the country and was ill prepared to survive this weather. Neither did I bother to find out where were the Asian watering holes, hence my meals in the first 2 weeks consisted mostly of repeated visits to YKKO until I realized that I've been eating too much carbs and sugar (since the soup was rather sweet) and was growing my waistline and losing my pecs! Yikes! My hard trained abs earned from years of pumping at the gym! I was determined not to lose it, least of all to someplace called YKKO! Feeling frustrated, I decided to go to the famed Shwedagon for some prayers and enlightenment. Again, I didn't know better and picked the worst time to go at the peak of noon when the temperature was almost a 40 degree Celcius! I could barely walked and had to hop around quickly. After sweating profusely for about 15-minutes, I gave up this little adventure and ended up in a shrine with a large Buddha. I decided to just sit and meditate to clear my thoughts but ended up "complaining" to Buddha instead about my plight. I felt so lost in a land that was foreign to me. Yet, one part of me marveled at the spectacular splendor of this whole structure, with its golden aura all around. As my mind cleared, I observed and noticed how most people were walking with umbrellas (which I obviously should have brought but did not) and was carrying strings or garlands of Jasmine flowers as offering. OMG! It struck me then that I had been buying heaps of those flowers and placing it everywhere in my home without much thought, from the living hall to my bedroom right down to the toilet! I gasped at the foolish action of mine and quickly asked the Buddhas for forgiveness. Also, I discovered something strange that day during my meditations but I'll reserve that story for another day.. :-) I promised the Buddhas that I will remove the jasmine from all the places that I've hung them, especially the toilet but I decided to keep a string for my bedroom just to make myself happy. As I sat and looked around me, painted yellow skins stared back at me. While I thought they were alien to me, I soon came to realize that instead, I am the alien to them. I had to find ways to survive here, I thought. Also, prior to my trip here, the figure sixteen (16) had repeatedly played itself out in front of me, in the most mysterious ways (more on this in later parts of my stories) and even up to my stay in Yangon. The Gods must be playing me, I thought. But, all those can wait. As I prepared to leave Shwedagon, the only thing that's on my mind was an icy cold can of Coke and wondering where my next meal would be besides YKKO as my Ipod belted out Beyonce's "LISTEN" to a deafening roar.....