Where do I begin.

I started this year full of new beginnings and a more concentrated outlook in the more serious matters of my life. As was the time post break up with my long term partner, I found myself in a deep search within the recesses of my life essence and to find what it was that made me an 'Eddy'.

It was a quest that was unfortunately encountered and thus delayed due to unforseeable bumps and hurdles that led to where I am now.

After coming back from Japan I was ready to start afresh.. clean slate and free of burden. A new place to live, new challenges with starting a 5 day work week again. Learning a new language, joining a new soccer team(s), hanging out with new friends and picking up new activities and hobbies. I had one goal in mind. I want to be free.

Bit by bit throughout the year, I was shoved head first into a thankless mess with no easy way out. More I worked the more I realised how hard it would be to continue where I am. Was I happy where I was? I was making reasonable money but the business partnership was eating away at my soul not unlike a male praying mantis giving himself in to a hungry female partner.

I was doing my best to keep the business going and my team working to the most efficient capacity that they can. This was validated by a paid evaluation of a renowned dentist and businessman who has taken an interested into the business we run. And thusly, a possible exit plan which has fallen into my lap.

Am I free yet? Have I deserved my time yet?

Here I am, my first proper time off of work this year. Slaving away, grinding... nay not grinding... just working what any business owner would do. Caring lovingly for the precious yet fragile ecosystem which consists of systems that provide such a valuable service. And not least of all, providing valuable credit for me to live in this society. This is why I have stayed. The autonomy. The freedom to make the best dentistry I can possibly provide and I just so happen to get paid for it. Little did I know back then, that that sort of pendantic yet caring attitude attracts customers to your value and mission. What follows this value, if systems are properly in place? Loyalty and money. But it cant be faked, anything more than a whisper of untruthiness and deceit will implode itself into a shameful mess intertwined with embarrassment of exposure. And although some may look lowly of the overall \240capacity of humans in general, you cant deny that people are innately hardwired and remarkably sensitive to agenda driven and fraudulent behaviour.

I do digress greatly, as I am about to embark on another adventure, I feel this is different to most. As one man once said, people who work in high demanding employment must also attain the discipline to be disconnect and routinely provide themselves personal space to regenerate their soul.

This year has been a heart wrenching and soul testing era for me. What started as a hopeful start to a new year has turned into a crawling grind towards the finish line. \240I am proud of my team and the culture plus mission value that I have instilled into them. It has provided me with a well run clinic and this shows through the bottom line. It proves that I was right at the beginning of my tenure, that its easier \240make money if its through a well run and value driven team. \240It was hard and now I think it feels like I am letting my baby go. But nonetheless the greatest of happiness is not often without the greatest of sacrifices. I am now here, again, a last minute decision to go to a unknown and less travelled country. The lead up and preparation was difficult but nothing worth experiencing rarely ever isnt.

Here I am about to embark on an adventure, metaphorically and in parallel to the escape that my life is about to be rewarded with.

A 14 hour flight awaits me via Taipei

Watch out Burma, here I come.

Boarding the plane this time around felt like it was a dissimilar affair to travels past. This did not feel like a relief nor a feeling of elation nor excitement. Rather this felt like a necessary measure to rebalance and unravel what has been wound up all this time. To outwardly disguise my contempt and anger towards a particular situation in my life for so long as well as maintaining my professional and personal dignity has taken an unbelievable toll.

I was very well aware of my position in life and what I needed to be camouflaged and to become a wheel in the cog of society. To be more of a professional within and with-out. This made being part of the rat race all the more bearable because at least I was accepted in it. I was aware of me sinking deeper and deeper into the hamster wheel of monotony, but I knew Id be free soon. But little did I realise how long this was going to take to be free. And thus, more I find myself like a frog that didnt jump out of a extremely slow to boil pot o water..until it was too late.

I knew what was happening, but that doesnt stop the soul being leeched.

I thought I would want to be away to meet new people and have great experiences(which I do). However, what I felt like I needed was to do absolutely nothing and also uncharacteristically of me, to do little with other people. This would be a different sort of trip.

The travel to Yangon via Taiwan was fairly uneventful - uncomfortable sleeping positions, belly food of airplane food, copious amounts of alcohol and importantly.. stunning and very leggy Taiwanese air hostesses who are always in close vicinity when serving or walking past. Whilst transiting through, the smell and look of Taipei airport briefly struck a nostalgic chord as I remember the good times I had in my previous Taiwan trips with my ex-partner.

As the plane made altitude I noted how beautiful the Taiwanese landscape really is. Stark contrasts showing between lush evergreen rolling mountain ranges to urban specks of very conspicous grouped tall concrete skyscrapers. Taiwan is beautiful and I may visit it properly sometime in the future.

Upon descending to Yangon, I looked outside of the window and viewed a complete different terrain to Taiwan. Flat, agricultural land with similarly flat urban cityscape. Any buildings I could see appear to be abandoned and uncared for. As I disembarked, grabbed my luggage, I made a beeline for the exchange place. In the crowd I saw a group of men with their eyes set on me. They followed me as I went to exchange my money. So I exchanged my cash and then they escorted me to the taxi where the driver kept trying to sell me a tour day trip to some place. Not interested I said, just take me to my hostel. Anyways we had a good conversation and he was telling me tips about how men where skirts called Longyi which is useful for summer and where the best place to eat are. After arrival I told him I give you ten usd for the trip(that was going market rate). But he said he wanted AUD and that he can give me Myanmar Kyat for it. I was in a hurry to get out and get settled into bed so I just went with it. I checked \240into the hostel and admired its very quaint and hipster-like quality. The dormitory was fantastically lego'ed into well compartmentalised sections yet a semblance was privacy was maintained. Funnily enough, a lot more quality for money than the European hostels. I had a niggling feeling that I the taxi driver exchanged me incorrectly. So I double checked my money and realised he had just duped me 15 000 Myanmar Kyat. I was absolutely incenced and livid with the situation. I couldnt do anything about it now. But then I realised..thats 15 AUD. Idiot.

After settling in, I decided to explore the city a little bit and try some food.

After walking onto the haphazardly pieced together concrete walkpath. I noticed that beif a pedestrian in Yangon is an absolute art and real life risk of Frogger. The cars do not stop and if you dont have your wits about you, you too, will probably not be stopping with the car.

Unkempt pot hole filled bitumen that is continiously filled with puddles if not from the constant monsoonal rain then the dripping of the airconditioner units from each unit in worn down grey dank building. If these buildings were found in Australia they would either be demolished for being a public eyesore or raided for being possible drug laboratory. But here it is everywhere. No sanitation, broken concrete pathways revealing sewerage holes which pleasantly emanate the essence of its contents. Dangerously unorganised arrangement of electrical and telephone coils exposed to the environment and most curiously also exposed to the puddles nearby. But of the many millions cram packed into this congested traffic riddle city, not one is of concern, nor in apparent danger. Everyone knows how to navigate the traffic expertly and know what to step on and what not to. My best tactic to cross a road? Follow the old lady pushing a shopping pram. As slow as she is, she has been there and done that, she knows the roads and how to cross them nonchalantly without breaking a stride.

It was an amazing first experience. An almost nostalgic reminder to how Korea was when I visited there as a kid. Familiar smells of construcion and abject poverty. Streets lined with hawkers and people selling everything from rusty screwdrivers to day old friend pork bits.

I walked passed a small hole in the wall restaurant in the corner of a busy street with some english words on it. I thought, fuck it might as well eat what the locals eat. So I sat down at a small table and on a small plastic chair. The sticky plastic menu which looks like it hadnt been updated in years showed various Burmese cuisine that looked marvellously delicious. I ordered a orange soft drink and grilled pork salad. One thing I realised then and there was how humid and continuously hot the Burmese weather was. I knew it was nearing the 'cool' season and just exiting the wet monsoonal weather. But it did not feel cool at all, which was indicated by how quickly my bottle of soft drink warmed up and by the time the dish came out I was drinking warm syrup. The pork salad dish itself was amazing, spicy, savoury and fresh. All for 3 dollars AUD. Amazing value.

Continuing my exploration I got wondefully lost walking around the city, tryjng to zig zag carefully between hazardous obstacles and dodging unforgivingly fast vehicles - buses and cars. One curious sight I could not fathom was a small little creek pouring out into the river. As I crossed a small bridge over it, I could not help but notice the odd colouration and even the texture of the 'water'. The water glistened in an almost oily and silver-like sort of manner. It almost looked like water but it seemed corrupted by industrial waste. The strong metallic smell wafted into the bridge. It was amazing to think \240this was being fed into the river. I have strong a belief that thus why people are not allowed to drink tap water in Myanmar, locals and foreigners alike.

On my walk back I found a convenient shop that sold Burmese Beer. Wonderful way to cool my senses in this godforsaken humidity. 850ml 8% Beer? I can deal with that. My first sip wonderfully welcomed the thirst quenching carbonated beverage. But subsequent sips lead me to feel that .. yes I was getting drunk. Amazing. Even for a well worn liver like mine. I walked back home thankfully before dark, as there are few street lights, and went straight off to sleep. 14 hour flight with little sleep, finishing off a years worth of \240BAS statements, exploring a new city and now a little inebriated? You bet your sweet tits its time to sleep. Tomorrow is another day