This Probably Isn't Going to Work Out

It's been a month since I've last blogged. Sorry about that. I've just not had anything happen lately that I feel to be blogworthy. 

In my last blog, I laid out an ambitious plan to go where no foreigner man has gone in recent history. My Myanmar drivers license was my key. My key to tour Shan State. It would get me access. Or so I hoped. 

First, let me explain why I want to visit Shan. Look at this map. If you travel by motorcycle, the ideal roads to ride on are in the brown part of this topographical map. Mountain roads are what you want to travel down. That's where the scenery, the vistas, the authentic villages are. Shan State has reportedly some of the most breathtaking landscapes on Earth, and I so want to tour it slowly on my motorbike. 








Now look at this map. Here we see the areas of control of the Shan State Army

North (SSA-N) and the United Wa State Army (UWSA). These are two of the couple dozen armed ethnic groups here in Myanmar, and they're also two of the strongest, with thousands of well armed members in their armies who've held off assault from the Myanmar armed forces for decades. Most importantly, they're not signatories to recent ceasefire agreements with the central government. There are highways passing through these territories. Highways I want to travel down. I want to travel through "enemy" territory. Thousands of vehicles travel without trouble from one place to another. It's a war zone, but it's a quiet war zone.

So Ii concluded my last blog with a comment that if I get turned around, I would just go somewhere else. Well, now that I look into it more, it seems more like I should say that when I get turned around, I'll go somewhere else. With less than a week until the month off begins, it's time to start thinking about where that will be.