In line with our personal goals to do intensive fieldwork and research in the next 4 months in different countries, we packed so light. In fact, Nina Dutra, APLP's Senior Program Officer who picked us up in Yangon International Airport was pretty surprised on how light our bags were. "Oohh, those were so light stuff young ladies," she said. This clearly manifests that we are all set for the new learning adventure as we preferred to free ourselves from our own comforts and daily fashion styles. Each one of us have only one pair of snickers, slippers and pack bags. We all preferred to have a break from different styles and colors of heels, wedge, flipflops, bags and clothes. We travelled light so we can bring more bags full of new experiences and insights back home.
As we arrived in the beautiful Inya Lake Hotel, I immediately unpacked my bag and took a warm bath to get ready for the GIST Dinner Meeting. The warm bath soothe my tired body as I woke up at exactly 3 in the morning to catch-up with my very early flight from Manila to Bangkok and a seven-hour lay-over in Bangkok. Above all, the warm bath was so refreshing to my mind and soul that it made me productive in the dinner meeting hosted by Nina.
On our first GIST day, we were grateful that we were warmly welcomed in Myanmar, the Golden Land. It made us more excited to tons of amazing journey as the sun sets in every place our feet will set into in the next 4 months.