I Lub You!

I lay on top of her, facing forward as she straddles my body with her legs. The smell of tiger balm is intoxicating. Fully dressed, I will not be wearing these clothes again before washing. Her small hands in a repetitive motion over my sore shoulders. She sits me up, motions for me to put my arms behind my back and grab ahold of her wrists. Then, swiftly, her foot is in the small of my back and she is kicking with all her might. I feel like I'm going to be split in half. I resist, afraid she's going to crack something and I'm going to be paralyzed for life. I burst out with a loud moan and then start laughing hysterically. Again. She wraps her arms around my waists and we double over in laughter. This is a Thai/Burmese local massage.

Three of us are in one room, laying on hard matts covered in a wine red sheets. My lady is at most barely 5 feet tall with a tiny frame. She starts the massage with me face up, she presses on my legs, starting at the feet, and moving her way up. By the time she is at my hips, I bust out laughing, disturbing everyone. She quickly lifts her hands and moves away from me, looking confused. Then her and the other ladies start laughing once they realize I'm just having a laughing fit and I'm not hurt. This was the theme of the massage. Her pulling, me laughing. Her aggressively jabbing her knees into my ass, me laughing. Her twisting me into a pretzel, my spine - crack, crack, crack! Me, laughing.

The three girls, chattered away, asking us questions, where are we from, how old are we; talking about us amongst themselves. I'm pretty sure at one point she motioned to my boobs, as if they were curiosities she'd never seen before. Then, all of a sudden in unison, the three women said "I Lub you!", enthusiastically. Then quickly, she bends down and plants a kiss on my cheek. I was the only one to get the kiss mind you. Again, completely surprised, I burst out laughing. We got many "I Lub You!"'s throughout. At the end my girl laughed and we hugged each other, like we'd just finished this epic pain fest and were relieved it was over (at least I know I was).

We are in Mandalay. A larger city that houses the old capitol and many old temples. I would tell you all the names, but that might get tedious, let's just say my favorites were the white one and the wooden one. Also, as I mentioned before, I am fascinated by monks. I had two major encounters in one day. First, we were atop Mandalay Hill, a temple high in the city with a 360 view. There was one monk chanting by microphone loudly throughout the temple, a rhythmic, repetitive, soothing chant. Three teenage monks sitting together chatting and laughing. They looked up at me I motioned to my camera and they obliged. The rule is, you can take photos of them, you just can't touch them, tell them to move, or where to stand. I took their photo and did another lap around the temple. When I returned they were still there and had enough courage to approach me. They asked my name, where I was from, explained that they came here on their weekends to learn English with the tourists. They must have been no older than 15-16. Shine, the most talkative one, Shin, and Shen, who were the shyer two. They asked to take a selfie with me, so I then obliged, and asked the same of them. Without telling them where to stand, of course. And I made one of my favorite portraits to date. I have always been timid around monks, never daring to ask them for a photo, more just stealing of a moment. But this time, Shine, look forward and stared into my lens, and I melted.

After Mandalay Hill, we had the good fortune to go to Shwe Kyin Monastery and witness the monks during their sunset prayer and chanting. The monks all processed up to their temple in the monastery, taking off their slippers and lining them up one by one in neat rows. Then as they chanted in unison they walked up and knelt with their knees forward, feet back, hands in prayer over their faces. Such a special time. Although I'm not religious, Buddhism is very intriguing to me and I find myself becoming more and more curious about the philosophy, cultural traditions, and rituals.