Moon Myanmar

Keith Lyons has lived across the border from Myanmar in China s Yunnan for the last decade, so when the military regime stepped aside in 2010, he was one of the first foreigners to enter the isolated country. Beguiled by the old-fashioned charms of its diverse land and myriad of peoples, he has traveled extensively around the newly-reformed country, often on slow ferries, antiquated railroad tracks, and discarded Japanese motorbikes. Fascinated by Burma s fluctuating fortunes, Buddhism infusion, and colonial legacy, Keith journeyed from the sweltering lowland delta to the mountainous jungles. Along the way, he fell in love with the dilapidated grand colonial buildings of the former capital Yangon, met democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a rousing election rally near the new capital Naypyidaw, and found a small paradise beside eastern Myanmar s Inle Lake, where he grows mangoes, avocados and coffee. Keith was introduced to travel at an early age when his British parents took a 13,000-mile voyage across the globe to New Zealand while he was still in the womb. After studying social sciences and communications, his work as a freelance journalist took him to Antarctica and northeast Asia, and he studied at Columbia and Oxford. He has won prizes for his writing and photography, and his creative writing was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Keith now teaches creative writing workshops throughout Asia and Australasia, and he organizes off-the-beaten-track adventures in southwest China and Myanmar. "