Land of a Thousand Eyes

A narrative about life in modern Myanmar, providing an account of one of the most inaccessible and mysterious countries in the region. It's a blend of pithy travel writing, political context, and personal reflection.

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A trio of colourfully dressed women tottered and teetered delicatelythrough the water, holding hands, laughing. They were jewels in a sea ofshit, standing out against the muddied monochrome of the monsoon'sdetritus, and they represented the admirable qualities of the Myanmar thatI had come to love: the ability not only to make do, but to giggle andpursue life with joie de vivre, despite the deprivations dished out by theelements or by the military masters.'As a former rock magazine editor, editor of Australian Playboy, creator of Nation Review's cult hero JJ McRoach, official Australian minder' to DrHunter S Thompson and leader of the Australian Marijuana Party, PeterOlszewski has lived an interesting and varied life. But all this seemedordinary compared to the year or so he spent in Yangon training journalistsfor the main English-language newspaper, the Myanmar Times. Myanmar is acountry known mostly for its repressive military regime, so the excitingand vivid world he found there was not the one he expected. He fell in lovewith the country, the people and one woman in particular.
Land of a Thousand Eyes is a rare glimpse into one of the world's mostsecretive and isolated countries.