Dalama Adventures Tale of two corporate types ditching their jobs and traveling the world for 14 months... check out all photos, blogs & interesting tid bits at http://www.dalama.net

Trekking through this beautiful countryside, dotted with Buddhist stupas, one begins to appreciate the devout followership and belief of Buddhism that fuels these people to strive for a better life in the next to come. In a country where people essentially have nothing, no rights, no freedoms, no guarantee that what they've worked so hard for today will still be theirs tomorrow... They have found solace and their own sense of security in being responsible for leading their lives according to Buddhist principles, to hopefully impact the one thing they believe they can change - the outcome of their lives in next incarnations. The hilltribe villagers give approximately 50% of their annual earnings to build community monasteries and stupas. As we met and spoke with villagers, it was clear how proud they were of the monuments that had been built, firmly believing that the more they contributed to building these temples of worship, the greater would be their lot in their next life. It was explained to us that the act of building physical structures is steeped in tradition and culture - and it's the act of building these structures that the villagers feel will be rewarded in a next incarnation, not necessarily their devout beliefs. We were also told that the villagers feel carrying out tradition- both in dedication to Buddhist practice, and traditional ways of living - farming the land- is more important to their children's future than education. We did not see one school on our entire two day trek through the villages. The tribes are so steeped in cultural traditions, beliefs and values, that they have gladly foregone education as the opportunity cost for securing a better next life. One interesting learning for us was that the villagers appeared to believe that money was truly the only way for them to be happy, and eliminate suffering. This came out in several of the translated conversations during our village visits. This, however, flies in contrast to the teachings of Buddhism, where one is encouraged to eliminate ego, desire and wants for material possessions- that those are the source of suffering; the more you want, the more you suffer. And in the end, you can't take things with you to your next life, just your good karma that follows a devout life. It's funny how in the west, many people today are seeking a spiritual side - some exploring Buddhism, and other Eastern philosophies and practices to free themselves of this so called "pain and suffering" and to become enlightened.

Even we have embarked on this trip to simplify; purging ourselves of many material possessions, simplifying life, and traveling in a way that we have little, yet enough to get by... and traveling to countries that are still developing or many simply emerging, to allow ourselves to get back to the basics and appreciate living with essentials. But what we're finding, even in areas that have a socialistic or communistic mindset, is that capitalism makes the world go round. In the middle of remote rice paddies in Myanmar, one finds amongst stilted wooden, dilapidated houses, big satellite dishes and televisions. Globalization has brought a level of transparency - the ability to see through ones own culture into another. Once exposed to other ways of lives, seeing how others live outside a more "closed" regime, desires and dreams are created and hopes give way to goals and actions to achieve an envisioned better life. Capitalism and consumerism continues to snowball, and tugs at the very values that these local villagers philosophies purport. So while one of our goals for visiting lands rich in Buddhism was to discover how living such a lifestyle could lead to new perspectives to apply back at home, to get back to the basics; we're finding that even in those most devout practices - take monk-hood for example, that this global transparency has infiltrated and as one monk put it... He escapes to a western English teacher friend's house to indulge in luxuries of American movies. Another monk freely admitted his life bored him, and he wanted to get back to watching movies. Perhaps it takes years of living within this culture to truly understand and appreciate what we're seeing, hearing and experiencing. We've just scratched the surface on a journey to discover and understand other cultures, religions and values, and I think we need to dive deeper to truly understand. However, we are left with the very clear view that globalization has brought people, cultures and thinking together a lot closer than one might imagine.