Kachin sketches
My book "Down the Rat Hole" (Orchid Press, 2005) includes my first trip to Kachinland, in the far north of Burma on the China border. These are some sketches I did on the way, including one of the horses I rode to reach the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army, which is still fighting against Burma's military (see www.projectmaje.org for my more recent reports on the North War) and drawings of young male and female soldiers.
The Bogus Ruili Sketchbook
My excuse for being in an off-limits border part of China to get in and out of Kachinland was going to be that I was just a traveling artist. So while I was at the Kachin army's headquarters, I made a "bogus sketchbook" just in case I was challenged by Chinese police. I filled pages with imagined scenes from the markets in Ruili town and villages on the China side of the border. I never had to use it, but I like the pictures I did of women from the Dai ethnic group (Shan-related) selling pineapple in Ruili.