The Irrawaddy Literary Festival - Aung San Su Kyi!!

I think today could be described as the most ridiculous and most exciting coincidence of my trip so far, if not my entire year. Arriving at our hotel in Mandalay, we became aware of a debut literary festival in our back garden. Literally. Outside in the grounds of the hotel with Mandalay Hill as a backdrop, are a number of tents for a literary festival programme with a big line up of names, Burmese but also Western with Louis De Berniers, Joan Bakewell, Martha Kearney and others.

The festival being there at all makes this a lucky coincidence in itself! Made even more of a coincidence by the fact the festival should have passed us by because the government at the last minute had forbidden use of the original hosting location, hence the move to our hotel. Then I catch sight of a literary agent I've met in London - weird.

The final, most exciting coincidence, though - the Lady, Daw Su herself, Aung San Su Kyi was going to be there. I think this is the only time it is actually acceptable for me to use the term 'Oh Em Gee'.

To get into the tiniest room for Burma's Nelson Mandela seemed as good as impossible but we decided to camp out there by going to the first talk of the day - Are the West interested in Asian Literature?

The debate was chaired by Hong Kong literary agent Kelly Falconer, who acknowledged that her session had unfortunately been transformed into the mere preamble to 'the main event', and was unfairly having to battle the hustle and bustle of a very excited crowd waiting for The Lady. The talk was actually quite interesting. Kelly shared the stage with Michael Vatikiotis, a writer and journalist based in South East Asia and writing Asian-centric fiction and non-fiction titles. Alongside him was Thant Thaw Kaung, the CEO of the Myanmar Book Centre. The main point that was made, initiated by Vatikiotis, was that yes, the success Asian literature in the West still relies on heavy stereotypes (slogans like "the Harry Potter of Asia" etc), but that the debates main question was pretty arrogant and that really we should be asking, "is Asia interested in Western literature?"

"The question is almost out of date. The whole concept of 'East' and 'West' has become rather blurred, and the idea of literature and culture being joined at the hip is long gone. Whether you're writing literature from an Eastern or Western perspective is no longer relevant," said Vatikiotis, " citing Indian author Amitav Ghosh's convincing treatment of Myanmar in his 2000 novel, "The Glass Palace".

Despite our ambitious plans of saving our front row seats early and waiting it out for Aung San Su Kyi (the Patron of the Irrawaddy Literary Festival it turns out), we are told no one must remain in the room for secuity reasons and so after all that, we are chucked out of the room. There is no way we are going to get in, let alone get a good seat... There are now thousands of people crowded outside, all dressed up in NLD attire.

Then suddenly, after half an hour of standing outside and refusing to move, we here a call - 'all international authors first, please'. Suddenly we find ourselves in a group of 'convenient' writers... Aka westerners who want to catch a glimpse but don't have a pass... So we rode the wave... And in we got. Not just in either, three rows back from AUNG SAN SU KYI with hundreds of surging fans all around us with iPads and camera phones going mental. Interviewed by Dame Joan Bakewell, we listened to her talk on everything from her years of imprisonment, to the death of her husband, to the state of democracy in the world and in Myanmar, right down to her flare for home cooking!

I'm still buzzing. Wow.