Blogs from Mawlamyine, Southern Burma, Burma, Asia - page 3

I never thought it could rain this much! Mawlamyine must set a new record, as it rained pretty much almost continuously for over 30h. And when I say rain, I don't mean a persistent drizzle, but unending cats and dogs! The K1000 I paid for a poncho back in Kinpun really came in useful here. When they said it was the rainy season now here in Myanmar, they must have had Mawlamyine in mind, cos it was almost unreal that thunderstorms could last so long! Anyway, Mawlamyine (aka Moulmein the Anglocised name) is supposedly the third largest in Myanmar, but despite its obvious size, the streets seemed pretty quiet most of the time. And the shops were pretty much almost all closed once night fell. What a contrast to Pathein, which though seemingly smaller and more ... read more

Hallo dear readers!! After another overnight busride we arrived first in Yangoon again!! This city will never be my favourite, despite it is greener than all the others and has a lot of nice old buildings. We spent a night in Yangoon, first we went to the stupa next to Shwedagon, there we run into some locals. We went together for vegetarian food where they try to fake the meat by using soya and flavours- disgusting, especially for me who likes a good peace of real steak!! So we took another busride to Mawlamyine for around 10 hours. Hard to believe, there where little parts of forest, wow, and a lot of rubber plantation along the road. But I liked to come closer to the beach, another way of life is in the air. Also a ... read more

Tis a simple enough rule, one developed very early on during my foray into Myanmar cuisine for ordering the chicken rarely resulted in chicken as I am accustomed to it, but rather a small side dish of chicken bones would arrive to accompany my rice. These bones were mostly devoid of flesh and a person would have to pick one up and gnaw it like a rat to get anywhere with it. Having a profound dislike for gnawing bones in public I subsequently eschewed the chicken dishes throughout my stay. Having done so well with my avoidance of the feathered bird I confess I'm at a loss to explain why, when arriving in Mawlamyine ravenous with hunger (9 hours on a train far too bouncy to eat or drink on) I entered the first restaurant I ... read more