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Published: July 16th 2010
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The first two days in a new country are always the “breaking in” period. It's where you get acclimated and familiar with the people, the pace and the general way of life. Chris and I like to do this through walks of the city with frequent stops for food and drinks. This is how we spent our first two days in Burma. Along our walks, we carried our Lonely Planet's Guide to Myanmar (Burma), also known as the Burmese bible.
We stumbled upon payas (a.k.a. Pagodas), which are temple structures, sometimes as large as a city block—er—Walmart back home. My favorites were ones that housed very important relics, such as a hair of the Buddha or a few Buddha bones. As far as I could tell, Buddha either started balding in Yangon or had quite a few haircuts, cuz his hair was everywhere! Payas can be seen from afar because of their zedis (a.k.a stupas), which is the name for the structure tops that have a bulbous base and come to a steeple point at the top (In Yangon, they are very tall and very gold). There are hundreds of payas and stand-alone stupas in this city—we visited the ones that seem most interesting.
We haven't braved the sidewalk cafes yet and are trusting our Burmese bible for “restaurant” recommendations. It's funny, a restaurant here, and I'm talking four stars, would be a hole-in-the-wall at best back home; most likely shut down by the health department. Nonetheless, we must eat. Our two favorite stops were an Indian restaurant and a noodle place. The Indian food was very traditional, as was the fact we ate with our fingers (even the mushy stuff). It was kind of like finger painting. You scoop with three fingers of your right hand and push the food in your mouth with your thumb. Good thing we were able to use forks at the noodle place. Overall, the taste of the food has been great. They use lots of spices, which keeps away mosquitoes. Food costs were less than 2,000 kyats.
I failed to mention my favorite part of our city walks...the weather! Yangon is in the south, which tends to be wetter than the rest of the country. ...And it IS monsoon season... I got to experience my first monsoon!!!!!It was so much fun cruising the streets in the pouring rain. Some streets were more like streams with water past our ankles. Sometimes we used an umbrella. Other times it was useless and we were too soaked to care. It is nice to be so carefree so as to be able to play in the rain. I think the people thought we were nuts, but they smiled and waved.
Speaking of the people...THEY ARE PHENOMENAL!! They wave and smile and try to communicate with us. We feel like celebrities with all the attention they give to us (even out of the rain). We are the only white faces we see. Sometimes I sense a little apprehension, but once we smile, warm greetings always follow. I am having tremendous fun—laughing and smiling quite a bit.
Amazing tidbit: I picked up my “delayed” luggage on July 1st; Only 3-and-a-half days of inconvenience.
On the evening of our second day in Yangon we are heading north. I read that the other parts of Burma will be much different. I must admit that I will miss the pulse of the city. It doesn't feel as hectic once you settle into it. I wonder if other parts will have taxi buses with people hanging off the back, or if the air will be filled with the same sweet smells of incense and home-cooking. We are heading via bus (8,000 kyats) to Mandalay. It leaves at 5:00 pm and should arrive between 5:00-7:00 am.
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