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Published: April 20th 2006
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Stret food in Yangon
These are three sisters who run a great little street food stall in Yangon, by far the cleanest of the row and was very tasty The last two weeks in Myanmar has been a wonderful 14 days of experiencing the land and lives of the Myanmar people. We have been touched by their generosity and kindness with the very little that they have to offer. We can only hope that we have too touched some of their lives in some small way.
Our last night was spent in Yangon, so we decided to explore an area to the west of the guesthouse for somewhere to eat. Of course, the power was off, so we looked for anywhere that had a generator. On our way we passed a tea room that was showing a football match; I saw that the teams were wearing red and blue respectively, so we took a closer look and saw that it was an Everton v Liverpool match! How could I walk past a Merseyside derby match being shown in a small hut of a tea-room, run off a generator in the streets of Yangon! Even Steve was keen (give him a cup of tea or Myanmar Beer and he is happy anywhere 😉. The experience was better than the end score (3-1 .. with an own goal....) We tried to
Steve and Gabrialle trying local cigars
As part of our travels on the lake we went to a 'factory' making Cheeroots, a type of local cigar that is very cheap. After watching them make the cigars at the rate of about 2 a minute, we got to try one. How did they taste?? Lets just say we didn't buy any :-) work out who the audience of young Myanmars (including a monk - front row seat of course!) were supporting. However, they cheered at any goal, "ooed" at any foul, and most of the time turned round to look at Steve and me for our reaction!! Good fun on our last night, and something we will certainly remember.
Other things we will remember include:
- Dust, dust, dust. The land is so dry in Myanmar that the atmosphere is thick with dust. You do get used to it but it was a relief to get to somewhere like Inle Lake where there was a little humidity in the air. It didn't rain once while we were there.
- "Is there a Myanmar word for "foreigner"? As we have travelled, we have learned the various words for foreigner in each country; "gweilo" in Hong Kong, "angmo" in Singapore, "farang" in Thailand. So on our trek at Nueng Shwe, I asked Trigger if there was a word in Myanmar for foreigner. "Yes," he said. "Tourist".
- Iron Cross. The Myanmar government does not allow performers to sing in English. There are a couple of rock bands that we would hear around the
Steve and Stef on Inle Lake
Steve and Stef relaxing on Inle lake. This really was one of the most beautiful lakes in the world place, and we are sure that some of the songs are covers of western bands, and convinced they are singing "Green Day" songs! So we bought an "Iron Cross" CD off a tea-shop owner so we can take it back to Sydney and compare it. It's good music actually!
- Driving. Many of the vehicles in Myanmar are right-hand drive as a consequence of the British colonisation. However, a few years ago, the leader at the time (whose name I'm ashamed to say I have forgotten) was told by his fortune-teller to move his country "to the right". He took the advice literally, and changed the law so that everyone would now drive on the right-hand side of the road. This makes for interesting driving when most cars are right-hand drive.....
- betel-nut stained broken pavements
- "Oh Dear, Oh Dear!". When we went to the Shwedagon Monastery for full moon, we passed a man selling little birds in baskets. As soon as he saw us, he switched into English, pointed at his birds and invited us to buy them saying, "oh dear, oh dear!". Steve realised that the man had probably heard people say "oh dear" as they passed
Steve looking rough at a tea house
We found lots of the little tea shops and they were the perfect place to stop, sit down and recharge for just a few minutes the caged birds and assumed that it was English for "little birds"........
- "Azcabar", the young Muslim we met in a Mandalay mosque who was kind enough to ask us in to his mosque to look around. It was a tiny mosque, but we sat and chatted to him, careful not to touch on anything too political. It is well known that Muslims are not supported in any way by the government, and receive no monetary assistance for anything, even the up keep of the mosques. However, Azcabar was one of the many many people who just wanted to chat in English to us about anything and everything. So many of these young people we would compare to young adults in the west and Singapore. In Myanmar, you could see the entrepreneur spirit, and although they did what they could with what they had, you couldn't help but think what they could achieve in a different "environment".
Sorry for the bullet points, but you can understand why we saw Myanmar as a land of paradoxes. We didn't see a high police presence, except when we got too close to an official building. Infrastructure is not a high priority along
Steve inside a Stupa
This is a picture of Steve inside an old Stupa (not usually possible) that was damaged in the 1975 earthquake in Bagan that led to a small hole appearing in the outer wall allowing the adventurous to crawl inside. with health and education, from what we could see (many children work in the shops and restaurants). However, there is a spirit there that we saw in the people of our own age. A spirit that will ensure that we will go back there again one day
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