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Published: December 3rd 2013
(I published this one a bit out of order) We returned to Yangon after an amazing few days around Bagan. We had a lunch to farewell the folks who were travelling with Sandar, as they were off to meet some other friends for a trip to the beach. The “Ok Team” was now back to its original seven members. We had fun with the bigger group but it was much easier to organise only seven people.
Afternoon at the ethnic park Mal, Yong and Mum had a well-earned afternoon break, while Ohnmar, Lorenza and Ohnmar’s brother, Min San, and I had a look around an ethnic minority museum in a park. The park is located in Tharkayta township. Each ethnic group had a display of their housing, clothing and handicrafts. I did make a mental note that this was the happy side of ethnic Burma and there was no mention at any of the displays about the fact that the government have done their best to brutally suppress and in some cases try to completely wipe out many of the ethnic groups.
Breakfast at the market Early next morning, Mal, Lorenza and I set off to
Farewell Lunch
Auntie Stella, Uncle Denis, Terence & Sandarexplore the market a few blocks from our hotel, in 17th Street. The market named Than Zay, translate to Iron Bzaar. It was a vibrant and exciting place, like all markets in SE Asia it is no place for the squeamish. Among the many food stuffs on display were some amazing seafood, some very fresh looking chickens and ducks, plenty of meats and a huge variety of herbs and spices.
If you had the urge to try chewing some beetle nut there was plenty on offer - that is one habit well worth avoiding. The fresh noodle maker was interesting to watch or a while as he showed off his skills. The fresh frogs or toads that were on offer at one stall looked interesting, aside from frogs legs in a French restaurant I have never been tempted to try them. Let me know if you ever have.
Mohinga After a good look around the market we found a busy soup stall selling Mohinga, the breakfast of champions all over Myanmar. It is a noodle soup, like the Burmese version of pho (from Vietnam). One of the common ingredients is the stem of banana plants that have
Farewell Lunch
Uncle Schwa, Auntie Sang & Big Mal been finely sliced. Depending on the region other ingredients include fish, chicken and very commonly, quail eggs.
We quaffed our Mohinga as we watched people going about their early morning business. The staff of our soup stall included the owner’s very young children, a son and daughter who looked to be about 10 years of age. Their mother did the cooking and the kids did the serving. I was impressed to see the young boy busy himself rearranging the display of peanuts and chips so they were in prominent positions for potential customers to see, he obviously had a good head for marketing. I did wonder of they should have been in school, but everyone has to earn a living somehow I guess.
Truth in labelling As we wandered the streets after breakfast we came across a fast food shop offering fried chicken. The owners had obviously given a lot of thought into the naming of their shop and had no issues being honest about the health implications of their deep fried offerings – Mal could not help but pose for a photo outside “Chewy Junior – Uncle Fat Fried Chicken”. Truth in advertising – Myanmar style!
ethnic park
Karen group Lunch & A Few Beers After walking around most of the morning, talking in the sights, sounds and smells of Yangon we were happy to go to Aunties apartment for lunch. Walking around in that high humidity sure gives you a thirst for a Beer Myanmar. We sipped on a few as we enjoyed our lunch of shrimp, crunchy fish, various curries and soup.
The breeze a few floors up were so relieving and we were happy to linger here and talk a while.
Scorpion massage We had a lazy afternoon; Lorenza and I had a “scorpion treatment” foot massage. I think the story was that they put some kind of scorpion venom extract in the water our feet were soaked in. The folks at the massage place spoke no English and tried their best to explain what the scorpion venom was about, after some lengthy Pictionary style attempts we all just laughed, smiled and we submitted to the scorpion treatment.
I am happy to say that after an hour of scorpion venom treatment our feet had not fallen off, our legs were still intact and we had no aches or pains. To this
ethnic park
blowing the buffalo horn that is normally sounded to signal a wedding day I have not suffered any ill affects and can attest that the scorpion treatment is harmless.
Aung San’s Tomb & Another Amazing Pagoda Ohnmar had organised a dinner date with some of her old university friends (not old exactly, they are all younger than me, what is the word for a former, fellow uni student?). We had a bit of time to kill before the dinner so Mr Lin (Myanmar’s best driver) suggested a few places to take us before hand.
So, we made a quick stop at Aung San’s tomb. Aung San was a Burmese revolutionary and is considered to be the father of modern day Burma and the founder of the Tatmadaw (The Burmese Military). He was assassinated in 1947. He originally founded the Tatmadaw to rid Burma of oppressive foreign rulers and to lead his country to freedom. Forty something years later the Tatmadaw were responsible for holding Aung San’s daughter under house arrest for almost 15 years.
It is odd to me that the former military government in Burma help Aung San up as a hero but then did all it could to silence his daughter. Then, not much of what
the military government has done there makes any sense.
Unfortunately, Aung San’s tomb was officially closed when we arrived, but the kindly gatekeepers did allow us to take a few steps in the gate to take a photo of the monument. Sometime in the 1980’s this place was the site of an assassination attempt against the South Korean President, with two North Korean agents who were deemed responsible being arrested while trying to flee the country.
From the tomb we then visited a pagoda which I completely forgot to make a note of the name of, but my kind editor Ohnmar told me was Kyee Thwon pagoda in Bahan Township. I am lucky she has such a good memory!
New Friends Dine with Old Friends We had a lively dinner with the university group. We sat back and let Ohnmar catch up, finding out how things had turned out for her friends after not having seen many of them for about 25 years. We found it interesting to here all were successful in various fields, such as a book binding business, a shrimp farm, a real estate business and a university lecturer, who had all originally
majored in mathematics. One thing they all appeared to have excelled in was multiplying – they all had lovely families and some had invited their children along for dinner.
Pack a bag we leave at 3am One thing we have learnt travelling with our Burmese friends is that they are not afraid of getting up early. After a fun dinner and a few beers I was hoping for a lay in, but when we got back to the hotel Ohnmar grinned and said “See you all at 3am”. We just groaned and submitted to her will, there was not point arguing because the next destination, the Golden Rock Pagoda, was my number one choice when we were asked to put a list together of the places we just had to see in Burma.
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Tara Cloud
Frogs
You asked for it--down here in Arequipa, Peru, they boil frogs and make a very popular juice that is supposed to cure everything. I've passed on it as I would the Chewy Junior – Uncle Fat Fried Chicken, but that Ethnic Museum sounded great! Cheers!