mohinga
First thing to note on traveling in Myanmar, there are not a lot of street signs. Not even in Burmese. We encountered a little fork in the road maybe 3 minutes into our walk, but luckily, we met Henry the Engineer, who prevented us from getting run over by a car and helped us with directions on going to the center of town. We chatted with him for a little bit over the next several blocks, until he saw us off from his destination.
Walking on Yangon side walks are such a trip. So many things are going on at once. As you're scoping out the area, you're also looking at people walking by, vendors and their goods, saying hi to people who shout hello at you, trying to avoid the men who run up to you and ask if you need to change money (similar to tuk tuk drivers asking you where you are going), and watching your step where you walk, because one mistep on the uneven curbside (I'm talking rubble, shifted cement tiles, missing side walk panels and gaping holes...all hazards) can lead to a twisted ankle or a trip into the sewer hole. We definitely took some time to get into the heart of the city.
When we did arrive to a big intersection, we came across a man named Toe, a bus guide who gave us direction/location of where we were. His English was really good, and he kept chatting with us and talked about the recent happenings in Myanmar, from the Lady being freed to the inaugaration of the new capitol. He seemed optimistic and hopeful for the people of Myanmar. He was full of information, and very friendly too. Didn't try to sell us that much on his bus services, which I appreciate.
We took a walk around central Yangon, passing the city hall, which looked like an abandoned building, the Sule Paya, which was under construction, so we couldn't actually see the stupa, and passed several colonial style buildings, most of them in disrepair. We criss crossed around the Indian Quarter as well, with vendors crowding the sidewalks and lots of people rushing through. The pace was definitely faster in Yangon than the other SE Asian cities.
Sule Paya
Little India
When it was time for lunch, we found a stall at the intersection of Shwedagon Paya Road and Mahabandoola Road. These two lovely ladies served several curries. I had the fish curry with the fixings: vegetable soup (spicy, a little sour, with daikon), plate of veggies (eggplant, okra, tomato, cucumber, bok choy), two dipping sauces (shrimp paste/chilli and another chilli pepper one) tea, and a little palm sugar candy for dessert (K 1000).
The women did not really speak English well, so they had an older Indian woman from the shop around the corner come translate for them. It was nice to chat with her; gave us some insight on the Burmese people. She emphasized that it was a poor country, but all they wanted was democracy. She said the women working at the curry stand show up at 3 or 4 am everyday to set up shop. She was happy to tell us how the Lady had recently been released and that she was at the Shwedagon Paya on Thursdays. It was interesting how when she talked about the Lady, she would lower her voice, as if someone were eavesdropping. We talked for a bit and then she left, only to return maybe 10 minutes later, with an enveloped photo of the Lady. She took out the photo but made sure to conceal it so no one else could see it but us.
After lunch, we still felt like our feet were super tired, so we tried our hand at public transportation with the #43 normal bus (K50) to avoid the 25 minute walk to the Shewdagon Paya. The trickey thing was that the bus numbers were all written in Burmese, so we asked a tour agent to write the number and the name of the stop in Burmese for us. It was easy to just had the note to the conductor of the bus. When we finally saw our bus number, we ran up to the bus, the conductor read our note and pulled us up right on board. I'm surprised the bus actually stopped, because we noticed the buses basically swings by curbside, and coasts along with people running on the side to jump in.
The bus dropped us off on 3rd Baya street. On the walk to Shewedagon, through 3rd Baya, saw several monk-robe sweat shops, crammed with women at sewing machines. It was a little strange.
Our first introduction to the Shewdagon Paya ($5) was during our scenic ride from the airport to our hotel. It was brightly light up at night and it looked fantastic. We timed it to see the Shwedagon for sunset, the nice golden hour to take photos. And it was great timing.
When we approached the entrance, we "had" to leave our shoes at the check-in (K200). (We could have really just carried our shoes in, but we though we had to check them in.) The Shwedagon is heralded as Myanmar's most famous temple, and even though it was the first paya I visited in Myanmar, I agree with that statement. I've seen a lot of temples by now, but I think this one is the most beautiful one I have seen, mainly because not only is it visually stunning, but it was nice to see people actual there praying and meditating. There were plenty of locals there utilaziing the temple, not just monks or tourists. There was a lot going on too; there was a buddha image everwhere you turned; if not housed in a temple, it was in a mosaic on the outside of a temple or represented in statue form just outside the main stupa. There was just so much to look at. Andi and I probably spent an hour and a half wandering through out the huge complex.
Afterwards, we took the #204 bus back to center of town (train station stop, K100). (I got pretty excited that we were learning how to read numbers in Burmese.) We walked by Ruby Market on the way back home, a big shopping complex with a bakery, supermarket, pharmacy, book store, electronics, etc. We stopped by to pick up some snacks for our bus trip to Mandalay the following evening. I didn't think much about it when we were there, but then I realized it might be somewhat government related or that I was probably giving some money to the government since I was spending money at a more "rich" establishment. Argh. Trying to be conscious about how I travel here, but it can be easy to slip.
For dinner, we stumbled across a food stall serving Korean hot pot noodles. This consisted of a variety of noodles in a hot pot mixed with veggies, 2 quail eggs, some light sausage (tasted like bologne/lunch meat), came with kimchee and a garlic/spinach side dish (K1000).
We had a pretty tiring full day of Yangon, but it felt like we saw most of what the city had to offer. We were ready to leave for Mandalay the next day.
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