7/11 Day 1 in Yangon

7/11/2013: I checked into the "Motherland Inn 2" rather late the night before. My room smelled like the bathroom, probably because it was right next to the bathroom. I woke up really early the next day, checked my email on their slooooow internet, and then got to work planning the rest of my time in Myanmar. With the help of the girls at the front desk, I determined that I'd spend two days in Yangon, then take a night bus to Kalaw, trek for two days from Kalaw to Inle Lake, then spend another day at Inle Lake. After that, my plan was to go to Bagan, and then up to Mandalay, with my flight back to Bangkok on July 20. I also made plans to meet up with Toki, another Bucknell alumnus that Pam (from Thailand) put me in touch with. I left the guesthouse to see check out the city.

It quickly became apparent that Myanmar is not like other countries in Southeast Asia. It still appears to be relatively untouched by tourists, and I had to wait six whole days before hearing "Gangnam Style" for the first time, which is my super-precise gauge for how modernized an area is (in most other places I'd hear it multiple times per day, even in Chi Phat in Cambodia...). Most men and women still wear "longyis," which are like sarongs, or skirts. Men and women both also wear traditional Myanmar makeup still, which appears somewhat similar to the zinc oxide worn by lifeguards in 80's movies, but with different designs and amounts. Myanmar is also a betel nut country, where many of the men chew betel nut, which is a nasty, addictive substance that turns teeth, lips, and gums into a disgusting red color, and I could spot many red stains from spit on the pavement everywhere I went. Myanmar might be the only country in the world where the steering wheel in cars is on the right side of the car and people drive on the right side of the road. I read that traffic used to be on the left-hand side, but the government wanted to distance Myanmar from British colonial history, so they made the switch basically overnight. Couple that with tight restrictions on the import of new cars that might have the driver's seat on the proper side of the vehicle, and the result is a very odd driving scheme. Some newer cars had the steering wheel on the left-hand side of the car, but most were on the right. And getting on buses was confusing, because I never knew which side had the door.

Other oddities of Yangon include the fact that there are no motorbikes in the city, as they were banned around 2000. I read that the rumor is that a motorbiker crashed into a government official's car so he banned motorbikes, but that's just a rumor and Toki hadn't heard of it. And perhaps the strangest feature of Yangon is the method of getting a waiter's attention: making a smooching noise. It's pretty amusing to be sitting at a restaurant and to hear a big puckering sound and it's a guy asking for more rice.

So I ventured out into Yangon, with my guesthouse being a bit outside of city center. I walked North towards a market (Toki later told me it translates to English as "Shrimp Hell Market") and marveled at all the strange vegetables and other goods for sale. I was getting a lot of attention, with many people shouting "hello!" at me, and also just staring and then calling over to their friends so they could stare too. About five minutes into my walk I was greeted by an old Muslim man with a skullcap on, a big white robe, and a goatee dyed orange. He practiced some English on me and invited me into his stall for tea, but I had just had a lot of tea and was anxious to get out and see the city. I thanked him for the offer but moved on.

Discrete market shot

The rain started to pick up, and as I started to go up some stairs I noticed a man was selling umbrellas from his tiny stall, so I popped in and said I needed an umbrella. He asked me to have a seat, which I thought was strange since purchasing an umbrella is usually a straightforward process. It turns out he had a lot of partial umbrellas, but had to do a bunch of jury-rigging to produce one complete umbrella, so I sat there for about 10 minutes and watched him hammer out an umbrella. In the meantime he practiced his limited English and showed off his limited knowledge of US culture.

"Where from?"

"United States."

Puzzled look.

"America."

"OOOOOH America! Very good!" Pause... Michael Jordan!"

"Yes, yes, Michael Jordan."

2 minute pause.
"Mike Tyson!"

Eye roll from me.

"Obama!"

Incredible that Obama was the third American person he thought of, after MJ and Mike Tyson. I think he was trying to say "wait five minutes" but I mistook it to mean that it would cost 5,000 kyat (around $5), which is WAY too much for a second-hand Frankenstein umbrella in Myanmar, in retrospect. So I must have made his day. Anyhow, I now had a functioning umbrella and continued my walk into the city center.

As I walked, I still got stared at a lot, and was feeling like a mini-celebrity. It was nearing lunch time, so I started looking for places to eat. I considered stopping at an Indian food street stall, but got scared and kept walking. I got to the big lake and park area, but it was just a lot of non-authentic Myanmar food, so I went back out towards a mall with tons of street food vendors around it. As I walked around, I got a better look at the sanitary conditions of these places, and it was pretty scary. The rain wasn't making anything cleaner (or less smelly), and I decided this was not the same as getting street food in Thailand. I found a restaurant called "Food Center" and it was decent - I had some pork curry with rice. The staff stared at me while I ate. I played a little game on my phone and a waiter hovered over my shoulder to appreciate the wonders of a touchscreen. Myanmar is a bit behind technologically, so my "old" Android phone always got some attention wherever I went.

Not the nicest apartment building in Yangon

I returned to the lake and park surrounding the lake, and enjoyed a nice view of Shwedagon Pagoda in the distance. Shwedagon Pagoda is the biggest landmark in Yangon, and possibly in Myanmar. 

I walked around the lake, but realized part-way around that I had to catch a cab to meet up with Toki in time, so I flagged one down and he dropped me off at "Coffee Circles." Eventually Toki and his friend Naing showed up. Toki was wearing a Bucknell basketball t-shirt, so he was easy to spot. He and Naing grew up together playing basketball, and they still play on a team together. We talked for a couple hours and it was great to get the perspective of some locals. When talking about various issues in Myanmar - slow internet, poor healthcare, weak transportation infrastructure, etc. - Toki was always optimistic about where things are heading. With the new government, it seems things are improving, but he said that they could use assistance from outside countries on developing infrastructure, and that countries like the US would be more "nurturing" than the current major player China. Toki's parents are both doctors and just recently built a new hospital, so he had been busy with the construction management. He and his wife also just had a baby, so he's been pretty busy. Toki had brought Naing along to help offer some advice on places to go and things to do in Myanmar, but his recommendations were fairly similar to what I'd gotten at my guesthouse. Toki and Naing had basketball practice (they play in a nationwide tournament each year and they had enlisted their former high school coach this year), so they headed off but we agreed to meet for dinner later.

I wandered around some more and checked out the area surrounding Shwedagon Pagoda, but didn't go in because I was going to check it out with Toki and Naing the next day. I had a quick beer at Oriental House, which was very large and empty, and then I met Naing, Toki, and Toki's wife Amy for dinner. We had a Myanmar dinner, where we picked a number of smaller dishes (curries, grilled meat, etc.) and ate them with rice. Amy is from Hsipaw, in the Shan state (Northeast Myanmar, bordering Thailand). Amy had to get back home to the baby, while Toki, Naing and I headed to Chinatown for beers and, as it turned out, a second dinner.

Chinatown in Yangon is pretty big, since Myanmar has a large Chinese population. It also seems to be the liveliest spot in the city at night, and we grabbed an outdoor table along a busy pedestrian street. Toki ordered a bunch of dishes from surrounding street vendors and we drank a bunch of beers. One snack he ordered was called "duck candy," which is a strange tasting type of nut that isn't sweet at all and gives you terrible breath. We had a tasty dish with green beans and chilis, some grilled meat, some grilled squid, and lots of beers. By the end of the night, we'd had 18 beers between the three of us, and the final bill totaled up to a little over 17,000 kyat ($17), including all the food.

Throughout the night, beggars flowed past looking for money, and Toki told me they're most likely part of a ring of beggars with a boss, where they have to pool their money together at the end of the night and they only get a fraction of it. He said the best thing to do is to not give them money, but it was difficult because so many of them were kids. Toki said that organizations have tried to put these street beggar kids in school and pay for their supplies, etc., but they just ditch school and go back to begging because they see it as the easiest way to make money.

Toki drove me back to the guesthouse and I called it a night. We agreed to meet the next day at Shwedagon Pagoda.

Photo Album: https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/20130711YangonDay1?authuser=0&feat=directlink