The Lost Post

Arrrggghhhh....two lost posts. Muz and I sat up before breakfast composing some sights and tastes for you and they are lost lost lost. It is amazing, however, that we can send email at all! Our second full day and we are doing much better. We have found a great hotel, the May Shan, a Chinese run empire a stone's throw from the Sule Paya on Sule Pagoda Road, sort of a hub of Yangon. The May Shan has it all...just stand ouside for 10 minutes by the generator and the bright red reader board and they will list their ammenities, in almost every language! It truly is great, as close to the New Siam empire as you can get. Our tiny cell-like room with no windows has the best shower we've encountered in SE Asia yet...all the water pressure of Myanmar concentrated in one little hose that has real hot water!!!! Woo hoo! We have made our first visit to the Bogyoke Aung Sang Market, lodged in a huge colonial era building with turrets and gingerbread. Two stories of little shops selling longyi, the ubiquitous men's sarong (and may I say, mighty attractive too....the old men wear them riding high over their paunch and the young men wear them slung low on their hips...sigh...my my my), and all your needs with Myanmar labels and plenty of Chinese branding as well. WE encountered an antique textile shop run by a Chin woman and her daughter and I only wish I had brought more money or that they took credit cards. I bought 3 wonderful pieces and will certainly buy more if I have any money left when we return to Yangon. While this country is still emerging from years of darkness and oppression, and the infrastructure is still a shambles, there is new building everywhere on top of the bones of the old crumbled nation. The people are wonderful and so gracious. Muzzy remarked how it reminded him of India...the crowds, the multi-faceted ethnic population. The Muslim men are easily identifiable by their beards, skull caps and long shirts over their longyi. The women wear full hijab including long black over dresses. I have to gasp at how hot it must be, but who knows? Walking the streets is an adventure in lawsuits. No single stretch of sidewalk is even. The cement is all askew and opens up to reveal scary sewers, lengths of rebar jutting up to add to the surprise of the moveable chunks. There is a mosque just a few doors down from the May Shan, right across from the Sule Paya, which dominates the skyline all around. I was hoping to be able to hear the call to prayer but we are quite insulated in our little cell.
Decrepet busses with completely bald tires rattle to a stop at the bus stop across the broad road in front of the hotel and you can hear the bus boys yelling and exhorting the passengers in loud singsong voices. In the morning the traffic is non-existent, but by the afternoon it is like playing frogger to try and cross the streets. There are lots of overpasses, however, that means lots of stairs...bummer.
We have found a couple of eateries that we like. The first was a recommendation from the LP and by our hotel. Daw Saw Ye, a Burmese style restaurant, quite good, down a little alley clogged with cars and stacks of broken cement and generators. Burmese style means sort of like a cafeteria. You walk up to a kitchen area and point to the dishes you want. We picked a shredded crispy style fish with chilies, pork curry, green beans and the last portion of butter beans. When you sit down you are served a large plate full of rice...looked like long-grain basmati...a plate of fresh veggies...maybe radishes? some greens, an okra looking thing and some sliced cucumber. You get a bowl of sour curry soup with chunks of melon and floating leaves, and then your chosen dishes. It's all quite good. Not Thai, but this isn't Thailand!
While nearly all the hotels serve a complimentary breakfast, our first one, The Garden House, left us bruised with apprehension, so I was determined to eat at one of the tea houses that are part of the Yangon culture. They are not tea houses like we know, nor like coffee houses, exactly, although their purpose is similar...for gathering, conversation, discussion and whiling away hours drinking black tea with sweetened condensed milk and eating little snacks. We found one across the street that serves fresh ground coffee...so strong that tiny little spoon wades around like a duck in sludge and the most wonderful snacks. Yesterday morning Muzzy discovered a curry noodle with egg dish that is very very good...and I discovered the custard. And why not? it's milk and eggs, right? I was all set to order another this morning when the boys started packaging up some rounds of fried bread, fresh from the kitchen. I asked, "Is it sweet?", to which the cute young man replied with a smile and a nod to the other boy who carefully cleaned a tiny saucer and set one of the hot pieces of bread before me. OH MY GOD! Soft, thick bread soaked in egg and sweetened condensed milk and fried in butter. What's not to like? After that, another man came in with a big covered tray on his head. He and the boy started setting out chunks of what looked like cake on small saucers. Of course I kept staring. This was after my second cup of coffee (come on, they're small cups!). Finally, the older man took out some jars of what turned out to be browned coconut, raisins and some nuts, dressed the top of the cake and handed one to me. Another older Burmese man walked by and told me it was sticky rice with coconut milk and palm sugar. Well, I polished that right off and we have a new breakfast place!

Sule Paya

Our favorite tea/coffee shop

The Mosque

All in all, the tide has turned, we've found our travel feet, and are waiting for tickets to Inle Lake either tomorrow or the day after. It will be good to leave the city, but at least we feel a little more at home here. Tonight we go to Shewdegon. Sunset is the best time we are told. And really, despite the inconvenience of travel, the barbed wire around the government buildings, the armed guards, there is a feeling of optimism here. Tourism is up and that means money is coming in at the personal level. This is a a vital, gracious country, full of its own peculiarities, its own way of doing things. We are visitors here, and lucky to be able to do so. We are the intruders, and as such, it is up to us to keep smiling, to be patient and to figure it out. How lucky to step out of our door and look over at the golden glow of the Sule Paya a few steps away. I can only think there are more mysteries to come.