Myanmar- Day 7,8,9 and 10

Location: Our apartments living room (Le Van Luong)
Mood: sleepy since the weather is warm

February 1-4, 2014

It's early morning in Yangoon and we arrived after more than an eight hour bus ride. With aching limbs and hazy sight from lack of sleep, we got off form the bus to find a taxi to bring us to town. Of course after haggling again we finally got a taxi who took more passengers so there were four of us and the guy beside Mitchell was creepy since he kept looking at her..I mean really staring at her. So next time, better make sure that you are the only passengers in the taxi. Because we wanted to pay less, we ended up going around and with other people. We discovered that our hotel was really far from the bus station since it is in Chinatown. When we arrived, the room was nice and clean although it only had a window at the bathroom. After a few hours of rest we decided to visit the shopping malls of the city. There were only a few and the shopping mall has only three floors. I guess in a few years time, there would be a lot though just like how it is in Hanoi right now. In the evening, we were treated to a variety of dragon dance performances since they celebrated the Chinese New Year in front of our hotel. It was really my first time to see the dance as a whole and the performers were talented. I didn't know that it was hard to do the jumping on those poles with somebody at your back. I even saw one young performer cry because he couldn't do the jump several times. They were all amazing though since the acrobatics are hard.

Our room at Daw Htay hotel in Chinatown. It was good for it's price. I think we paid around 30 USD per night through Agoda. Way much better than the room in Kyaikthiyo which we paid for 75.

I'm not tall but these are the poles where the dragon dancers have to jump. It really takes a lot of skills and practice.

The streets of Yangoon's chinatown at 10 am...

Spectators waiting for the event to start. This is past 5 in the afternoon.

The drummers preparing for the performance.

The dancers doing their thing. It was my first time to really appreciate the beauty of this dance. I got to learn that there is a certain choreography and the best can do the difficult moves. It takes courage and skills to jump those poles and good chemistry with your partner to go through the whole sequence and not everyone can climb up to the highest one with grace and agility. The dancers are trully talented.

Beside a temple in Chinatown. There's even someone selling corn or the pigeons

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of course, one should not forget the beer. Honestly the taste is similar to SMB, Bia Hanoi, Beer Bintang of Indonesia, Lao beer and Cambodian beer.

The next day we decided to try the circular train. We went to the train station and inquired at the people in front. They directed us to the office and we paid 1.5 kyats for a three hour ride around the city. The pay is more expensive than the normal fare but we are seated in a special compartment but if you would like to join the crowd with their wares then it is also a good experience. It wasn't crowded and people just look but don't really bother. They try not to even sit down with foreigners except for some who are brave enough to initiate some conversation. Since the country only opened up recently, I guess the sight of foreigners is not very familiar yet.  A lot of infrastructures are swiftly covering up the landscape of the city but how people behave is not yet very modernize. I think, it is nice though since people are nice, accommodating. Not very friendly but at least they are nice when approached. 

We also visited the famed Scott Market where most of the wares from all parts of the country are sold. Of course haggling is still a must but for someone like me, I am not really good in getting cheap prices. Nevertheless, I'm still okay since we just bought a few things to remembers our visit and to give friends back in Hanoi. We only bought a few Longyi pronounced as Lonji..from what I've heard  and some trinkets. After a few hours at the market, we proceeded at 5 in the afternoon to the biggest pagoda in the city which is also believe to house the hair of Buddha. We followed the advice of other travellers to go to Shwedagon Pagoda late in the afternoon to enjoy the sight. It was really huge. We paid entrance fee then we proceeded to an elevator that will take us up to the pagoda. There were a lot of people inside, tourists and those who want to pray, monks as well and people taking care of the temple. We saw people cleaning, people praying, people taking pictures or just gazing at the temple. There were little sort of altars with some icon to represent each day of the week. Mitchell told me that those who are born for each particular day can pray on the specific spot. Wednesday has two though as I mentioned previously so people who are born in Wednesday should know if they were born in the morning or afternoon. I didn't know the specific day I was born so I didn't go and pray. It was disappointing though since inside the pagoda were ATM machines, it sort of make the place more of a commercial area than a sacred place. Anyway, the pagoda was amazing and even more magnificent at night with its gold color and the lights. And yeah, there was a beggar asking for money too but of course, we didn't give her.