I’ll start this section off by saying: Myanmar was one of the most fantastic places I have been in life. The reasons behind this are many, ranging from delicious food, breathtaking natural beauty, numerous cultural wonders, beautiful women, friendly people, multiple distinct cultures, and interesting history. The biggest evidence for my enamorment of Myanmar is easily noticeable due to a lack of writing about the country until after I was finished there. I was already behind on writing for the blog when I’d gotten to the country, and I foolishly believed that I’d find the time to catch up while visiting. Then I left for the holidays to Europe and I got even further behind in filling you all in on what went on along the Irrawaddy. That being said, some of these entries about Myanmar might be short, and they will certainly be more of a highlight reel than a play by play, as most other articles have been on AJourneySonder so far. But make no mistake, even if the content is lacking, the experience there was not.
That right there is the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Getting from one country (ChiangMai) to the other (Yangon) was a laborious task. I left my friend Keri in the morning from the former and arrived maybe 22 hours later in the later. It involved a coach to the border in Thailand, followed by possibly the easiest border crossing I’ve ever experienced – after a leisurely walk across the bridge that photo is taken from I showed a passport, a printout of my E-Visa, took a photo, and one of two men stamped my passport in a tiny little office room containing only myself – then another night coach to Yangon. The night bus, which cost about 14,000 MMK ($9.56), was the single nicest bus I’ve ever ridden on with a sofa chair-like reclining seat, my own personal blanket, pillow, and TV, and an attendant dressed in a suit who addressed every single one of my needs. After I got to the city I needed to endure a cramped 40 or 50 person bus ride on a public bus that is probably only designed to safely hold 30 people. Sardines we were! My phone went off more than once (thanks to a new SIM card for the country) but I never would have been able to pick up if I’d tried. And the driver drove like a madman… all at 5:30 in the morning. Eventually, though, I arrived at the hostel my friend Kyle told me about: Shwe Yo Hostel! I don’t do many adverts on this blog, but if you’re in Yangon and need a place to stay, that hostel has some of the best breakfasts and the nicest staff; easily in my top 5 ever.
That being said, we didn’t do very much in Yangon itself. There isn’t much to do, I don’t think, unless you live there in the city. We walked around a lot, and we saw plenty of cool things. I mean, we certainly enjoyed ourselves – we must have if we spent four (five total) days there. We checked out Wallstreet English, the same company I worked for in Shanghai a few years ago and that was a really cool thing to be able to compare (very similar, but much more laid back and relaxing). We ate Indian Curry in that same mall! Of the few things we did do, they were pretty great.
The main attraction that you would literally need to be blind to miss out on would be Shwedagon Pagoda. It’s big. It’s massive. It sits on a hill and it literally dominates the skyline. It is the most religiously important Pagoda in all of Myanmar and is said to contain several important artifacts relevant to Buddhist people or events.
A gigantic stupa rises from the center of the pagoda, dwarfing all other structures in the area. The site was originally built either during the days of Siddhartha Gautama (otherwise known as THE Buddha) or sometime between the 6th to the 10th century AD by local Mon People; ideas vary. That stupa is made of bricks and then literally coated in gold from top to bottom, and the top boasts 5448 diamonds, 2317 rubies, and then a single 76-carat diamond at the very tippy top.
Surrounding that stupa are numerous other shrines all dedicated to either Siddhartha Gautama or a different Buddha. Now, Buddhist cosmology is really complicated and in Myanmar it (Theravada) differs from other forms (Mahayana, Vajrayana) but there are anywhere from 3 to 28 other Buddhas, and technically over 1000. I haven’t studied it in-depth despite my time in MaeHong San because it makes my brain hurt. Someday I’ll understand the differences better but for the time I was there, the individual temples’ primary meaning was lost to me.
Surrounding the pagoda, in each of the cardinal directions, were long hallways that led from the street to the center area. These were really cool because they hosted numerous shops that sold anything from children’s toys to cotton shirts, ‘luxury’ jewelry and everything in between. We did have to ritually take off our shoes long before we were at the actual pagoda which unfortunately meant we stepped in some unclean parts of flooring, but we didn’t wish to offer any disrespect.
On our way walking back from Shwedagon to the hostel we passed by People’s Park and inside we saw some really funky lights. Costing us I think 2000MMK ($1.37) to enter we stepped inside the tunnel you see here.
Which is actually a train! You see for some reason there was an attraction going on in the park that involved thousands of light strings in various shapes. The first we caught a glimpse of was this locomotive as we passed out of it but it was far from the only thing we saw there. This “lights park” seemed to be broken into various sections for different themes. There were some dinosaurs. There were some helicopters and tanks. There were some hearts and cupids. There were some animals.
Here we have a path lined with dolphins. Other sections had snakes or tigers or bears. It was super super cool. We spent maybe 20 minutes there while drinking a beer just marveling at all the cool light sculptures that were set up.
There didn’t seem to be anything set up that was directly related to franchises which was sort of a relief. I also counted myself rather lucky. This was in the beginning of December and the thought of not being home for Christmas at the end of the month stung in my mind. While exploring the ‘light park’ I was reminded of the age-old family tradition of Lights on the Lake in Syracuse, NY and how each holiday season we’d go and drive through it when I was younger. Finding such a similar thing all the way on the other side of the world gave me a warming sensation that reminded me my family is always with me, wherever I am. It was nice to realize.
Some other day Kyle decided to bring me to the River Front. It’s not super easy to get to being on the other side of a highway, which is weird considering Yangon is built right next to this river. But once you get there you find it swarming with people selling food, clothes, or liquor. You’ll also find people playing Chinlone or bartering for boat rides across the river. We found a rundown dock and enjoyed a medium-sized handle of gin and whiskey which cost like 1500MMK ($1.02 for 40% alcohol!). It was all a plan, however.
You see before we went to the docks we enjoyed maybe one of the most delicious things God has ever inspired humans to create: Burmese Salad. If you have ever eaten a salad and thought “Hey, this is pretty good,” you’re just plain wrong. You don’t even know how wrong you are. You can’t even begin to fathom how incorrect that statement is until you have tasted any salad created in Myanmar. Some of you may be looking at the above or below picture and think “those aren’t salads,” and I’m very tempted to agree with you, but rest assured they are (at least by Myanmar standards, and influenced by the British lexicon) salads. The above is Ginger Salad (gin thoke (jeen dou)) and the below beauty is a Rainbow salad.
Full disclosure, the original reason I ever wanted to come to Myanmar was due exclusively to Anthony Bourdain and his descriptions of salad in an episode from Part’s Unknown. He talked about a lot of other important things in that episode, but the thing I have never forgotten was how he spoke about the salads in the country. They blend a difficult to identify number of ingredients to create something special. The ginger salad is clearly ginger-based, but it is also very citrusy with a nutty undertone enhanced by actual peanuts. The Rainbow Salad, god, where do I begin. It had tofu and noodles, chives, cilantro, onions, pepper, and carrot (among other things). It is also citrusy, but only enough to complement an odd umami flavor. Some of the ingredients are pickled in special spices, which ones I couldn’t tell you. Can’t forget the nuttiness, it was there too. It was the most expensive salad I ate the entire time in Myanmar at 6000MMK ($4.10) – something like twice as much as I paid for any single dish in that country – and it was so unbelievably good I went back a second time despite my budget. Thinking about it now I shudder in tastebud-inspired ecstasy just wishing I could have it again. But alas, I’m no longer in Yangon.
Anyway getting back to that plan I mentioned earlier! See, the rainbow salad I had for lunch at a really posh place called Burma Bistro. Me and Kyle saw a Happy Hour advertised there, but it was still an hour away from when we finished lunch. So we went off to the waterfront to wait and came back just in time to meet Peter (the man above)! He was the bartender for our Happy Hour making all the drinks we requested; more than half a dozen of which we’d never heard of before. We tried something like 3 of the drinks there that night and they were all fantastic. Some of them used home-made mixers that involved bathing different spices (like chilis, cilantro, lemongrass, etc) in tequila. Just take a look at the cocktails menu on their Facebook page, you’ll see what I mean. Why is Peter important? He designed every single one of those drinks himself. If you had the chance to try his cocktails, even if you think some of his ingredient choices might be strange, you’d understand that this man knows flavor when it comes to cocktails. Honestly, Peter was supposed to end up in the “People from The Journey Section,” but alas, I was too drunk by the end of Happy Hour to get the proper details for it.
Yangon was a lovely place to get my first exposure to Myanmar. From its food to its culture there was a ton of stuff here. I met some amazing folks and had a blast. Someday I might yet return if the reason is good. What that reason could be, who knows? But for now I’ll remain haunted by dreams of salad and cocktails against the backdrop of golden towers. If anyone reading this ever gets the chance to stop by Yangon, take it.