Mingalar Ba!

View from Back of the Hotel

The title of this blog means Auspicious to you all!  I really like this guest house.  It is a small business and is one floor of a very large building.  We arrived last night by Nok Air from Bangkok and discovered from the flight attendant that there is a time difference of one half hour.  Who changes the time a half hour?  When the taxi pulled up in front of the hotel, I was a little dubious as the neighborhood is very untouristy and seems to be working class people who live here.  There were men sitting around small outdoor tables eating, drinking and smoking but not a woman present.  We asked a young man at our hotel where the women were and it's not traditional for them.  He said they are at home.  Despite the seeming sexual inequality, the people in Myanmar are really the nicest people I have ever met.  They try really hard to please you and say, "Sure, sure" all the time.  Most will smile as you walk past them on the street, wave to you as you go by on the train and seem genuinely happy to see you.  I have finally learned to say thank you in Burmese - kyei zu tin ba de.  That's a lot of syllables for thank you!  Men, women, children and even teenagers still wear the traditional longyi or sarong and there are relatively few cell phones, although you can tell that things are changing.  Today we rode the circular train which goes around Yangon.  It really gives you a feel for the place.  There were 3 other tourists on the whole train: a woman from Brazil and a young couple from Quebec.  It was a long, but fascinating ride with farms, villages, some very, very poor people, what we think was a prison and the most amazing farmer's market I've ever seen.  It was hard to capture as the train went past, even though it was a slow train, but there were beautiful and abundant fruits and vegetable.  The colors were amazing!  As my friend pointed out, they haven't figured out how to fleece the tourists yet.  The 3-hour train ride was about $1.25 US, dinner for 3 with 3 beers, a large water, 3 dishes and rice was $12.00 - lunch was even less.
An interesting fact about Myanmar is that the cars and buses have steering wheels on the right, but they also drive on the right!  It was determined some years ago to be "auspicious" to drive that way. I'm not so sure about that! 

Market Along the Tracks



Harvesting Morning Glories

A Scene from the Train

 Tomorrow we will explore some of the pagodas (stupas) in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) including Shwedagon Pagoda (the largest and the one seen in the distance in the photo).  Myanmar (formerly Burma) is known as the Land of the Pagodas and supposedly has more than any other country.

Impromptu Chinese New Year Celebration
Note the People in Background's Dress

The Police are Happy to Help . . .