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| 5 | Great Myanmar Trip -Part5- | 28/Jun/2000 |
| 4 | Great Myanmar Trip -Part4- | 28/Jun/2000 |
| 3 | Great Myanmar Trip -Part3- | 28/Jun/2000 |
| 2 | Great Myanmar Trip -Part2- | 28/Jun/2000 |
| 1 | Great Myanmar Trip -Part1- | 28/Jun/2000 |
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Let's Taste Myanmar Food
"If I travel, I'll do all I can in the place where I intend to visit". That is my motto about my opinion. If you pay more money, you can probably buy everything you need in Japan. At present I wonder what I can get & do in such a foreign country. What should be done is to taste the food of Myanmar. I think so.
For this reason, I have tried my best for my consumption. I try to follow the way the local people eat and drink.
This times almost every food & drink I consumed was from the food-stalls along the market. (But I have the opportunity to eat so much. My stomach can be filled with a lot of food. So I don't want to persuade others to eat like me.
Among the things what I consumed are described as an example.
- Salad of chicken (with broth)
- Mokelinmayar (Flied egg) -20 kyats for 4 pieces
- Glutinous ballets (with small round shape eaten with shreds of coconut)
- Sugarcane juice - 50 kyats (with fairly sweet taste yogurt - 60 kyats
- Fried sliced bread (sold at the roadside mostly in the mornings)
- Milk - 100 kyats (I can't find any milk without sugar)
- Ice- cream (soft) (with deep & good taste. Why is the colour of corn pinkish in Myanmar)
- Mohinga 1 cream of coconut noodles & different types of noodles - about 45 kyats
- Tea - 30 kyats (too much milk - stir it well when it is ready to drink. It looks like Chai from India. After drinking if you will feel cool in your heart.)
- Ice - cream about 50 kyats (Orange looks like sherbet and fresh, light taste. pineapple and strawberry puddings can also be eaten).
- Ve Ve cold drink - 40 kyats (Tamarind, strawberry, grape, orange, lichee etc. The sweet taste of tamarind is very sweet and light. Lichee drink contains its skin and 30 you can bite it with relish).
Let's sew clothing for Longyies!
Both men & women in Myanmar wear Longyies. In addition, Faces of Myanmar people are quite similar to those to Japanese people. So, if a Japanese wear a Longyi, he will become a real Myanmar. And I rushed to a tailor's to have a Longyi sewn. The tailor's place is at the Bogyoke Market. The market is in the centre of Yangon. In other words, it can also be called the centre of fashion. So I'll have to pay dearly for the sewing of Longyi.
Mostly a piece of cloth for Longyi costs more than 1000 kyats. A blouse with latest piece of cloth and a Longyi (upper part & lower part, one set) costs about 3800 kyats. In other markets you can also find a little cheap Longyies.
I had the Longyies sewn and the Longyies are as follows:
- Longyi (for lady's wear)
Blue-black grounding and embroidered Longyi.
(1000 kyats) (Sewing charge 100 kyats separately) - Longyi and blouse
Black thread. Indonesia- made, dyeing & printing piece of cloth. 1800 Kyats (sewing charge 800 kyats separately)
Note:
If the sewing takes the whole day, the charge will be dear. - Longyi (for man's wear)
Thread mixed with nylon. Blue -black
Price 1400 kyats (with sewing charge)
Let's buy Myanmar - made gifts
- Costar set Covered with lacquer - 400kyats Considerably loss price but valuable.
(With six plates of costar) (Available at the Bogyoke Market) - Myanmar harp (A kind of musical instrument called Saung in Myanmar Language)
The harps come in different sizes. The harp I bought is 20 cm in height, but it produces no sound. - Tiffin box (lunch box)
Tiffin boxes used in most parts of the Asia are made of stainless steel. They come in 2 steps, 3 steps. Many people go to work carrying their own tiffin boxes. If a girl who applies thanakha on her face carries the tiffin box, she will feel impressed as a real office lady. - Pickled tea leaves
The price of pickled tea leaves is about 70 kyats to what is the better gift produced in Myanmar?
A collegian Ko Win Hlaing at the Dagon University answered my question. He said that the pickled tea leaves are the better food products. Pickled tea leaves have to be eaten together with cooking oil, fried onions, fried sesame, fried groundnuts, beams and grams. The gifts of pickled tea leaves are produced with separated tea leaves, separated fries and separated bags. My friends Ko Win Hlaing urged me to by pickled tea leaves from YUZANA STORE at the back of the Bogyoke Market.
Let's pray a visit to pagoda
According to the Myanmar Calendar, a week is classified as 8 days. The Myanmar people tend to go to a pagoda on their birthdays. Each day has each animal for symbols. At a planetary post, (with sign of animal for individual use) a person pours water on his figure of animal according the numbers of his own present age. And prays to God. If a person is 30 years of age, he has to pour water 30 times on the figure of animal.
Let's ride a ferry boat
There is a ferry quay in front of the Strand Hotel. To ride a ferry, the fare is 1 $ (round trip) for a foreigner. Inside the ferry, the place is crowded with passengers. There are sellers who sell newspapers, books, quail eggs, fried birds, noodles, etc.
A ferry boat takes only 10 minutes to reach the other side of the river. That part of the river bank is quite different from this part of Yangon. We can see that simple and ordinary town plan in the distance. I saw a trishaw-man who was looking forward to seeing the passengers on board. I told him to go sight-seeing by gestures. Then he sent me by peddling this trishaw along the lane in a straight way. The lane is covered with asphalt.
Electric torch is a must
The 12th of February are the Union Day of Myanmar. At over 6:30, when I went out of the hotel, the road on which I traveled yesterday is the same on which I'm going out. I found out like that, but I wonder why the road was so dark.
Why do the shops close for today's National Day? Thinking that I crossed the road to the other side of dim lights. I thought that the shops were closed. But people carrying their own generators, came out of the shops.
I have heard the rumors about it. It really meant blackout.
"Hah! It is a blackout in Yangon." I wonder there is a darkness caused by electrical failure.
According to the words I've heard, electric power failure in Yangon is a common occurrence. On that day, since afternoon it had been an electrical failure. Really! For that reason, it was very pleasant to see the way of traffic control by traffic policeman at the traffic-lights of busy roads. I realized it was worthy looking at.
I rarely used torch in India. But in Myanmar, the torch is a must for me.
© Y. N.
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