Monte Clinton's Travel Journals

Burma: page 2

As the sun started to set on our first day in Burma, it was time to head back to our hotel for a nap and dinner.  We managed to find a western restaurant called The Black Canyon, which was a rather up-scale place with a variety of coffee drinks.  Jud, trying to duplicate a Starbuck’s Frapachino had one of the frozen coffee drinks and pronounced it wonderful – as he ordered a second.

Our hotel was situated near the most famous pagoda in Burma – the Shwedagon Pagoda that contained two hairs from Buddha.  Shwedagon is revered throughout the Buddhist world and hosts pilgrimages from devout Buddhists everyday from sunrise to sunset.   The massive gold covered pagoda standing over 150 ft. high from its pedestal plaza, which occupies a high point in Yangon is visible from our hotel room, stands as a golden finger pointing to the sky.  The first full day of touring Yangon was packed with visits to markets, pagodas factories and other tourist sites.

The first stop was the fresh food market, which was teeming with sellers and buyers.  It seemed that anything that lived or could grow was on sale.  While most westerners would be appalled at the unsanitary conditions in the markets, the Burmese seemed to have built up their immune systems to deal with bacteria that would send a westerner to bed or the hospital for weeks.

One seller sold cold drinks of water from a block of ice that dripped in a bucket.  Given the lack of refrigeration, in part because of an unpredictable electric power supply, most people must shop for food daily.   We were told that Yangon, a city of over 3 million, has electric power about eight hours a day.  This forces most stores and hotels to have their own power generators.

The sun screen worn by many Burmese (both men and women) is made from the ground up bark of a local tree.  The white paste, while initially a little shocking to westerners, soon becomes a normal part of the Burmese look.

A sparrow vendor selling sparrows ready for release in the hope of gaining favor from Buddha for their compassion for releasing the sparrows.

A visit to a concrete version of the royal barge, which is “docked” in a lake in one of Yangon’s parks.  This barge is used for banquets, weddings and other official events of the wealthy and the ruling generals.

The Yangon skylines as well as the skylines of almost all other Burmese cities are pierced with gold pagodas – frequently referred to as stupas.

Next stop – the glass factory.

A visit to a glass blowing factory felt like a step back to the 17^th century.  Hundreds of thousands of rejected glass objects lined the paths leading to the kilns.