March
1, 2013
I finally got some good sleep in my little top bunk
in the cabin on the ship. Matt and
I woke up to catch the 8am bus into downtown Yangon because it was our final
day in port before leaving for India.
We had decided to go and check out Scott’s Market,
a large market in the middle of the city which had been recommended as a sight
to see. The bus stops right in
front of city hall, so we had about a 15 minute walk there. We weren’t completely sure how to get
there, but we started down the right direction.
Along the way, we were stopped by three different
locals asking us if we were on the Semester at Sea ship and asking us where we
were going. They said that they
were glad that we were there, and made sure that we knew right where we were
going. They were all so kind.
We saw the city’s movie theater and saw that they
were showing some Japanese movie and Die Hard. Made me chuckle a little how much of a reach Bruce Willis
has.
We made it to the market and then realized that
they didn’t open until 10am.
People were still getting their booths set up, so we wandered around,
unable to use the rest of our Myanmar money. We had about $25 left, so approximately 20,000 kyat.
In Vietnam, it felt like the markets were set up
for tourists with t-shirts, purses, watches and shoes. They had a ton of snacks, coffee and
meat where the locals seemed to eat.
Myanmar hasn’t been a huge tourist destination because of the government
issues, and opened up so recently, that I think this market isn’t geared toward
people like Matt and I who were looking to frivolously spend away $25.
The booths being set up were a combination of
animal food, cloth for sewing and medical supplies. People didn’t really care that we were in there walking
around while they set up nor did they give us much attention or try to sell us
anything. We headed back down some
back alleys trying to get to city hall and found ourselves in the Muslim
district. We really stuck out and
felt the eyes of all of the locals.
We did not belong there, but it didn’t feel scary, just a little awkward.
We popped out to the circle where we had started
and decided to load up on some snacks from some locals sellers. We found the open air Walgreens
equivalent down one street and bought them out of Cokes and chips. At that point, though, we still had
15,000 kyat left. I attempted to
switch it back at the money exchange, but it wasn’t enough for them to accept
it.
We searched for a t-shirt guy, but he had moved
since the night before, so we decided to just call it good and catch the
10:30am bus back to the ship. The
last one was at 11:00am, so we didn’t want to be late in case everyone else had
that idea.
On our way back to the bus, we found an older woman
chilling on the side of a building with some shoes and cloth for Longyi’s. I spotted her pretty fabric and pointed
to it asking how much. They were
5,000 kyat each. Just the right
amount.
She chose a pretty black and pink one and went to
work getting it around my waist and tying it up with a pretty fold. I modeled it a little for her and she
laughed and loaded up that one and a brown one into a bag. She made nice choices, so I went with
it. They’re actually very cute and
comfortable. I’d like to hem them
since they have some rough edges, but they’ll make for very cute skirts for
some pretty ladies that I’m missing back home.
We caught the bus rode an hour to the ship and crashed. Our early mornings and late nights had
finally caught up with us. After
lunch we both took a long nap and woke up in time for dinner.
I really, really enjoyed our time in Myanmar. Make sure to watch for the Unreasonable
at Sea Vignette called, “A Glimpse of Myanmar” in which I’ll edit together some
of the epic shots that we found. Unreasonable.is/atsea
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