So Far

As of yesterday, I've officially been in Yangon for one week. The Eggert family and I have finally started to finally settle in; Don and Nancy are gearing up at work, we've all moved into our semi-permanent residence, and I'm starting to put a stable schedule in place for the kids, Jakob and Victoria.

We landed at the Yangon international airport at 9:30 AM on June 29th from our layover in Taipei. Even though the Eggerts and I had left Salt Lake City more than thirty hours previously, it had been a smooth and easy trip (spent mostly sleeping and reading, in my case).

If we thought we would have had time to adjust after landing, we were mistaken. Our greeter at the airport, Saya (teacher) Chit, whisked us to our hotel, the Summit Parkview, where we hurriedly changed so we could go out to lunch at My Garden across the street. While trying to look clean and well-rested, I met two of Don and Nancy's good work friends and ate some delicious "Thai-styled noodles."

The restaurants here have so far offered a huge variety of drinks and dishes, so much so that the drink and dessert menu is always separate from the extensive food menu. Most restaurants offer coffees, beer, cocktails, yogurt drinks, smoothies and "pearl" shakes for drinks. As far as food goes, many of the places we've been have fish soups, curries and noodle dishes served with sticky or fried rice. It is sometimes a challenge to find vegetarian options here; I've had to rely on the fried vegetarian spring rolls as my meal on several occasions. Jakob the "meat-atarian", however, is usually satisfied with "satays," or meat-skewers.

After our first lunch last Friday, Don and Nancy toured their new work space while I took the kids to the Shwedagon Pagoda. I hadn't planned on going to the sacred Buddhist shrine on our first day, but it so happened that our hotel was only half a block away. Without any time for background research, Jakob, Vika and I walked around the Pagoda and soaked in the sun bouncing off all the gold surfaces. It was a spectacular sight, to say the least. Though I can't wait to go back after I've had time to do a decent amount of reading about the temple, I'm glad I had the opportunity to see it through fresh eyes first.

Shwedagon Pagoda, the most holy Buddhist temple in Myanmar

We spent two days at the hotel before moving into the house we are currently staying in. Though quite simple (lacking an oven or even a microwave), it is roomy, open and furnished. It is more comfortable than it might have otherwise been, since it is usually lived in by two Canadian expats and their three kids; we have air conditioning, a TV with an abundant DVD collection, and (thank-god) Western-style toilets. There are four bedrooms, three upstairs and one downstairs where I sleep. My room, originally occupied by an 11 year-old girl, is decorated with pink camo curtains and plastered with magazine cut-outs of dogs and cats. Even so, it's nice to have my own space, which is more than I had during my stay in India.

My stay here has revealed other differences Yangon has in comparison to India. One of the first things I noticed was the traffic. Though Myanmar has recently allowed its citizens far greater access to vehicles, there are still way less cars on the road than there are in major cities in India. This is also partly is because Myanmar is less densely populated than other places; in fact, it is the least-densely populated country in Southern Asia. Additionally, though the Burmese drive on the right side of the road like Indians do, their steering wheels are located on the right side. Additionally, these streets lack rick-shaws (both motorized and bicycle). Instead, locals get rides in taxis or in a side-cart attached to bicycles (they have two seats besides the driver's: one seat faces forward, the other faces backwards). The most obvious difference between Yangon traffic and, say, Delhi traffic is the lack of motorcyles! Two-wheeled motorized vehicles were outlawed in the city when a high-ranking army official's car was hit by one years ago.

I've also noticed cultural differences. The Burmese love Jakob and Victoria, and in fact pat their heads on every outing (which the kids don't like.) Both friends as well as couples freely hold hands here, whereas in India it was only common to see close male friends touching one another. You are also far more likely to see young people dress in shorts and tank-tops here, clothes often deemed inappropriate in areas I traveled in India. However, older men here often continue to dress in the traditional bottoms: a long piece of fabric wrapped around the legs and wrapped in a knot in the front of their waist, coming to either knee-length or ankle-length.

Many of the street foods look familiar to those in India though. At the major downtown market we went to today, Bogyose or Scott's Market, I saw purees, milkcakes, chai and roasted nuts, among other familiar fruits and vegetable stalls. The market was crowded by both tourists and locals, and sold everything from fabric and houseware to artwork and jewels. I hadn't yet been to the downtown area, and I was fascinated by the mixture of traditional housing and temples, tourist-targeted restaurants and hotels, and the worn-down British buildings built during colonialism.

We're off to dinner, so I'll sign off here.