We stayed at the Royal Guest House on 25th Street, not far from Mandalay Palace and moat. The city is laid out in a grid of mostly one way streets, so it's not difficult to get around. The guest house is licensed to host foreigners so while tiny, kind of like being in a doll's house, it was full of mostly French and German backpackers. Our room looked out on an inner courtyard with trees and had lots of daylight. Air con only worked when the government power was on ( very episodically) but the generators provided for ceiling fan and mini-fridge. Hot water was available from about 7 am to 8 am, but it was so hot that cold felt pretty good. The toilet was another matter....ancient thing with a tank up on the wall. Did not like to flush at all! 'Nuff said. The staff, mostly young Burmese women, spoke English and were delightful; answered questions, gave directions, suggested places to eat, etc. Usually $12 US/night, but because we were there for 16 days we paid $11. And it had to be in new, unmarked US bills. Never mind that kyat (Burmese currency) is so tattered, torn, and just plain filthy that you can hardly read the denomination. The largest denomination is 1,000 (about $1 US) so you end up carrying bricks of money around.
Mandalay Palace is in the northwestern part of the city; mostly reconstructed, it is the home of the Tatmadaw (army), and surrounded by a moat on four sides. Each side is about 2 kms. long. People use the moat sidewalk to do calisthenics, jog, or play chess with giant wooden game pieces that seem to be trucked in and out each day.
Markets are big business in Asia, and the Zeygo is no exception. Housed in a huge concrete building with a rabbit warren of corridors and stalls and usually no light, it spills over onto the adjacent streets. You can buy anything from engine parts to avocados, to string, to Chinese medicine, to live birds.... I was in search of plastic baskets made from colored strapping, chinau in Burmese (or something that sounds like that, kind of). After asking one vendor after another and getting directions to all 4 compass points, we stumbled across an alley with nothing but. Heaven! Then we went inside the market looking for longyi material and someone to sew it into a tube and put the black band around the top that supposedly helps it stay in place. Success on all counts!
Cell phones are not as common here as they are in Thailand. Dotted around the streets you will see someone at a desk with a land line phone, the wire snaking back into his/her shop/house. For a few kyat, you can make a call. If you're lucky the lines will be working. If not hop on your bike or scooter and go to see the person you were trying to reach.
On some corners there are big concrete cisterns of water; open air public bath house. You wash with your longyi on, just scrub body and cloth together.
These last two photos are by Kyaw Win, one of the MSppa students.
Did I mention the dust? It's like brown talcum powder and covers everything no matter how often you wipe it off. We wonder if our feet will ever return to normal color again. And yet most Burmese manage to look cool and clean, (feet included) with freshly pressed white shirts and longys...
This is the communal Bic lighter present in all Burmese restaurants and tea shops. Sometimes there's a little box of smokes to be sold individually as well.
Life on the street. There's a lot of it; it's hot inside. Monks early in the morning with their begging bowls.
The Moustache Brothers have been doing political satire in their tiny home for years. Periodically thrown in jail, the three brothers, their wives, and assorted other family members continue to perform for foreigners. The cost is 8000 kyat, about $8 US, which they use to help political prisoners.
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