Day 1:
Arrived in Yangon a little bit stunned and dazed by the world around me. It was hot and humid and really, really busy.
We wandered around looking for dinner ( I hadn't eaten in ages cos I was put off by all the stories of traveller's belly :) ). Wandering around you had to be careful because everywhere there were holes that led to the sewers below. We got lost down a street that was literally a jungle in the middle of the city! It was so overgrown and in the dark it was quite magical. The good news was that we found dinner!
Day 2:
Made my first bestie, the taxi driver. After a little miscommunication where he thought we were haggling, he taught us to count to 10 in burmese. We them visisted Shwedagon Pagoda and wet the buddhas relating to our day of birth. Walking from here we found a couples park. Everywhere we turned there were locals smooching. We were a bit out of place in our threesome.
Visiting the markets we made another good friend (this entry is basically a story of all the friends we made). Turns out he really wanted to change our money by giving us an amazingly good rate. When he started leading us down a quiet side street we decided maybe his friendship was worth forgoing.
We also worked out today that the smooching sound people have been making at us isn't their way of hitting on us, rather it is how people get people's attention. We are yet to give it a go.
Day 3:
We caught an overnight bus to bagan. Arriving at 5:30 am we were a bit disoriented and unsure of what to do. Luckily the taxi drivers were there to bombard us with advice. We drove to a nearby temple and watched the sun rise.
Afterwards we wandered around the town. Found ourselves at a temple where the shopkeepers noted Arpan's unkanny resmblance to Michael Jackson (pictures to come).They also showed some interesting sales tactics. Shoes must be taken off when entering the pagodas. They insisted we take them off ensuring that they would look after them. When we came back they had the shoes lined up in front of their stores so we would have to have a look to get our shoes back.
In the arvo we took some bicycles around bagan to look at Pagodas. You don't have to look very far. They are littered in fields everywhere! Finished off the day eating at "Be kind to animals: the moon" restaurant. They seemed to be in a rivalry with the neighbouring restaurant of the same name. They made it clear they were the original one :)
