Working on the street

Stepping out into Yangon during the afternoon was a different experience. The streets were packed with cars, old busses honking loudly and frequently, and the sidewalks were packed with vendors selling strange and disturbing foods and drinks, as well as clothes, calculators, batteries, books, remote controls, you name it, as long as it's ten years old. A kid shouted "hello banana?" at us when we walked past. When we looked we saw he was selling ears of sweet corn. Myanmar is the only country in South East Asia where everyone wears traditional costumes. Everyone, men and women, wore longyi, a silk sarong that men tie with a rather phallic knot in front, and women stylishly fold and tuck. The women, children, and some young men had painted faces. Some smeared the white paint all over their faces to keep the sun off, others had circles or stripes on their cheeks. Some smeared it on their feet too, since nobody wears closed-toe shoes. Women carried large baskets on their heads.

Our first task was to buy some kyat (pronounced "chat"), Myanmar's currency. Since the "official" rate is 6.20 per dollar, we had to resort to the open market. Last night a shopkeeper offered us 1100 per dollar for a Franklin, so that was the rate to beat. We headed to a market and talked to a couple "hello change money?" guys hanging out on street corners. Even after Marie's expert haggling they would only give us 1080. At the market it was the same story, so it was back to our friend from last night. He led us down an alley and into a stairwell, where a guy had a big bag of money and a calculator. We got 110,000 kyats in 1,000 and 500 kyat notes, and carefully counted the huge stack of bills. Armed with money we could spend on the street, we headed out in search of food.

Due to desperation and confusion, we ended up at a Burmese "fast food" joint called KCC (Kentucky Crap Chicken?) Due to the sanctions, Myanmar is one of the few in the world countries not under American influence. This means there are no McDonald's, KFC's, Dunkin Dougnuts, or 7 Elevens. However, there are places with vaguely familiar names, such as MacBurger, Tokyo Fried Chicken (?), and J's Donuts. The soda's are interesting too: Crusher (Crush), Fantasy (Fanta), Star (Pepsi), etc. KCC's "chicken bryani" was greasy and disgusting. Unfortunately this would become a common theme.

Next we went to what we thought was Shegadowa Paya, but was actually Sule Paya, trying to ignore the kids offering to sell us postcards. After seeing photos, I was disappointed with how small it was. We would later discover the discrepancy.

We wanted to sample Burmese tea, so we headed for a teashop. A nice old guy came up and talked to us (beware), then tried to sell us a trip to Kyaiktiyo for $25 each. Bugger off. People trying to rip me off all the time is getting old quick.

The tea shop turned out to be a local hang-out, and we sat across from a young Burmese guy and his nephew. Marie took my phrasebook and tried to talk to him, which proved impossible since Burmese is an impossible language. By showing him the book he taught us a couple phrases. It turned out he spoke English, so we chatted with him, and took him to a "pub" for beer. He's a 19-year-old kid named Aung (kinda like the Burmese equivalent of Bob), who works 10 hours a day in a travel agency, earning $50 a month, and goes to university (they are open now) on weekends studying physics. I asked him what kind of job he wanted when he graduated, but he couldn't really answer, since there are no jobs for educated people in Myanmar. As such he really wants to go to America or Australia, which is impossible. It's so sad that such an intelligent and ambitious young man has no future.