Yangon, Myanmar

 Well, this is one place I never thought I would actually get to visit in my lifetime. What an amazing experience. Even still the images are so vibrant in my mind and feelings are close to the surface.

I was lucky enough to have my dear friend suggest and organise the trip. She even made sure to get my plane ticket and visa pulled together for me or I may not have made it! I'm glad she invited me and that I got to spend some days in an amazing place with my Singapore friends.

I'm not sure why, but I didn't expect the food to be so good!  So glad to be wrong about that one! Lovely, isn't it?

The streets were definitely Southeast Asia... busy with people hawking wares,  run down colonial styled buildings and telephone wires strung across the streets.

Pomelo's are Cache's favorite fruit now. Had to get a shot of these for him. They looked so amazing perched up in piles. Just ready to eat, sans the flies ;)

This sweet little boy was in the market place. He has thanaka on his face. Used as a kind of sunscreen but also because it adds beauty to the skin. They do look cute with it on.

 This is the famous Shwedagon Pagoda.  "Absolutely amazing,"  doesn't even begin to sum it up for me. I loved it so much, I went twice.

 The first time we went was the day we landed and it was later in the afternoon. Clouds were combining and the sun went down quickly.

I learned a lot more about Buddhism on this trip. Things I really appreciate. When it comes to learning about a new religion it takes so much talking about it to understand the in's and out's. I learned more about their symbolism, which I can appreciate given my own religion.

 I love this shot of a monk praying. Our guide explained it more as wishes for yourself as you pray. In Myanmar, they are conservative Budhhist. So they are more strict as to the things they do. When you pray, you kneel and bend 5 times, touching the ground with your hands and forehead.

The pagoda in the evening sky.

They have based their Burmese astrology (which used to be Hindu?) on the eight day week. Every day having their own animal and planet except for wednesday which has one for the morning and one for the evening thus creating an 8 day week. Each day coincides with the day of the week you were born. I was born on a friday which means my zodiac animal sign in Burmese buddhist astrology is the guinea pig. Here I am washing my little guinea pig statue. The closest I may ever get to worshiping an idol. I mean, if I was going to do it, I might pick something cool like a tiger or elephant. But at least the guinea pig is cute. And I can't really change the day I was born. My ruling planet is Venus. When you come to the pagoda you find the shrine dedicated to your day and wash the different deities and parts of the shrine each three times. Starting with the Buddha statue in the middle, then the post representing the planet and then the animal statue. 

 Here's the reclining Buddha and his "follower". I love that she's reclining the same way. The guide explained that this Buddha is relaxing as opposed to the other reclining Buddha that has its eyes closed who is representing death. I'm glad this follower chose this as a place to relax and not...

 My traveling companions! What fun we had together. It's always good to have a girls trip where you get to know each other better. These ladies have made Singapore such a great (and tolerable!) place to live!

The stairs! The stairs! 

These stairs at the Shwedagon start at the locals entrance and incline slowly all the way up to the top. We didn't use this entrance the first time in. Part of the reason I wanted to go back was so I could walk them. These are the stairs I have heard so much about from the Larsen clan. Mostly they made an impression on Patrick as a young lad. He remembers them vividly. The look, the smell and feel of them. You take your shoes off at the bottom and walk up through the shops. He remembers his feet getting filthy as they walked through dirt, spittle (with beetle nut juices!) and maybe a little urine as his mom slowly perused the shops. He said it felt like it would go on forever! People would gawk and stare at all the children and try to touch their faces and hair. Remember, that this was the 80's when I'm sure most of Myanmar had never even SEEN blonde hair, let alone on cute little foreigner children!

It was after these stairs that Patrick decided he was happier at home playing with his Legos. He didn't venture out much after this, apparently. (hopefully I have my facts straight!) I'm glad I got to visit one of his childhood haunts (literally!) I just need to get back there with him, and then it will all come full circle.

The more I experience Buddhism the more it grows on me. I love this statue of the sitting Buddha.

Our guide the second day gave us the amazing experience of going to a nunnery and monastery. I was so touched by it all.

Apparently in Myanmar if you are male, you must be a monk at least 2 times in your life. You can commit yourself to however long you would like but you must do it twice. Our guide did it for a few days the first time when he was young, and then only one day when he was a bit older. It wasn't for him, he said.

This woman was in her 80's! She had few teeth but was as happy as can be. She told me she would pose just so I could take her picture. Isn't that a sweet pose?!

The women of the nunnery. Ages ranging from 8 to (apparently) 80...

Lining up for their lunch time meal of rice

 Right next door to the nunnery was the monastery. I kept seeing the monks walking by the gate so I snapped some pictures. They were out doing alms (gathering food from locals donations, for their meal)

This entire experience was tender for me. Just look at all these boys sitting so quietly waiting until every other monk was done eating. No one was screaming, or crying, or whining or throwing food. They were all perfecting respectful. It brought tears to my eyes! I hope to pull this picture out often to show my boys that they can do it too!

The monastery (and nunnery) function also as orphanages. Starting as young as 3 years old, kids who have been left by their parents will be taken in and given an education. This little boy was 4 years old. We met the school teacher responsible for giving them their lessons. He said they teach all subjects and provide the necessities for these kids until they are 18. I think after that if they want to stay and become a monk (over the age of 18, before that they are considered a novice) they can stay. They rely on the community for their daily food and monetary donations to keep the place running.

We also had our guide take us out to the wholesale market. We were the ONLY foreigners there. He said they usually don't bring tourists out there but since we said we wanted to see how Myanmar people lived, he thought this would be perfect. (did I say how AMAZING our guide was? Really!) 

This market was crazy... just piles and piles of fruits and vegetables, fish, flowers, nuts, you name it!

Sweet baby and mom with thanaka covered faces.

These are the bettlenut ladies! Beetle nut is a kind of herb/tobacco-ish/addictive substance thing they chew up. It turns red as they chew and coats their teeth and tongue a nasty shade. It's a leaf with a bit of tobacco and beetle nut sprinkled on. The kicker is they wrap it up and glue it shut with limestone water. That big white circle is limestone. The inside has been cored out and water added. It makes a fine paste. That just doesn't seem like a healthy thing to me...

This is what the market was.... multiple buildings with rows and rows of people and goods.

Our first stop was the watermelons. There is just as many behind me as you see IN this photo. I just loved it.

blecky, blecky shrimp paste, moulded in big buckets! 

This woman was really into having her picture taken. She posed for each one of us, picking a different fruit each time. In this one she looks like a greek goddess to me.

Our guide said that even last year, you wouldn't have seen people smiling or wanting to have their picture taken. If they saw a foreigner with a camera they worried that their picture would be see by government officials and they or their family would be punished for speaking out against them. There was so much fear in them they wouldn't engage with tourists. 

I'm happy to experience meeting so many happy and friendly people in this market. It's hard to believe that just so recently they were living like that.

They have slowly gained some freedoms in the last year or so and they are enjoying it. They just had their first independent newspaper open up this last spring. Freedom of the press! That's just the beginning!

Love the lady on the cell phone. The thing about these countries we visit, is so much of their culture is behind the times, and yet, some parts aren't. Our guide talked about how just 3 years ago a SIM card for a phone was $3000. The next year it went down to $500 and now its only $1.50 but because of the price and limited amounts they have to do it by lottery numbers. Even the government having that much control over the market is mind boggling to most of us. In their lives, it's just normal.

Ok... last photos. I know its a long post, but I figured it was better than 4 short ones!

Here's a reclining Buddha. This is by far the largest one I have ever seen. Took up the entire building! This photo doesn't do it justice, but at least it helps me remember how big it actually was.

The second trip to the Shwedagon was early in the morning before we flew out. We quickly noticed there were lines of people scrubbing down the incense trays all around the courtyard. I tried to get up close to take pictures and a woman shoved a bowl and brush into my hands. So I quickly joined in the work scrubbing off melted wax and debris.

Thankfully Jessie was with me to keep taking pictures or I would have missed all of it! There were so many people there helping that it actually moved pretty quickly. I did try to shuffle through as fast as I could so I could keep taking pictures because we did have a plane to catch.

monk:

farewell shot. Nothing like a bird on a wire in the middle of Myanmar.

There was so much to see and feel there. It's a special place and I get excited thinking about the future of Myanmar. Hopefully it has amazing and wonderful things in store. We hope to be back sooner rather than later. Tourism is in its infancy there, so I would love to see it again before it gets too crazy. And of course Patrick has to visit his old home just once before we move state side again. Need to get cracking on that one. You never know when that might be!