Yangon or Rangoon?

A bustling city, the biggest city (>4 million inhabitants) but  it’s not the capital!

No supermarkets, no SevenEleven (the store I wrote about last year, you get 21st century stuff but the shop is over-air-conditioned, feels like an ice-box). So shop where the locals do.

above:chilly, baby eggplant and lady fingers, tomatoes; below: Baby’s not for sale.

Traffic is on the right hand side (unusual for a former British colony) and the driver’s seat is also on the right(?!). First you think cars run on remote control  but then you realise: the driver is on the right (the wrong – the other) side of the car. It’s scary when the taxi driver wants to overtake a truck or a bus. He virtually doesn’t see the oncoming traffic until it’s too late. As co-driver sitting on the left side I used to tell the driver when the time was right to overtake…. (I hate to interfere but..)It’s my life after all …

Romantic Yangon: around Kandawgyi Lake

Wooden buildings, bridges ecc. are usually made of teak!

Houses in Yangon would be white if it weren’t for the black and green layer of mould and moss that covers the buildings. On the inside hotels are clean but no amount of waterproof paint on the walls would rid the rooms of the mouldy smell. This is true for accommodation up to 40 US$ per double room, above that …. who knows.

Sittin’ at the kiddy table                                                                                                                                   You can eat and drink anywhere you like and even sit down comfortably, as long as you are not a EuropeanXL

No need to crouch and squash your stomach! No need to go to posh restaurants either. Eat where the locals eat,

eat what the locals eat.

Eat and drink wherever you feel like it: in front of the temple, on the temple staircase, along the street ….

Greetings from Yangon even though I’m not there anymore

cheers Gerburg