bicrom abroad

come on!

without wanting to sound too parochial, have some of that you aussie bastards! i love myanmar, but i'd kill to be in earls court around about now.

posted by bicrom @ 7:04 am

bago

i saw it from the banks of the irrawaddy at sunrise, from the top of mandalay hill at sunset, under both the dazzling midday sun and the lightning flecked skies of a genuine monsoon thunder storm, but mandalay never grew on me. it feels like a chinese town, all tv shops and pushy people, and as such is anomalous with the charm of the rest of the country. the proximity to china does have some perks however, notably pirated cable tv and therefore the prevalence of the real lingua franca, english football. trishaw drivers that haven't grasped the words yes or no can animatedly talk about ger-ad, woonie, and vantanleroy.
i actually bonded with the chaps that did the menial jobs at my guesthouse over the weekend's football, and much joy was had by all watching liverpool spurs in the lobby. unfortunately the boys were all voracious gamblers, and i fear took my sagely wisdom on the premiership a little too literally. when my hilarious predictions (l'pool 2-1, man-u 3-1, arsenal 2-0) proved to be about as accurate as a presidential spelling test a fair amount of money had been lost, and my exit on sunday was a bit hastier than it may have been otherwise.
i arrived the next morning in bago, a tiny town just outside yangon with (another) honking great pagoda and a gargantuan buddha statue. the sights were pleasant enough, but i was basically just killing some time and breaking up the journey to the capital. in the evening however i got adopted by one of the hindu ladies who worked near the guesthouse. she had discovered i was a fellow cow worshipper, and whisked me off on her scooter (much to the amusement of all spectators: girls do not drive boys here) to her local hindu temple where i was much feted and stuffed with bananas and other prasad. bago's actually rather beautiful by night: close up the shesadaw paya isn't as impressive as shwedagon, even though it's marginally taller, but as it's much more central to the town it totally dominates the nightscape, particuarly when it's lit up like a holy glowstick.
back in yangon now and planning to do very little, other than meet up with some of the chaps from inle and try and sell back some of my kyat (i've been living on under $10/ day, so have some spare. i love myanmar!)

posted by bicrom @ 6:39 am