Observations on Myanmar

Everyone sings, loudly. I know we all sing while we are in the shower, or cooking, but we don’t tend to belt out songs in public at the top of our voices. They do in Myanmar, and they’re usually pretty good.

Bus journeys are interesting. The hostesses speak on the mic with echo and it is impossible to understand a word they are saying. Many of the night buses play something like Myanmar MTV at the highest volume possible for most of the night. We think this was to keep the driver awake…but it also kept everyone else awake.

Myanmar loves loud colours and every bus we got on, or hotel we stayed in had garish bedspreads, tiles, curtains and so on. Inside a lot of the pagodas were Buddhas with flashing neon lights, or there were markets leading into the pagodas selling mini Buddhas made of shiny lairy coloured glass or metal. One of the night buses had teddy bears hanging up throughout, and Dora the Explorer neck cushions.

People working in service and hospitality are so eager to help and probably get in big trouble if they don't. This appeared to be more noticeable in Mandalay. Each time we left our hotel, we would pause for a second to work out which way we needed to go and immediately a bellboy would appear asking if we needed assistance. When our cab driver hadn't appeared one day, we went and sat in the air conditioned reception area and Baby D was immediately presented with the local paper to kill some time. We stopped one evening to get a cake in one of the many bakeries around town and we were followed everywhere by a tiny girl with a tray to put our cakes on. She was optimistic; we only bought one. It also happened in a supermarket. It can be quite off putting but it's sweet. At least they're following us to be helpful rather than because they think we are nicking stuff which is the usual reason.

Men of all ages, including too many young guys, chew betel, which seems to be similar to paan in India. Betel which is a leaf wrapped around areca nut and tobacco, is addictive and stains the chewer's teeth bright red. All over India, Nepal and Myanmar you’ll see men and women spurting this revolting red juice from their mouths and you can see the stains it leaves everywhere.

   
In Myanmar they drive on the right hand side of the road, but most of the vehicles are right hand drive, which means they can't see when they're overtaking. Burma was under British rule until 1948, where we of course drive on the left and sit on the right so the Burmese followed suit. There are a few stories behind the change to driving on the right. In 1970 when Burma (as it was known then) was under General Ne Win rule, an astrologer advised him to move the cars to the right. Another story goes that the General had a dream to move them to the right. Others say he did it to stick 2 fingers up at Britain. There are still a lot of old cars in Myanmar and many imports from other parts of Asia where they drive on the left, and no one has bothered to change the system yet, although this may be changing. They manage pretty well actually, I have seen many worse drivers in places with better systems. 

Yangon has some very high buildings. Our hotel room was on about the 15^th floor and there was no lift as is common in these old colonial style buildings. As you stroll around town you will frequently walk into bulldog clips hanging down from buildings, sometimes attached to shopping bags, newspapers and other useful items. 

We worked out that they are used on a pulley system to collect things from ground level and are then pulled up to the required floor. This is very trusting, as many items are not collected immediately. It’s also a bit annoying when the corner of a bulldog clip hits you in the face which happened 3 or 4 times to us.

Ladies love a velveteen flip flop…

People are often seen shaking big silver bowls, collecting money on roadside, while music is blaring in the background or a man is saying something through a mic. We have also seen people on the roadside giving out free food to car passengers. We were given watermelon one day and no donation was expected. We tried to find out why but no one could explain it to us. I like to think it's just because they are community minded but I don't know.

 

Thanaka is a cream or yellow paste that is extracted from Thanaka tree branches by grinding the wood against a stone plate adding water to make the paste. It is applied over the face and sometimes other parts of the body and is said to protect the skin from the sun and help with skin complaints. It is mainly children and women that use it although we saw several young men with it on, especially in Yangon. Some might just have a couple of small spots of it, others will have it smeared all over their face and many have it as squares on their cheeks.

It is said to be used for cosmetic purposes too although the girls I spoke to denied this. Maybe that was to get me to buy some. I did try it and I am convinced it help get rid of a nasty spot I had under my eye. Everyone in Myanmar has amazing skin so maybe there is something to be said for it. I bought some and will use it like a face pack in private, but I don't think it will catch on back in London.

Bottled water at the petrol station often seems to be given out for free. Our driver gave a full bottle of water to a guy at roadside who was holding a bottle and shaking it at traffic to show it was empty. Our boatman in Bagan stopped a couple of times to drink water from big water bowls left at pagodas. I don’t know if it is simply great community spirit or altruism in Myanmar as I said before because maybe clean water is too expensive for some, but you don't often see this sort of behaviour elsewhere.

Men of all ages and social backgrounds wear long wraps, like sarongs, called longyis. I would say more men wear them than trousers. Women wear something similar but in a much brighter or more patterned fabric.

#longyi #thanaka #myanmar