After a lot of sleep we got up and the rats went to sleep for the day! We had breakfast at the hostel which was rice with soy beans, a boiled egg and pickled vegetables, Burmese style. We then asked to change rooms to get away from the rats. We ended up in another double private room on the ground floor this time. No rats!!!
Next we explored a market with the hostel owner. Everyday a produce and meat market is on one of the streets close to the hostel. We bought a mango and explored all the strange smells. They eat mostly vegetables but when they do eat meat it’s usually fresh water fish because they don’t like the salty taste of fish from the sea. We also witnessed rice paper being made for spring rolls etc. It was pretty facinating to watch because they’re so fast.
We headed back to the hostel and relaxed for a few minutes before the other owner asked if we wanted to wander the city with him while he did some chores. Everyone seems so friendly here! We wandered around and learnt about some of the old colonial British buildings. At this point we were pretty tired so we stopped in at a cafe for cheesecake and a smoothie.
Brierley was in dire need of some more pants because she was surviving with one pair and having to wear them everyday. Women aren’t meant to show much skin in Myanmar and Brierleys shorts and dresses didn’t really cut the mustard. We went to the local clothes market and spent the rest of our remaining money we had on us for the day. Brierley bought some Thai style pants and was feeling very spiritual. With no money left we retreated back to the hostel and relaxed for a bit.
Tonight we headed to Shan Noodle House for dinner. It closes at 7pm so we had to go early. We got dumplings, spring rolls, sticky Shan Noodle salad and I had noodles of some description. All meals come with green tea, pickled vegetables and soup. Most of the time it’s chicken soup so I get two!
The adventure continues we went to a rooftop bar and had a long island ice tea and enjoyed the sunset.
Home, shower, sleep.
We woke up after having a peaceful sleep with no rodents. Breakfast today was noodles with pork and chicken soup! Beauty.
We then headed to the mall for a little while and bought some watermelon and water.
We explored a couple of parks near Shwedagon Pagoda and got lost in a very local market. Don’t trust Google maps in Myanmar! We then went to Shwedagon, however, we didn’t realise the entry fee was so high and it left us with no money for eating, bugger! Shwedagon is absolutely enormous and is made with real gold plates and lots of diamonds. The Pagoda contains around 40 tonnes of gold! There were lots of Buddhist people praying while we wandered around. It was under repair while we were there and there was bamboo scaffolding built very elegantly around it.
Fast forward to dinner, my favourite time of the day. We went to smile curry house and had sushi, peanut vegetable curry, Udon noodles and an apple juice and beer. Great way to end the day. Four pieces of sushi cost about $1.
Home, shower, sleep.
Kyley on Tour 