A Week in Yangon — Mi Mundo es Tu Mundo

If you want to experience mega culture shock in Southeast Asia, go to Myanmar! Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, kept heavy restrictions on tourism and borders for years, preventing travelers from visiting. However, in 2012, the new government loosened up the restrictions and set a plan in place to increase tourism to the country in future years. Because of previous restrictions against tourism, the culture remains very preserved and authentic. It’s not easy to find English speakers everywhere you go, and if you aren’t Burmese, you stand out A LOT! I remember in one smaller city we went to, locals ran to take pictures of me and my friend because we were foreign.

We started our travels in Yangon (formerly Rangoon), the capital of Myanmar until 2006 and the largest city with a population of 7 million. Yangon has a big city feel and is the center of commerce in the Southeast Asian country. Yangon also has 1 of the 2 international airports in the country, so it’s a main port of entry.

Once in the airport and cleared through the Visa/customs area, it’s time to get cash out. Most places in Myanmar do not accept credit/debit cards, so you’ll always want to have cash on you. Interestingly enough, major establishments will accept US dollars, but they must be perfectly crisped - no folds, no creases! I shared a Grab to the main hostel area with a couple of backpackers I met on the plane, and in total, it was around $6 or less USD. Although they weren’t staying at my hostel, the Little Monkey Hostel (~$7/night), we exchanged numbers and planned to meet up later for dinner/beers. As soon as I walked in the door of my hostel, I was greeted by another American who had checked in shortly before me. He gave me a couple minutes to put my stuff in my area, and then we set out on a quest to find the plane friends hostel and a good spot for food.

Mother's Day menu Sunday 11am-10pm. 21,000ks each and mommy eats for free!

264 Likes, 3 Comments - Rangoon Tea House (@rangoonteahouse) on Instagram: "Mother's Day menu Sunday 11am-10pm. 21,000ks each and mommy eats for free!"

*Above image taken from Rangoon Tea House Instagram

Per the recommendation of Jem’s (the American) friend, we headed to the Rangoon Tea House to try out their tea leaf salad (pictured below). The friend said we should ask for no pepper as the one he ate came so spicy he couldn’t eat it. Without the pepper though, the salad was a little bland. I wasn’t in love, but I have a feeling I would feel very different if it had pepper because I’m obsessed with spicy food and always order everything spicy. One of our friends at the table also ordered a tofu salad, and this was delicious! What came out was not the typical tofu salad though, it was actually a dish that looked like noodles. I guess noodles made from tofu! Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of this :( We left after the salad as this place was a little pricier than the average street spot, but I’m convinced it has amazing food and would love to go back. Everything on the menu and at the tables around us looked delicious. Rangoon Tea House is probably not the most authentic spot, but it does have great Southeast Asian food and a very modern, cool atmosphere.

Next stop to get more food/beers was the night market near the Latha Lann bus stop. It was labeled as a food market and conveniently close to our hostel, so we headed there looking for some dishes. We didn’t find much, mostly empty tables next to carts without good menus, so it was hard to order. We ended up ordering some vegetable dishes that were so/so, but the beers were cheap and cold, so we were happy.

After, we got along so well that we didn’t want to separate yet, so we headed to the 19th street bars/restaurants to continue hanging out. 19th street I can’t recommend enough, it’s a perfect place to people watch and observe local culture while at the same time enjoying the night with your friends. If you come early enough, you may catch the popsicle man who wheels around a game and some popsicles. We didn’t get to play because we were too late, but he still let us buy the extra popsicles he had. They are super tiny, and so refreshing in the hot temps that we almost finished them before I remembered to take a picture! If you go out to 19th street or really to any bars/outdoor locations in Myanmar, I would highly suggest bringing your own toilet paper as most places only have squat toilets and many do not provide paper.

Day 2:

This morning, Cici arrived and I couldn’t have been more excited to start traveling with her! I waited for her to arrive at the hostel around lunch time, and then once settled, we ventured out with Jem to find lunch! We ended up finding a small stall, I want to say on 20th street, but not entirely sure, where there were many food options and a number of people eating there. Unfortunately, the owner spoke close to zero English (and we didn't Burmese) so ordering was a game of point and mime! The three of us each ordered a protein entree that came with multiple sides and split the proteins. Grand total… $1.50 USD per person! And, it was delicious!

Street eats. $1.50 for each of us. The tastiest was the sauce with the cucumber and carrots and the broth/soup! We were all a little skeptical at first.

Next stop was to get longyis - the traditional wrap/skirt that both men and women wear in Myanmar. Without one, you stick out like a sore thumb! As it’s not very acceptable in Myanmar for women to wear shorts or tight pants, we decided to get them to respect the culture and fit in more. To get a longyi, you have two main options, buy one that is premade, or go out and buy fabric from the market, then take it to a tailor to have them make it for you. The second option is generally a couple dollars more, but that way you’ll have a unique longyi! We went to a couple stores, but didn’t find longyis that we loved, so we opted for option 2. After walking around with no plan for a little while, we finally came across a fabrics stand that had a ton of different longyi options. Once, we bought the fabric (~$5-7), we were directed behind the stand into what looked like a warehouse to go find the seamstress. This part was a little confusing as there weren’t storefronts..it was just walking around until you found her and all the boxes around her. She worked on the longyis one at a time and had us each each put on our longyis, measured us, then started cutting/sewing away. She also showed us how to tie them at the end since men’s and women’s are both sewn and tied differently. This was one of my favorite experiences in Myanmar because 1 - the process of picking our your every day clothing and having customize it immediately was pretty unique, 2 - seeing the excitement on people’s faces to us embracing their culture was such a good experience.

We spent the next few hours walking around and exploring Yangon. We chose not to do any of the big sites because our friend Joe was arriving for the weekend in two days, and we wanted to do the sites with him.

Locals playing games outside of cafes in the streets.

For an early dinner, we planned to go to a Dim Sum place that we had passed earlier in the day, but it ended up closing! Luckily, the nicest Burmese man that lived next door to the Dim Sum restaurant, that barely spoke English, stopped everything he was doing and walked us to another restaurant nearby with Chinese cuisine! I could not believe this level of kindness and willingness to help!! What a great recommendation too because the food was delicious! As was the beer :)

I apologize for taking a picture mid-meal, but as you can see by the half-eaten meat dishes, we loved them!

After dinner, we went to meet up with our friend Mr. Aung. While Jem and I were walking to meet Alex and Vincent on night 1, an older, local man overheard us speaking English and stopped us to chat. We were shocked at first at how good his English was because no one we had spoken with at the hostel/airport could speak like that! Mr. Aung is a Yangon local who became a devout Buddhist only a few years ago, and he LOVES to talk about Buddhism. In the five minutes we talked to him, we covered topics from Trump (go figure - I encountered this everywhere), American media, Burmese culture, things to do in Yangon, and of course, Buddhism. He was so excited to share more information on the Buddhism that they practice in Myanmar. He even wanted to give us some reading material on it! He got Jem’s number and planned to text us the next night to meet with him. So fast forward to the time to meet with him.. We met him at our hostel around 9 and he took us to The Parisian, a local cafe with all types of coffee and cakes etc. As soon as he started talking about Buddhism, he lit up - it was exciting just watching. I’m not personally trying to become a Buddhist anytime soon, but I think listening to people of other cultures talk about their religion is always interesting and helps you to learn about the culture. He even bought us coffee! At one point he seemingly touched on the Rohingya crisis - which is a very sensitive topic in Myanmar. Although he was very Buddhist (aka no killing anyone or anything) he seemed to be in support of the Burmese government. He didn’t say this verbatim, but he was almost yelling about how the Rohingya weren’t actually citizens of Myanmar. Yikes! We listened attentively and chose not to argue at all with him. Frankly, we didn’t have enough information about the crisis and weren’t comfortable having a heated discussion with someone in a foreign country with a completely different language and culture.

After our time with Mr. Aung, we found Alex and Vincent and went back to our spot on 19th street! We also snacked on some type of fried rice while there. Needless to say, on day 2 we ate well!

Day 3:

On the morning of day 3, Cici and I said goodbye to Alex, Vincent, and Jem as we were headed to the nearby city of Bago for the day. The three of them decided to go to a beach city before meeting us a few days later in Bagan. Our trip to Bago was great - It’s a beautiful city and an easy day trip from Yangon. Separate post will be linked.

Day 4:

Today was a wonderful day! Joe arrived in Yangon and because it was his unofficial birthday weekend, he covered for us to stay at the Shangri-La -aka the nicest hotel in Yangon. And let me say, at first I didn’t think it would be worth the money, but once Cici and I walked into the hotel, we were so, so happy. The feeling of AC, a warm shower, blow drying hair, in general just luxury was amazing. We couldn’t be more thankful for Joe for paying for us and letting us share the room with him!

So so so happy to be pampered at the hotel!

After Joe settled in, we went out looking for lunch. We went to a local noodle house. After lunch, we walked back to the hotel and rushed into the decently rated massage parlor the street behind the property. Foot massages are the way to go in Myanmar! We each spent $6 for an hour of leg and foot massaging. It was a great way to decompress after walking all over and in Joe’s case, flying. We spent the afternoon/early evening at the most famous market in town, the Bogyoke Aung San Market. It has many clothing stores, souvenirs, art shops, and jewelry etc. Joe joined the longyi team and even got a few of his own!

Another great thing about the Shangri-La was the Happy Hour in the Horizon Club. Joe booked a Horizon Club room (top two floors of hotel), so we had free access to a lounge from 5-7 with free appetizers and drinks. It was a nice little break from the street food and heavy sodium dishes we had been eating all week. At night, we headed to a bar in town known for its fun atmosphere and live music - the 50th Street Restaurant & Bar. After a few drinks there, we took a Grab back to the hotel and crashed.

Day 5:

In the morning, we took advantage of the gym at the Shangri-La and got a workout in - a workout with air conditioning. I don’t normally workout all that often, but after being on the Burmese diet for a few days, it felt so so good to get a little cardio in. Breakfast at the hotel was one of the best I’ve seen. The options are endless and there are so many international foods to cater to the guests that stay there. I think the 3 of us went straight into a food coma after only 30 minutes at breakfast.

After hanging for a little, we headed to the Kandawgyi Lake to see the Karaweik - a palace on the Eastern shore of the lake that is a replica of a Burmese royal barge. The restaurant inside was randomly closed when we arrived, so we opted to go to one of the restaurants in the surrounding park to have a bite to eat.

After spending the afternoon at the hotel and napping, we made it to the main site in Yangon for sunset, the Schwedagon Pagoda. The pagoda is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in all of Myanmar, and it is said to have been first constructed around 2,600 years ago! It was BEAUTIFUL, however it was also super crowded. Definitely one of those Instagram vs Reality places where in reality there are hundreds of people in all of the photos. The middle pagoda is 326 ft tall and can be seen from most of the city - photos don’t do it justice.

Around the pagoda are many smaller temples, some with monks actively praying/meditating in them. There are also many golden Buddhas surrounding the place.

The rest of our trip was pretty uneventful. We made it back in time for happy hour again, ordered room, but stayed inside the hotel for the remainder of the night. We ordered room service (I was feeling sick from the day), face-masked (as Korean beauty masks are very cheap in this part of the world), and went to sleep early. We were all traveling the next day, so it was great to go to bed at a decent hour.