Yangon, restday two: market tourist day

December 16, 2016

"I'm starting to have problems seeing my food alive" Rachel says. "Yeah, it's a fine line" Patrick replies. We are walking through the morning market where we see chickens in baskets under the table where chicken meat is being sold on the table top. This feeling has been evolving with every pig lashed to the back of a motorcycle and chickens tied upside down on a bike heading to market.

Another rest day, in the morning we take a taxi to Theingyi Zei area. This was a great time interacting with the people. We see the Thanakha wood that is used to make the yellow paste for the face painting. A thanka tree needs 30years to mature and be harvested.The small thanka logs are ground into paste and applied to the skin as a beauty and and sun protection. Patrick finds rosewood ring as a replacement to his wedding ring lost in a river in Kyrgyzstan

Then we continued on to the Bogyoke Aung San. This is a huge covered market with lots of souvenir and handicrafts for sale in the over 2000 shops. Rachel is looking at the sarong like fabrics or longyi, that is the national dress for men and women. Men wrap the cylindrical fabric at the waist by folding into two panels and tying at the waist. Womens longyi is a strip sewn 5 inches at the waist. It's very practical dress except there are no pockets, we think that is why we see so many men carrying shoulder bags. When at the temple, if not properly dressed a longyi is provided. But what looks so natural on the Burmese people, looks out of place when seeing it on a westerner.

The rest of the day we spend not being a tourist but preparing to start cycling again. Tomorrow we start heading north to Bagan and onto Mandalay.