Girl Day at the Market

July 23rd, 2002 at 12:00am

So. I am in my aircon room with private shower for $3/night in the town of Bagan. Waiting at the moment to go out to dinner with some other travellers for dinner in another hour. I arrived here yesterday by boat from Mandalay, a 9-hour boat ride in total. It was a big boat so the ride was smooth even though the water was very choppy from the wind. On the boat I met some other travellers – Edwardo from Spain, Ester from the UK, and Lori from Canada, and we spent almost the entire boat ride sitting on the deck and talking.

We arrived in Bagan at 4pm and the 4 of us decided to share a taxi to the guesthouse. We each got our own room, 4 rooms all in a row. I was in no hurry to rush around town after the long ride and I think everyone else felt the same way because we all spent the afternoon hanging out on our porches. Edwardo, Lori and I headed out to an Italian restaurant for dinner and we invited a Japanese man who we met on the street asking for a good place to eat. The Japanese man was from Tokyo and was travelling in Myanmar to scope out a future trip for him and his wife together. Apparently he goes alone first to find all the good places and then brings his wife back. Very nice man. I had a pizza with fresh basil and garlic and it was amazing.

When we got back from dinner there was a note from Mirit, the one Israeli girl I met in Kalaw, and she had just arrived by bus and was staying at the same guesthouse. She was so happy to see me! I also ran into the Slovenian couple from Kalaw who are also staying at the same place and we all had a good time hanging out, drinking beer, and telling stories last night.

Today I had a very relaxing day. Bagan is very famous in Myanmar for all it’s many, many temples and stuppas everywhere and that’s what all the tourists come to see. Mostly everyone gets up early to get out and see the sights. At breakfast I saw the Slovenian couple head out and then Edwardo, all on bicycles they had rented at the guethouse. After breakfast, Mirit, Lori and I got together to figure out what we were doing. Well we started talking and talking and almost 2 hours later we were still at the guesthouse! It was a full girl-talk session being had. We finally decided we better go do SOMETHING so the 3 of us rented bicycles and set off to the bank to change Mirit’s traveller’s cheques. Nothing in Myanmar happens quickly and going to the bank is no exception. It took over an hour to process the paperwork, get the money, count the money, and talk politics with the bank manager.

After that we were ready for lunch and we had a very leisurely time at the restaurant, eating and talking more girl-talk. Then we decided to go to the market (still having seen not ONE pagoda) and the 3 of us got sucked into a massive shopping spree. Actually we didn’t buy that much in the end but we all decided that we wanted a new skirt so we picked out some fabric and each had a skirt made then and there while we waited. At $3/skirt it’s hard to resist. We wound up being in the market for a few hours, mostly sitting around while the women made adjustments and fittings to the skirts. It was so much fun – a tota l’girl day’ which I had not had in a very long time. We had to laugh at ourselves that we still had not seen one touristic thing in Bagan after a full day here. I still have 2 more days to spend so I’m not worried about it at all.

On the way back from the market I saw Robbie, the Irishman from Mandalay – he just arrived here today. The whole group of us are going to dinner tonight and I think it will easily be a great time. Tomorrow we WILL sightsee!

Mirit, Lori, myself, and the sisters who made our skirts

Entry Filed under: Bagan,Myanmar