Mar. 14, 1978 - Burma

Left for the Kathmandu airport after another brief stroll around the city and a bit of souvenir buying.  They had little jeweled temple dogs made locally that I liked.  The flight stopped in Calcutta for a short time where we got a blast of hot, humid air.  The weather was the same when we landed in Rangoon at 4:30 local time.  We were thoroughly searched by customs and made to declare everything in writing – including rings and bracelets and money.  We found out why on the taxi ride in from the airport to town.  The driver’s friend spent the entire trip inviting us to sell anything we had and to change money – he had a pocket full.  He offered us 12 to the dollar rather than the official seven.  We told him no thank you, although I felt when we got out at the hotel that he should have paid us for listening to his spiel.

The hotel, the Strand, was fully booked but she found us one room without a bath and air conditioning.  This is such a muggy place that it would be nice to have a shower in the room but we said yes, rather than wander around.  Rom is $8/night.

We walked out to the tourist office where, posted prominently, was the notice “tourists are advised that they can only go to Mandalay and Pagan by air – price $64. Tickets had to be bought with US dollars."  So much for the train ride we had planned.  We walked as the sun went down and were met by a young man who said he was a student at the engineering school on his holiday.  He invited us for tea and then wanted to take us to the main temple.  He found and paid for a taxi and then for our shoe check and lift fee.  He was well-dressed – almost the only person we saw in western dress.  Everyone else wears sarongs.

Shwedagon Pagoda is the biggest in the world.  It is actually hundreds of temples, each elaborately carved or gilded, containing statues of Buddha.  People bring flowers and folded paper umbrellas as gifts and our guide bought us flowers to present.  We watched the thousands of people who had come in the cool evening.  Some were pouring water over a statue of Buddha as a way of offering and it seemed a smart thing to do on a warm evening.  Our friend, Chesno, wanted to take us to dinner but we said no let us take you, so he took us to a small Burmese restaurant where we had rice with pork and fish and a sour vegetable salad, fish soup and a pleasant refreshing local lime soft drink.  The meal for the three of us came to 30 kat (about $4).  Traditionally, the rice is eaten with a soup spoon, using a fork as a pusher.

Our friend wants to meet tomorrow to take us to an island.  We went back to the hotel where the ceiling fan made a pleasant breeze but there were cockroaches running about and three got on the bed when I picked up my purse.  I hope I shooed them all out.