Day trip

Earlier this week, we took a trip out of town: we crossed the river with the huge ferry which mostly serves commuters who live in the countryside and work in Yangon. It was our first time on the other side.

The day started on the ferry, where I was trying to practice my Burmese reading. Needless to say, I didn’t understand the sign.

On the other side these small, beautiful boats were parked

And after the boats, were the taxis.. car-taxis, motorcycle-taxis, trishaw-taxis. We were immediately bombarded with “hello, where do you go?”, “hello, taxi?”, “hello, where are you from?”. Since everyone is so friendly, you feel bad just ignoring them so you always try to somehow respond (though to me it’s still a mystery how to respond to “where do you go”). We ran away from them (though we in fact needed a taxi), and went for a Myanmar-tea at a surprisingly chilled-out teahouse. We also had a delicious sufgania (Berliner) which was filled with a sweet bean paste.

We started wandering through the village; amazing how rural it gets just 5 minutes away from Yangon. We saw some really beautiful houses; anything from bamboo shacks to colonial houses.

And we got to see goats cuddling.

After wandering a bit around, getting lost, taking a tri-shaw and then a 40-minute packed and bumpy pick-up ride, we finally arrived at Twante (which I still can’t say in a way locals understand). The lonely planet wasn’t too psyched about it but still recommended it as THE day trip from Yangon, with the main highlight a visit to the local pottery. You will notice there are no pictures of pottery in this post (and not because we didn’t go there).

We started with lunch and a visit to the market; I was delighted to find this interesting combination of stamped tofus.

Saw some colorful veggies in the market..

On the way to the pottery place, we saw this lady.. normally I don’t photograph locals without their permission, but this time I just couldn’t help it.

note the use of cabbage as a pillow.

So, that’s it. Preparing to leave this mechukmak but cute town, I took a picture with its famous clock-tower. Earlier today, following a “where do you go?” we decided to use it to our benefit: we knew the clock tower was the major landmark in town, and asked for directions to it. Needless to say, they had no idea what we were talking about or what a clock-tower is. Makes you wonder.

 After a return ride which started with 30 minutes waiting for the mini-bus to fill up to 150% occupancy, and then a bumpy 40 minute ride, we reached the ferry back, which unloaded all the commuters coming home from work. And we got a beautiful sunset with seagulls from the top deck.. you can feed them and they flight right up to you.

Conclusion: tourism in Myanmar is difficult, hot, buggy, but still somehow rewarding.