Well, maybe a little spoiled by tourism… our guide this morning, Pyi, had a few angles. In fact, he’s one of the smoothest operators we’ve ever met. He was a slight, very gay Burmese man (42 years old with a family of 12 brothers and sisters and he takes care of the entire extended family – about 38 brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, etc).
Our morning started early (it’s still cool then)- 7:30 and we headed to the Shwedagon Pagoda…an active Buddhist temple with very few tourists. 
This is the most sacred of all Buddhist sites in the country. It was truly amazing- a maze of stupas and Buddhas and masses of people. It’s a strange religious mix- Theravada Buddhism mixed with Nat (spirit worship) and all tied up with astrology and numerology. They have 8 days of the week instead of 7- on Wednesday, the day of Buddha’s enlightenment, the day is divided into 2. Each day of the week has an associated planetary influence and an associated animal or symbol. The largest of the pagodas has 8 planetary stations- dedicated to the 8 days of the week. On your weekly birth day (i.e. Sunday, Monday—the day of the week you were born)- it’s your job to come to the temple and donate your time to either clean, count money or do temple repairs. You also come to pray at your particular planetary station
This is the most sacred of all Buddhist sites in the country. It was truly amazing- a maze of stupas and Buddhas and masses of people. It’s a strange religious mix- Theravada Buddhism mixed with Nat (spirit worship) and all tied up with astrology and numerology. They have 8 days of the week instead of 7- on Wednesday, the day of Buddha’s enlightenment, the day is divided into 2. Each day of the week has an associated planetary influence and an associated animal or symbol. The largest of the pagodas has 8 planetary stations- dedicated to the 8 days of the week. On your weekly birth day (i.e. Sunday, Monday—the day of the week you were born)- it’s your job to come to the temple and donate your time to either clean, count money or do temple repairs. You also come to pray at your particular planetary station
I got to take part in the “Sunday” station and pour water over the Buddha and the Garuda – Sunday’s symbol>>>>>.
After a few hours at the pagoda, we got to see a huge reclining Buddha (230 feet- the better part of a football field) at the Kyauk Htat Gyi Pagoda– his feet are mapped to the cosmology. Everything is symbolic here.
We stopped for a break at the Royal Garden restaurant and got a chance to bond with Pyi. We got a bit of guarded conversation about the state of the country, the government, etc. Evidently, the Burmese government isn’t too fond of Americans due to their vocal support of Aung San Sui Kyi. We also found out about the dual economy; our flight to Mandalay costs $90 - for the locals, it’s $25. Everything is so cheap- the official exchange rate is 5 kyats (pronounced chats) to $1….unofficially, you can get 333 kyats to $1 from the black market. The taxi for 5 hours this morning was $8.00, the guide was $10.
A morning in Rangoon and we were off to Mandalay. It was another relatively painless airport experience and a short flight on an ATR (Air Mandalay). (Although, there was some muckity muck sitting in front of us- who decided to make a stink about his seat….what a jerk- we named him “U Dick”).
Once in Mandalay, we got a cab to our hotel- the Garden Hotel. What a misnomer! The A/C doesn’t come on until 6:00 p.m.—so we immediately grabbed a cab and headed to the only A/C restaurant we could find in Lonely Planet, the Bar Man Beer Bar (BBB).. ice cold Tiger beers, A/C (run off their own generator) and a wonderful waiter, Neem (born on Wednesday- his name means “clean and cool”). We decided to continue our evening on the upstairs balcony and had our own private view of the street scene below while we had dinner.
Once in Mandalay, we got a cab to our hotel- the Garden Hotel. What a misnomer! The A/C doesn’t come on until 6:00 p.m.—so we immediately grabbed a cab and headed to the only A/C restaurant we could find in Lonely Planet, the Bar Man Beer Bar (BBB).. ice cold Tiger beers, A/C (run off their own generator) and a wonderful waiter, Neem (born on Wednesday- his name means “clean and cool”). We decided to continue our evening on the upstairs balcony and had our own private view of the street scene below while we had dinner.
While we were having dinner, the “Fortuneator” came by with his street cart and blaring music (a lot like the ice cream trucks from the ‘50’s)— it was the local lottery. I ran down to buy a ticket and see if we could win the $1M prize…our entry was the only one not written in “noodle” script. We spent the entire evening- from 5:30 until 9:00 drinking Tiger beers, eating prawns, fish and tomato soup ---for a bill of 5000 chat (about $10). (we coined our evening “doing a Keith” after the Scottish guy from our Indian trip—he told us stories of checking into hotels from hell and immediately heading to a bar to get wasted).
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