The First of My Travels Alone

        All of my roommates left today to go on overnight trips with SAS.  All of my friends were also gone on their own trips; so I was alone today.  I planned some things that I wanted to do in Yangon, or Rangoon.  Originally, I wanted to get off of the ship at 11, but I decided to eat lunch on the ship, simply because of what happened with the food last night.  I knew I would have plenty of chances to try more food later in the trip.  I might have also been procrastinating.  I was pretty afraid to get off of the ship by myself.  Obviously, I have never travelled alone in a foreign country before.  I guess this is how people who study abroad in one country alone feel when they first start.  The only thing that got me off of the ship was my rationality, because honestly, my fears were irrational.  Burma is a very safe place for tourists, so if I was going to go off on my own, this would be the place to do it.  I couldn’t tell people that I was in Burma and didn’t get off of the ship for two days because I was afraid.  I only had to make it through today and tomorrow before I had trips with SAS. 

          After having lunch, I got on the bus and took the 1.5 hour ride to Yangon.  When I got off, the heat was sweltering.  I think I immediately felt sweat on myself.  That was just the humidity.  People there start bombarding you as soon as you get off of the bus to get postcards.  I did not buy any, and I might not here.  I walked around the city hall area, and some boy of 14 followed me and talked to me.  He tried to sell me postcards, and when he found out where I was from, he instantly said, “Obama!”  The boy wanted to take me around to different parts of the city, or even to his home, but I knew he would expect money, and he tried to tell me how much it would cost.  I politely turned him down.

I started walking in the general direction of the market after scrutinizing the map.  I passed by a lot of street vendors who sold things like camera batteries, English grammar books, sunglasses, tools, or food.  After about 15 minutes, I started questioning myself, but out of sheer luck the Market appeared right in front of me.  I took stairs up to the second floor in order to cross the street over to the Market.  Once again, I was on the lookout for pants, but I did not find any.  I did find two cute shirts, that I almost bought, but I didn’t have enough money on me.  Maybe I will go back tomorrow.

          I walked through the whole place, but did not find any pants.  They had many long skirts, but they were made of heavy material that is not good in the heat.  I don’t know how the local women do it.  I headed back past all of the street vendors and spotted a Parisian Coffee and Cake place.  It was so hot that I needed some water.  At the counter, I asked for a bottle of water, but they did not understand me.  Four people came up to try to help, but none of them understood.  Once I made a drinking motion with my hand they understood.  For the bottle of water I paid 200 Kyat, which is 24 cents.  That is the cheapest water ever.  You have to buy bottled water here, because the water in the river is brown.  I heard SASers calling it the chocolate river.  I sat there for about 15 minutes just watching the people.  One man just stood outside of the café and stared at me.

          I contemplated going to the pagoda, but I did not have on long enough shorts, so I had to pass on that idea.  Instead, I happened to spot the Myanmar Shopping Mall.  It was a one roomed building with two floors.  They sold mostly perfumes, but they also had a bank branch there with the initials AGD.  I was able to exchange some money and head on my way. 

        The next thing that I did involved finding a place to buy snacks.  There was a “home mart” right near the post office and it was just what I needed.  I went in, and they had everything that you would find at a Discount Drug Mart.  My purchases consisted of oreos, chocolate filled biscuits, laundry detergent, and more toothpaste.  Don’t want to run out of that.  It was getting close to the time I wanted to catch the bus back, so I headed over to the area.

          Because it was too early apparently, they would not let me sit and wait on the bus.  So I walked about 15 minutes down the road to Chinatown.  There was only one real building that looked like it had Chinese influence.  I feel like this part of town was poorer than the rest.  The street vendors did not even have tables to sell their things on; they simply used the ground.  I explored this for a little bit, and then headed back.  When I got there, I found the bus was almost full, and I had been lucky to get back when I did.  I stood around outside the bus first, and looked at all of the people.  The bus then left about 15 minutes early.  I had planned to walk over later, but I saw SASers going over and not coming back, so I went and checked.  Glad that I did.