Monday morning began with our usual mad dash for breakfast street food. Somehow breakfast never really ends. When you're walking all day through the city streets of Rangoon(old Burmese for Yangon) the eating is continuous.
(Our breakfast of Samoo Sa To)
After our first ravenous eating fest of the day and a bit of shopping while viewing local city workers pave back streets,
we found ourselves in a taxi leaving downtown to meet our monk friend.
The taxi ride took close to an hour and cost $4. Upon entering a rather impressive university style main gate we drove for a mile or two more. We passed numerous alternate gateways identifying different areas of Buddhist study. One said Center for Meditation Study. Another identified English teachings.
We drove through dirt roads and along hordes of street merchants until we pulled up in front of a two story structure surrounded by other similar old open-walled buildings. We hopped out of the Taxi and stepped directly into a mass of 5-12 year old apprentice monks playing a soccer game in the dirt courtyard. We were greeted by our monk friend with the warmest smile of appreciation as he guided us up the stairs and sat us down with 3 other monks at a table containing coffee and tea. For two hours we discussed Buddhism, life, afterlife, energy, travel and our plans. We then received a personal tour of the monks quarters
and the grounds. Very cool! I gave Variswammi my copy of Jack Kerouac's "Wake Up" as a token of appreciation for his hospitality. I figured this would be a qualifying indication of my respect for both he and Buddhism as a whole as the book is Jack's interpretation of the life of the Buddha coming from, well, Jack Kerouac (or an interesting western interpretation). He loved it and told me all the monks would read it. "Shit", I thought, not wanting to confuse any young monk apprentices but left it at that!
After leaving the monastery we took a taxi with monk in tow to see a Pogoda close by and even closer to Variswammi's heart.
All in all an amazing experience that I'd doubt most visitors (if any) have ever experienced.
Like Saturday and Sunday we stayed in the Golden Star hotel for our last night in town. On the way home last night I bought my first Longyi.
A longyi is the traditional Burmese wrap which is still widely used by most of the men instead of pants and most time underwear. They come in all kinds of colors and designs and are a serious comfort when it's hot & humid with touch of a breeze. The looks given to us by the locals viewing us in our authentic threads are funny yet adorable. Their indications are much like being appreciated for speaking the native tongue. Burmese people really loved seeing 2 westerners walking through the neighborhoods in longyis.
We look so good, two girls thought we were locals!;))
We made it back to town after dark tonight in time to catch the first quarter of the Myanmar/Indonesia soccer game before the electricity went out and forced us to bed early.
Tomorrow we leave for Mandalay by Train.
No comments:
Post a Comment