Teach. Eat. Travel.
  • Home
  • The Blog
  • The Places
    • Myanmar
    • Asia
  • The Updates
  • Photography
    • Myanmar Photography
    • Weddings & Portraits
  • About Alisa & Kim

Social, Show, & Slowdown | Week 7 Update

10/31/2014

0 Comments

 
Teacher Social

It was another Friday night which means Friday festivities! A bit of a change from our usual scene, Kim and I headed to 50th Street Bar & Grill for a teachers event. 50th Street is a very well known expat establishment downtown. It has a very classy feel like that of a fancy NY pub. As I have come to learn here in Yangon, the nicer looking the establishment the higher the prices. This is the only place in town that you will pay $30 for a steak. In their defense though, this is probably the only place in town to get a decent steak. You could probably put every restaurant here in two categories: local and expat. As we tell our couchsurfers, with the local places you pay local prices and with expat places you pay expat prices. Plus the extra tax and service charges. Not trying to complain here, it is just a fascinating separation between the classes. 

All in all it was a fun evening meeting other teachers from around the city. There were two other international schools there: International School of Yangon and Yangon International School - people are not very creative with their school names here (if you are keeping track you will know that my school is called International School of Myanmar and yes, there is a Myanmar International School in town also). It is strange to be in an environment (outside of school) where you can understand all of the conversations going on around you. 

As I circulated the room and meet new people we had the same exchange of conversation over and over again: What school are you with? How long have you been here? Where are you from originally? Do you like it here? How long do you plan on staying?  And so on and so forth. I did get to get to know some pretty cool people and am looking forward to seeing them again soon!
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Thin Thinn's Art Show

On Saturday Kim and I went to our first art exhibition in Myanmar. We were invited by my art assistant Thin Thinn, who had two pieces in the show (it was a group show). It was held at the New Treasure Gallery in Golden Valley - this area of town is right by my house and holds the highest class of Myanmar. Seriously, you should see the houses here! I'll take some picture for you soon. 

Back to the show . . . The New Treasure gallery is owned and run by Min Wae Aung who is THE most famous artist in Myanmar. His work can be seen all over the world as a representation of Myanmar. All throughout the country you will find artists making reproductions of his famous traveling monks to sell to tourists. Everyone in the country knows his name. And, funnily enough, his son is a student at ISM! This is why at the end of every school year we hold a huge student art show in this amazing space!

The gallery itself was in a renovated house with at least four floors all of which were filled with artwork. There are some spectacular artists here! Most of what was showed were realistic paintings - the majority of them being watercolor. This is the norm for Myanmar - they consider art to mean that it is pretty and nice to look at. There is a rise of contemporary artists but it is still against the cultural norm at this time. 

It was a lovely morning gazing at the artwork and chatting with Thin Thinn and the other ISMers that came to the show. I even got to meet Min Wae Aung and his family in person which was pretty cool. I'm looking forward to this being just the first bit of art life that I get to experience here.  
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Art Show openings are held a little differently here. Unlike the evening openings that they have in the States, almost all openings here are morning events - often on weekends. With the opening there are a slew of treats available to munch on and tables to hang out at while drinking tea and talking about the artwork. There were a variety of food items at this opening including some sort of fried noodles, hot dog type things, and lots of little fried foods. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Hot & Roll

When we went grocery shopping this weekend we realized after we arrived at the store that we were getting hungry. Everyone knows that it is a bad idea to shop on an empty stomach so we decided to grab a bite to eat before heading in. We just wanted a snack so we decided to share one of these Hot & Roll. It turned out to be a crepe with a choice of toppings. We went for the BBQ chicken one which included cheese. It was actually quite tasty.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Taking a Slow Down

In the weeks leading up to the move there were many times I would be just going about my normal day-to-day business when all of a sudden the fact would hit me that we were moving to Asia. We, normal, simple, easy-goers from no-where Maine, were moving to Asia. It just seemed preposterous that a change that ginormous was about to happen. A change that would make the world as we knew it seem like a distant dream. I remember those moments vividly now, especially the strangeness of the feeling that accompanied them. 

The other day I was just walking down the street coming back from eating lunch at a street stall near the school and, just as sudden as it had come before, I had the realization that I am here.  Here. In this place. I am living in Myanmar. I am walking down the street, with all of these strange but friendly people staring and smiling at me. As I crunched one of the giant tree leaves that had fallen on the ground in front of me, a deep feeling of gratitude set inside my chest. This is what it must feel like when you succeed in finally achieving a goal that you have been dreaming about for so long, and that was so big it seemed more like a crazy dream than any sort of reality. And I smiled as I began to come to terms with the fact that this, this messy, beautiful, exotic, frustrating, peaceful, loud, confusing place is where I live. This is my life. I let that thought rest inside of me and it stills me. It wraps around me like a big comfy blanket on a cold night saying, “Shhhh, you can rest now, you did good.” It is asking me to take time to enjoy this place and all it has to offer, to be appreciative and to slow down. 

Since I got here I have felt like I was going 100 miles an hour, trying to see all the sights, help our apartment feel like a home, plan enough for school to get me through the next day, and begin to make sense of this wild place. I’m finally here and there is so much, so much to see, so much to do, so much to experience. The words from my yoga teacher, Heidi, creeps up into my mind, “Be kind to yourself,” she would tell us. Just because you are capable doesn’t mean you need to. I take a breath and let those words sink in a bit further and remind myself that I am not just here for a week or a month, but rather years. I hold on to the weight of gratitude that settled into my chest and notice the lady feeding the lunch leftovers to the stray cat who was meowing at her ankles. And I am thankful, thankful for cats, thankful for only ladies that feed them, thankful for the rice and unknown type of meat that I just ate for lunch, but mostly I am thankful just for being. Here. In this place. Finally.

Picture
Picture
*These were taken by Kim on our recent trip to Inle Lake, be on the lookout for that post because it was epic!!*
0 Comments

Strange Korean Store Treats

10/30/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
Kim and I have a Korean Grocery Store right across the street from us that is just filled with strange food items. We picked up a few of them today and gave them a try. How did it turn out? Let's just leave that to the video.
1 Comment

Circular Train, Couchsurfers, & Cosmos | Week 5 Update

10/20/2014

0 Comments

 
Another great weekend started with taking it easy and watching E & H so Sharon and Steven could have a night out. Saturday morning we met up with the four of them to go for a ride on the Circular Train. The Circular Train is a slow-moving train that makes a loop around Yangon over a three hour time period. 

Read, Watch, & View our experience on the Circle Line Here

Picture
On the way back I managed to gu-estimate which stop to get off to be closest to the Shan noodle place that we love so it was only a very short walk before we were seated in front of some noodles and dumplings. Yum! Here is a video of the awesomness (don’t mind how incredibly hot and sweaty we were, three hours on an open-air train in the tropics will do that to you):

Still very hot, we tried to find some ice cream but ended up with this creation called a caterpillar that was so overly sweet and artificial. It was not good. Not good at all. 

Picture
Couchsurfers

I had always admired the concept of couchsurfing, letting a fellow traveler crash on your couch (or spare bed or even floor) for a short time as they are passing though. Unlike airbnb or similar sites where you can rent out your spare room to visitors, couchsurfing is completely free for both the host and the guest. The only thing I expect to gain is meeting new friends and fellow travelers that can share their stories and advice, plus some good karma and hopefully some invites to other’s homes across the world. Seeing as we lived in the middle of Maine, we didn’t get a whole lot of travelers wondering though our neck of the woods; but here in Myanmar, the backpackers are flocking in now that the country is open to foreigners with the hopes to see this unknown land before it gets run over with modernization. With few foreigners that live here and even fewer ones that have extra space to offer guests, as soon as I signed up with couchsurfing.org I began receiving requests to stay. 

Picture
This weekend we accepted our first couchsufers, two young backpackers from China, Rachel & Jo’di. We invited them out to join us for our Sunday tradition of dimsum and it was just as delicious as ever. Then we wandered around the mall area and found a $1.80 store where Jo’di explained this contraption to me that was designed to make your face slimmer. I also found a “lame mirror,” as well as a phone store that sounds like they take really good care of their customers.

Picture
Picture
GOOD Mobile
"We care your mobile"
"We do with passion"
Picture
Picture
Betel Nut

Picture
After dinner we decided to walk around the neighborhood where the dimsum restaurant is. We saw the usual street markets, which included selling produce, deep fried snacks, and gadgets. The girls came across a stand that was selling Betel Nut. 


See Kim Try Betel Nut Here
Amusement Park

Picture
As we continued wandering the streets we stumbled on the very last thing I would expect on a random back road of Yangon – an Amusement Park. It was the creepiest, funniest, most strange find ever. As it was almost 9pm we expected it to be closed but the happily let us in to wander around and I could only think of one thing – that this would be the PERFECT place for a creepy serial killer movie. Let me set the scene for you.

Firstly it is pitch dark, the only lights coming from the off-colored bulbs on the rides that are almost all standing perfectly still except for the occasional merry-go-round which is spinning without anyone riding on it. In fact there is not one person there at all, visitor or worker. As you hesitantly walk around the plastic characters intended to entertain the children look anything but cute as their creepy eyes seem to follow you wherever you go. I continued to glance behind us to make sure we weren’t being followed by a man wielding a giant machete or something. When I turn back around a man appears out of the shadows motioning to an old, peeling sign that says “haunted house.” Always up for an adventure, the group decides to take him up for it and we hand him $700 kyat ($0.70 usd). With a low, menicing laugh he directs us to a dark doorway that I am unable to make anything out beyond the door frame and waves us a slow goodbye. That was the last time anyone every heard from Alisa, Kim, and their couchsurfers. 

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Hehehe, obviously not – but that is seriously what it felt like at this place. The haunted house was actually really good. It was just the right amount of scary/creepy and poorly constructed making it funny.  This is my favorite kind of adventure, when we wander around and stumble upon crazy random awesome things. 

Rainy Cosmos

Monday started off another school week, in the afternoon I joined a group for the first yoga lesson offered by another teacher (and yoga instructor) in one of the classrooms. I am so glad to have a yoga class again! On Tuesday I began my first meeting of Photo Club. The idea is to get a group of photographers (students, teachers, staff, ect) together to learn some new techniques and practice together. It was a small but interested group that joined, hopefully I will be able to have a great time in the club this year.

Wednesday, Shelly and I decided to go grab some dinner after school. I took the bus over to her apartment and we grabbed a taxi downtown. We didn’t have a real destination but decided to just wander around and see if we could find something tasty to eat. A short while after getting in the taxi we were stuck in the ever growing Yangon traffic – one of the most frustrating and most unavoidable parts of living in a city (especially one with no city planning). After sitting at a light for a good 15 minutes we decided to just get out and walk around that area to see if we could find something to eat. Of course as soon as we got out of the taxi the light turned green and it speed off. That’s okay, not a big deal, but looking around we realized that we were in the wrong part of town to find food because there were no restaurants –not even any stores- in sight. We did the only thing we could do, started walking. I kid you not, after only ten steps or so the skies opened and it started pouring. Now, of course it was not just sprinkling or raining a bit, oh no, it was one of the normal Myanmar monsoon rains that feels like buckets of water being dumped on you.

Shelly was smart enough to have a small folding umbrella with her but I hadn’t picked up the habit yet. Although she tried sharing, her attempt was in vain due to the miniature size of the umbrella and the massive amounts of rain. Since there was no where to duck into we did the only thing we could – kept walking. It looked like we were in the area of Vista Bar where I had gone over the weekend so I gave my best estimate at how to get there and we trudged on.

After taking a wrong turn we found ourselves at one of the entrances to the famous Shwedegon Pagoda. This entrance is unique in the way that it is split halfway through so a road could run through it. We turned left to take a shortcut through the other half of the entrance to reach the road below. As we were almost out of the entrance hall we were stopped by a middle-aged local lady who pointed to our shoes and said “no.” I realized that we hadn’t taken off our shoes when we came through the entrance because we were going backwards. Normally I try to be very respectful of the traditions and customs of the locals but we were literally only 10 feet from the street so we skirted around her saying “sorry” and pointing to the outside.

Normally I would have loved to take the time to curiously wander through the shops we found at the foot of the entrance but by now we were soaked, hungry, still unsure of how to get where we were going, and grumpy from being yelled at. So we hurried along and after another 20 or so minutes of walking finally, FINALLY, found ourselves at vista where we gladly welcomed some tasty drinks and happily munched on some western food as we watched Shwedegon’s lights turn on. 

Picture
Picture
Picture
I don't think I'll ever get sick of this view, ah, Shwedegon
0 Comments

The Circular Railway | Yangon's Circle Line

10/14/2014

0 Comments

 
The Circular Train is a railroad that loops in a circle around Yangon. It starts at a big station close to downtown and travels all the way up to the outskirts of the city, then it curves back around, passes my school, and ends back at the station.

A couple weekends ago we decided to give the Circle Line a ride and we headed off with our friends Sharon, Steven and their two kids, Hazel and Kean. When we arrived at the station we had a bit of difficulty finding where to buy tickets, after going through the wrong entrance then standing in the wrong line for 15 minutes, a kind station worker pointed us in the right direction and soon we were on platform 7 waiting at the correct counter. The ticket seller was very helpful and asked if we wanted to take the “aircon” train or the “local” train. We had heard of these options and knew that the “local” train would give us more of an authentic experience so we chose that one without hesitation. We were told by many different sources that we (as foreigners) would need a crisp $1 bill (usd) as fare for the ride. This, luckily, is no longer the case – seriously, who carries around crisp $1 usd bills?? We only paid 200 kyat a piece, which is about $0.20 usd for the ride.

After getting our tickets we waited on the large platform for about 20 minutes until the man who helped us came to show us to our train that had just arrived. We happily jumped on and spread out on the long benches that lined the whole length of the train. The benches were right under the windows facing each other leaving a large aisle in the middle. We weren’t waiting long before the train wheels began slowly turning, creaking with age.

The train pulled out of the station and began a steady “clunk, clunk” rhythm as it meandered on the tracks. Yangon has less than a handful of high-rises making it difficult to use landmarks as notes of where you are in the city, so starting almost immediately after we left the station and lasting the whole ride it was impossible to tell which area of the city we were in. As we got used to the steady pace of the slow-moving train, we were happy to sit back and stair out the windows to gaze as the town passed by.

There were no big sights to see or exciting events, instead we watched the day to day lives of the local people. Often we saw people crossing the tracks or waiting on the road for the train to pass by. It was an echo of what we see in the residential neighborhood that my school is in. After only a few minutes we pulled up to the first stop. A simple station marked by a long bench on either side of the tracks and a walking bridge that spread over the top to connect the sides. There was a quite bustling of people moving around, getting on or off, hurry to their next destination. The train only stopped for a few minutes before setting off again.

Like most other times when we walk around town, we got constant stares from people all around us. Especially being with the children caused us to get a lot of attention (Myanmar people just LOVE kids!). I don’t mind it very much. I feel like I stare at them enough they have the right to be curious and stare back at me. The best part is that whenever I see children staring at me I figured out that if I smile and wave I will always get the same back. Then if they see my camera they usually will make a pose of some sort. It’s great! At one point while I was walking down to the other end of the train I noticed a local trying to get a picture of me on his phone so I stopped and let him take one then followed suit and took my own of him. It actually makes me feel like a celebrity.

Before long the scenery changed from buildings to neighborhoods, from neighborhoods to houses, houses to scattered structures, scattered structures to just fields. This was the first time that we had seen any sort of country setting in Yangon and it was a welcomed scene. We enjoyed the greenery before the train made the loop and started heading back into town.

There were so many interesting people on and around the train. At one point a man came and sat next to us with a wicker basket that was latched at the handles. He was there for a good half an hour and when he stood up to leave he grabbed his bag and it gave a loud quack – we hadn’t even noticed that there was a live duck in the bag!! He was not the only one to bring poultry on the train, there was also a man carrying two large buckets that ended up being filled with chickens! 

After about two hours of riding we were pretty hungry and I was so excited when we stopped and some people selling snacks got on board. I hurried down half of the train to catch them and buy the snacks. One person was selling something similar to Chinese fried noodles but in one big piece – it was tasty. The other person was selling what turned out to be a thinly fried tofu that was cut up into bit sized pieces and served with spicy sauce. I didn’t really care for that one but Steven and Sharon, who are both vegetarians, loved it!

Three hours after we left the station we rounded back into downtown. I managed to guestimate the stops and we hopped off the one right before the large station which landed us in the heart of Bogyoke market – exactly where we were headed. All in all it was a lovely way to spend a Saturday morning, calm and slow paced. This was a great way to get out of the hustle and bustle and see the city from a different point of view. 

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Kout Nyin Htote | Traditional Myanmar Rice Dumpling

9/29/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
When I went to CityMart the other day (the big grocery store near us) they had a stand that was selling these green triangles. I have seen them around town a couple times and thought it was about time to try them. I knew that they were banana leafs wrapped around sticky rice, what I didn't know was what was inside of them. Watch the video to find out how we liked it.
Note: I later found out that we were in fact not supposed to re-heat it like we did. I still don't know what was inside this dumpling but I would be willing to try it again but defiantly with something different inside this time. 
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Alisa & Kim

    Two expats living, teaching, and eating their way across this beautiful world

    Picture

    Archives

    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    December 2017
    November 2017
    August 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    About Us
    Amusement Park
    Animals
    Anniversary
    Around Town
    Art
    Art Gallery
    Artists
    Art Teacher
    Artwork
    Athens
    Bali
    Beach
    Birthday
    Buddha
    Burma
    Bus
    Camping
    Cat
    Cave
    Celebrations
    Chinese New Year
    Circular Train
    Color Village
    Couchsurfing
    Culture Class
    Date Night
    Digital Art
    Doctor
    Dog
    Downtown
    Eat
    Ellie
    Entertainment
    Expat
    Family
    Farewell
    Festival
    Fire Balloons
    Flying
    Food
    France
    Freediving
    Greece
    Ho Chi Minh City
    Holi
    Holiday
    Honeymoon
    Hong Kong
    India
    Indonesia
    Inle Lake
    International Teaching
    Isreal
    Istanbul
    Kim's Cooking
    Lion Dance
    Living Abroad
    Local Transit
    Maine
    Malaysia
    Medical
    Mexico
    Monks
    Morocco
    Moving
    Myanmar
    Myanmar Food
    Night Life
    Outside Yangon
    Packing
    Pagoda
    Pandemic
    Paris
    Paya
    Pearl Condo
    Pets
    Philipines
    Photography
    Quarantine
    Reflections
    Resources
    Road Trip
    Saigon
    Shopping
    Shwedagon
    Smoothee Foodee
    Snacks
    Street Eats
    Students
    Teach
    Teaching
    Teaching Abroad
    Thailand
    Traditions
    Travel
    Turkey
    Vietnam
    Walking Tour
    Wedding
    Weekend Getaway
    Weekly Updates
    Wet Market
    Yangon
    Yoga
    Zoo

    RSS Feed