Day 56 - A Little More R&R, A Museum Adventure, and a Farewell

Woke up feeling punk again, and with the onset of some Burma Belly tried Loperomide, and when that didn't work, went for the antibiotic. That did work, and so a bug may have been the problem all along.

Leaving me with only enough money for cab fare, Dana went to the tourist market in downtown Yangon in the am, with the plan being for me to join her at 1:30 at the National Museum. Following the hotel clerk's advice, I got in a cab at 1:20, believing that the way would be pretty quick between rush hours, and anyway it was going toward the city center, and in the afternoon, and so the traffic should be light, right?

Uh uh. With a driver who seemed to be somewhat inexperienced, we pulled into the National Museum driveway at about 2:10. Dana was not there, and a helpful guard, who greeted me as "Mr. Roger", told me she had already sold my ticket and left the museum. That was astonishing, but he was insistent.

After wracking my brain for a few minutes, trying to get a grip, I went through my pockets as a last resort, and found some kyat that would be enough to get me into the museum and back to the hotel, so I bought a ticket. However, just as I entered the first gallery, the power went off.

That apparently not being unusual, the staff started opening curtains so that the outer galleries had some light, and I continued through the first ones, when Dana suddenly came walking along, looking for me. Turns out she had not left - she'd only gone into the museum. The guard presumably thought she'd left when she walked out to the street to be sure I was not coming.

Since neither of us had had lunch, we went out to get a bite, while they were trying to get the power back on. We walked out and past a couple of embassies to some street stands and had bbq chicken sticks, and when we got back to the museum the power had indeed returned.

We only had an hour before it closed and so we hit the highlights, the best one being a large room full of traditional (even ancient) musical instruments, the ancestors of those being used today. Some - especially a court orchestra display - were quite photogenic, but cameras were not allowed. My favorites were the circles of drums and/or gongs of different tones that the musician would stand inside of, and the saung, the Myanmar national instrument, the earliest versions of which are seen in Pyu carvings from the 9th century.





(Pics from the web)

We managed to see quite a bit before the museum closed, and then we got a cab to the place (University Yacht Club) where we were to meet Mr. Soe and his wife and daughter for dinner. He had chosen the place and the local knowledge paid off. We were quite early for our 7:00 reserve' but figured there might be a nice place to wait, and we were right. It was on the edge of Inya Lake in a very quiet setting, and arriving early, we got a table with a great view of the rising, nearly full, moon.


and the city buildings.

We lingered over excellent yogurt fruity drinks until our guests arrived, and we wisely asked Mr. Soe to choose the menu. The dinner was excellent, and we enjoyed Mr. Soe's company again, and that of his beautiful, somewhat mesmerizing, daughter, and his wife, who did not speak much English, but who had the warmest smile I've ever seen.


This is probably the last post from Myanmar. I'll do a final wrap up from Portland.

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