Thursday, 19 November 2009

  • A Woeful Story about My Pinky Toes

    I don't know why. Aren't there any good shoes in Yangon that doesn't leave wounds on my feet? -_-

    There was a company event on Tuesday, so I went there, wearing a new pair of shoes to match what I was wearing. Half-way to the bus stop, I was limping because the straps on the shoes were hurting my pinky toes. So I had to buy a bandage at a shop near bus stop, and stick it on. Yeah, very suave. hahaha


    This is the shoes that made my pinky toe get hurt :(
    (You can see the bandage on my left pinky toe :P)

    Is it because the shoes I bought were cheap? I mean cheap as in less than 10,000 Ks.? Would it matter if I bought shoes from Charles N Keith, which costs like more than 30,000 Ks.? Would my feet be better that way?

    Well, I do know for a fact that if I spent that much on shoes, I would totally get scolded. haha

    Since my pinky toe has a flesh wound now, I am wearing velvet slippers. I love velvet slippers. They're very comfortable, and has unique designs too.


    Me wearing Burmese velvet slipper

    But the one I'm wearing is an old one that I had put in office to change into if the other shoes got wet in the rain or something. So I have to buy new pair of velvet shoes. They only cost about 1700 Ks. ($1.5) so after the rainy season, I wear these shoes, changing every month. :D

    I also like wearing shoes that look like ballet slippers. They're very comfortable, but sometimes also hurt my feet. So I have to wear bandage on toes beforehand. haha


    still wearing occasionally but doesn't look as new anymore

    I remember that I bought this while I was in Indonesia. I had to put on some bandages on my feet before wearing it, but only on the heels. So I carried around bandages in my bag. =P

    I think my feet are just too sensitive. -_-

Friday, 13 November 2009

  • Buses


    The Orange Coloured Bus is called "Ga Gyi" Bus
    (named after the 4th Burmese alphabet)

    When I come to work, and go back home, I usually take these "Ga Gyi" buses. There used to be a time a few years ago when buses going/coming from North Dagon is rare and few, so at rush hours, buses can be really really really crowded. But nowadays, those buses are still abit crowded, but not as much as before because of the "Ga Gyi" buses.


    Inside the Bus at Night

    It's usually already dark by the time I go back home. When I go back home, I don't want to have to stand up so I usually ride the bus at the end gate, and the bus will loop around Sule Pagoda roundabout to the start gate (which is at the opposite side of the road from the end gate but not directly across from each other) continue on its return journey. I don't usually have to pay money for the bus ride to the start gate, and I'm not the only one to ride like this too.

    Ofcourse, when I'm really late and in a hurry, I don't do this and just ride from the start gate, because sometimes, the buses stops for a long time at the end gate, calling for passengers.


    108 Dyna Bus
    For example, 108 bus. It waits for passenger at the end gate for such a long long time, and also do the same at the start gate. So I only take the one that's about to leave from the start gate. It can be abit faster than "Ga Gyi" buses because they take a different route from those buses, and there are few stops along the way. So when I'm in a hurry, I usually take this bus.

    There are also 202 buses, which is the recent addition along this line (Sule - North Dagon line, I mean). I haven't taken a photo of those buses yet. They are bigger and imported from Japan. And they've got a fixed price: 200 Ks. anywhere, unlike the other buses. These buses are included in "Special Vehicles" (A Htoo Yin) because they only carry passengers according to seats, and don't allow standing up. Some of the buses even have TVs on there and play music. But none of them have air-conditions, even though at first, they were advertised as "air-conditioned buses". Now, they have become "open-aired" buses. :P I like these buses though, (well, at least 202 buses) because if the seats are full (and they usually are), they just drive straight to the bus stop that the passengers need to get off, and don't wait for a long time or stop at every bus stop calling passengers. However, they are fewer than "Ga Gyi" buses, so I can't really wait for them.

    There used to be wooden buses which I really liked because it was less crowded. I think I even wrote about the journey one time. But since about 6 or 7 months ago, those wooden buses are not allowed into downtown area anymore. So their routes had changed to outskirt areas. It was quite a shame.

    There are also the small "hi-lux" buses (the red one at the top at the top photo), but they are very very few on this route. I took this bus back home yesterday. When I go to Hledan, the buses that runs on that route are mostly those hi-lux buses. They are extremely fast, but only runs when passenger is full, so can be a long wait at the beginning stops, such as Hledan and Yankin bus stops. I think that it's sometimes unfair for those who rides from the middle routes because there wouldn't be any seat anymore because the seats are mostly full starting from the gate, and it wasn't as if you can stand up in the aisle.

    Yeah.. I'm really a "bus" expert. :P Riding buses can be an enjoyable experience, when you get a seat, that is. :P I want to ride different buses to places that I've never been to before.

    I want to ride the bus with someone. I want to be able to rest on his shoulder and have him put his arms around me as I see the couples do on the bus. ;) I think it'll be sweet. I don't usually fall asleep on the bus though, but sometimes, I just close my eyes and rest them for awhile.

    But for now, I just stare out the bus windows at the sights I see everyday while listening to my mp3 player. Even though it's the same sights, I never get tired of looking out the window. (That's one of the reason I ride from the gate: so that I can get a window seat.) I like being able to see the Shwedagon Pagoda at night, with all its glowy-golden light at night as the bus goes around the U Htaung Bo roundabout. I like looking at Excel Shopping Centre's Dolly Bird fashion outlet's window display. I like looking through the window of this one fitness centre near Shwegondine and see the guys working out. (Nice muscles, I would say to myself. :P)

    Ofcourse there were also times that I had taken taxi back home, but I haven't done that recently. Trying to save money. :)

    Happy weekend!

Thursday, 12 November 2009

  • Book Buffet

    That's right: a book buffet!

    On Wednesday, I went to Myanmar Book Centre with my sister. There was an advertisement in the newspaper about a "book buffet" saying that we can get any books we want, as long as it fits into the bag that we have to buy from the store. There are two sizes: 12" x 10" x 3" bag is 10,000 Ks. and 16" x 10.5" x 3.5" bag is 20,000 Ks.

    So my sister thought that it was an all-sale event of the entire bookstore, and she was interested in getting some ELT (English Language Teaching) books which they usually sold for 8000 Ks. for a thin piece of booklet. So we went to the bookstore early in the morning. It was a good thing we did.

    There are two Myanmar Book Centre in Yangon: one in Ah-lone Township, and another in Pansoedan. We went to the Pansoedan branch. When we got there, it turned out that it wasn't an all-sale event: the books that we had to choose from were used but new books. There wasn't any ELT books, and only books for children under 10 years old. Plenty of picture books. So we just went into the novel section, and looked first before buying the bag. We found some good books, so we just bought the 10,000 Ks. bag, and tried to fit the books in as much as we could, without trying to look too greedy. lolz!



    We were able to fit 1 hard-cover and 10 paperbacks. :P


    I think it was really worth it, and we were beaming all the way back home. Typical bookworms! =D

    I think there were a lot of John Grisham left at the shop. We took all of the Michael Crichton books we saw, but who knows: they might put in more later on, if they had more. I feel a ping of guiltiness because we went there at like 9:20 am, and hoarded the good stuff. But everyone else would have done the same thing too, right?

    So yeah, early bird got plenty of worms that day. :)

    The "buffet" started on Wednesday, and will be on until 15.11.09 (Sunday). So go check them out if you're interested!

    Shop 1: No. 55, Baho Road (Corner of Baho & Ah-lone Road), Ahlone Township
                Tel: (951) 212-409

    Shop 2: No. (561-567), Room (3), Ground Floor, MAC Tower 1
                Corner of Merchant & Mahabandoola Garden St., Kyauktada Township
                Tel: (951) 370-532

    There's also a shop in Mandalay.

    Mandalay: Room 429, 4th Floor, 78t Shopping Centre, Mandalay

    (Not an advertorial!)

Monday, 09 November 2009

  • Mohinga + Kimbap

    Sunday

    I cooked lunch, which was simple: fried water cress and scrambled eggs. hehe



    I helped my cousin cook mohinga also. ^_^ Mohinga was going to be our dinner, and it is a long long process. We went to the market together in the morning, and bought the ingredients. And then I cooked lunch first, while my sister prepared the necessary things for mohinga. We started cooking mohinga at around 10 am, and only finished at around 1 pm, when the mohinga soup was on the stove.

    I didn't take photo for all the process so there might be gaps. I'm not writing this as a recipe but just as a journal, so please find other articles if you want to know how to cook it. :)


    Here's me picking the meat out of the fish.
    The fish had been seasoned beforehand, and boiled, so it already tastes delicious!


    Fish Meat is then cooked slightly with a mixture of mashed garlic, ginger,
    a little paprika and lemon grass stalks. This will be put into the mohinga soup.


    While we were mashing the ingredients, this pot was on the stove
    (rice flour and gram had already been put in there)


    After putting in the cooked fish meat, and banana stems,
    it was put on stove for about 3 hours.

    I didn't eat the mohinga as soon as it was cooked, because I was at the cyber-cafe for about 3 hours. Only after I came back, I ate it. By then, it was already about 7:30pm.


    Mohinga :P

    I know that it might not look very appealing, compared to this photo of mohinga, but I like my mohinga plain, without putting in coriander leaves, or roasted chili powder (nga yote thee mhote). This is home-style cooking, and we forgot to buy fried peas or gourds (a kyaw) to put in the mohinga. When I eat mohinga for breakfast, I'll put some rice into the mohinga.

    Here's the WikiHow article on how to cook mohinga. Yangon Now also has a step-by-step article with photos! It's very helpful, I think. :)

    I'm thinking of learning to cook every weekend. I think it's time that I started cooking, because otherwise, no men will marry me I wouldn't know how to cook if I have to live alone. =P hehe

    Monday (Today)

    I went out with a friend at lunch time to go to Latha St. My friend wanted to buy some DVDs so I was accompanying him to the DVD store where I usually buy. He doesn't know where it was, since he was visiting Yangon from abroad.


    I bought kimbap to eat with my co-workers.

    The kimbap seller was telling me not to take photo of him. I said, "Don't worry! Because I just wanted to take a photo of your kimbap, not you!" :P

    The vendor was on Mahabandoola Road, in front of the Chinese Temple on the corner of Latha Rd.


    Chinese Temple

    There was a dried-fish seller beside, so I also took photo of them. The kids were helping their mother remove the fish heads, I think. ^_^


Thursday, 05 November 2009

  • Jello

    Please have some jello. Well, not exactly "Jell-O", but it's the closest thing they've got here. Many kids like to eat this J-Cup jelly. And I'm one of them. :P

    And it's orange!

dawn_1o9

  • Visit dawn_1o9's Xanga Site
    • Name: Dawn
    • Country: Myanmar
    • Metro: Yangon
    • Gender: Female
    • Member Since: 1/16/2004

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Chatboard (17)

  • asiasociety
    INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE TEAM WINS ASIA SOCIETY OSBORN ELLIOTT JOURNALISM PRIZE FOR COURAGEOUS REPORTING OF CYCLONE NARGIS AND ITS AFTERMATH May 18, 2009—The Asia Society is pleased to announce that a team of writers from the International Herald Tribune has won the prestigious Osborn Ell
  • asiasociety
    INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE TEAM WINS ASIA SOCIETY OSBORN ELLIOTT JOURNALISM PRIZE FOR COURAGEOUS REPORTING OF CYCLONE NARGIS AND ITS AFTERMATH May 18, 2009—The Asia Society is pleased to announce that a team of writers from the International Herald Tribune has won the prestigious Osborn Ell
  • vyrtis
    Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself. How are things over there now ? Enjoy nature, music, friends, the light &...you I struggled myself with personal demons and wrote something (in English) on one of my spaces: http://www.myspace.com/mysteryunsolver (visual) http://www.netlog.com/vyrtis (Eng
    • Posted 4/15/2009 11:43 AM
    • by vyrtis
  • snowbird1955
    Hi Dawn Here is a paper I wrote on Burma. Check it out. Thanks! Roy http://royallensmith.blogspot.com/
  • snowbird1955
    Hi Dawn. I have written a paper on Burma advocating international intervention. If you have an interest please check it out. Thanks! Roy http://royallensmith.blogspot.com/