Mawlamyine - Yangon

The market place beckoned and this time we made it further into the market than our brief venture yesterday. Everything is available here from flowers; fruit - three types of bananas, finger, red and yellow; locally grown durian and durian from Thailand; rambutan; mangoes;  mangosteens; amongst others. 

 

Beetle nut is sold everywhere - and spat out everywhere. Onions and beautiful garlic cloves and bulbs are bountiful. Rattan platters carry every conceivable green veggie and of course there are the shops selling detergents, toilet paper, noodles, rope, cooking equipment, irrigation piping; motor bike parts and even a school uniform shop. It's all here! 

School uniform shop

There are several jewellery stores and their goods are all on display, hanging on little racks on counter tops - and there's not a security guard in sight. Ni says that indicates it's a very safe place to be. 

It's hot - already 40C and it's only 9.30 am. We head for Yangon in the cool of the A/C minivan. It seems that today is marked as a very good day for celebrations in the lunar calendar. We've passed a celebration of a young novice monk.  

Young novice monk

Before the age of 18, all Burmese boys become a novice; after the age of 18 they become a monk. Most males want to become a monk every year and their stints can last from one week for as long as they have the spare time to remain in the monastery. Annual leave is now 10 days taken to celebrate the new year. School children have three months holiday so many use that time to become a novice. 

We stopped to take their photos and very quickly became immersed in their celebrations. A truck blaring loud music, full of local kids singing and dancing made its way up the road toward the novice who was sitting patiently on the little horse. He generously posed for photos and moved off up the road, however he had to wait, and wait, and wait as the young fellas wanted me to dance with them. It was a joyous ten minute break.

 

We passed through several more towns, each one looking like the last.  Many celebrations are taking place today - mainly weddings. We stopped to take a photo of a wedding and were beckoned from across the road to join them. So we did and everyone got up to greet us;  'Mingalarbar', 'Mingalarbar', wide beetle-nut coloured grins expressed their joy at 'white people' blessing them with their presence. We were placed on either side of the bride and groom - in our travelling gear we looked so out of place - and their official photographer clicked away, and their professional movie cameraman moved around the hut to ensure he had every angle covered! 

 

The bride and groom decked out in mauve

Special 'guests'!

 And the young children of course came up to have their photo taken with the 'white woman' to, "make them happy". 

Brides here always wear a colour, usually yellow or pink or mauve but rarely (never!) white. Many weddings are held in the early hours of the morning, around 3 am so that guests can travel to the wedding and return to their homes in order to go to work. 

Lunch was at the same restaurant where we ate lunch on our way down to Mawlyamine but today is so hot, a waitress has come to keep us cool - and fan the flies away.
 

We stopped at the Taukkyan War Cemetery that is maintained by the Commonwealth war graves commission. "Here are the recorded names of 27,000 soldiers of many races United in service to the Crown who gave their lives in Burma and Assam but to whom the fortune of war denied the customary rights accorded to their comrades in death."