Photos - Shopping and People in Mandalay

The internet is never fast in Myanmar.  The last couple of days have been particularly slow.  Even using my cell phone as a tether, it has taken hours to upload a few photos.  It's now 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.  I'm going to give it another shot to share some photos from my errands yesterday.

Typical local brooms.  I use one every day and it is very effective at getting rid of the fine dust during the dry season.

The street outside Mingalar market.

One of the friendly vendors inside.  She's wearing thanaka on her face, as most women and children in Myanmar do.

A water cart.  I missed getting a photo of the middle-aged woman who was pushing it around.  She was busy hauling buckets of water into the market to sell to the vendors.

We have a variety of fresh vegetables.  

This is the man I buy my garlic and potatoes from.  He's a little person (only one I've seen in Myanmar) and always has a huge smile.

That's the smile that makes my day - every Saturday.

Myanmar cuisine uses a lot of dried fish.  Here are bags of it.  I'm not a fan and never buy the stuff.

As you enter the market, there are various aisles you can use to get to the main part of the market.   This one is filled with dried fish and spices.  The floor is uneven and usually wet, so I have to be careful walking.  The smells are amazing.

Garlic and red chilis.  Can you guess the staples of Myanmar cooking?

She was so friendly until her mom insisted she have her photo taken - then she turned shy.

As I took photos, I realized that people I didn't take pictures of felt a bit left out.  This isn't one of the vendors I usually buy from (there are so many!) but always smiles and says hello.

Another vendor.  Big smiles until the camera comes out, then looking more serious.  That's thanaka on her face.  For beauty, cooling and to keep her skin young.

A row of spices.  Most, I've never heard of.  All smell amazing.

The friendly spice lady.  She doesn't speak English.  I don't speak Myanmar.  But, with sign language and effort we're able to communicate about her products.

You know the expensive pink Tibetan salt?  Here's a bowl of it.  $1 for a huge piece.  The camera didn't do well in capturing the pink color.  And yes, the vendor encouraged me to taste a piece so I knew it was salt.  Apologies to whoever buys the piece with my saliva on it.

I smelled this to confirm it is cinnamon.  Saundi bought this large piece for fifty cents.  Next time I'm in Publix, looking at a tiny tin of ground cinnamon for $3.00, I'll be laughing out loud.

This friendly woman sells dried fish.  Which I never buy, but she always says hello anyway.

Can you tell what it is?  Dried fish!

Some of the fresh vegetables.  Baby carrots (real ones, not the adult, ground down things we buy in the US), pea pods, okra, asparagus, sprouts, etc.

It's asparagus season!  Almost every vendor had asparagus this week.  Not cheap - $1 for a bundle.  But so delicious.  I bought 3 bundles from 3 different vendors.  Gotta share the love.

This lady sells eggs.  I buy them, she puts them in a plastic bag.  Refrigerated?  No.  I've never gotten sick from them.

Another vendor I say hello to every week but don't shop with.  She sells this dessert.  It's like a firm jello, with grated fresh coconut on top.  Tasty but I'd prefer bakery products for dessert.  People here LOVE all things gelatin.  Agar Agar (a type of gelatin) is sold in bulk at grocery stores.

After walking through the spice aisle, we enter the main part of the market.

Fresh produce is always available and very inexpensive.  If I avoid the pricey asparagus (just coming into season) I can spend $5 for all I can carry.

Local sausages on sale.  I'm not a fan - too greasy for my taste.

In the wet part of the market - this man sells butchered goat.  They call it mutton here but it is goat.  And very tasty goat indeed.

Notice the smile?  She didn't care if I was buying or not.  She was just happy to say hello and have her photo taken.  Chicken and goat for sale.  There's an issue here now because bird flu has been found so the price of local (not infected) chickens has gone sky high.

Prefer seafood?  No problem.  Fresh fish from the Irrawaddy river.  There's a wholesale market there that I've visited and need to take photos of.  An amazing experience and more friendly people happy to show their wares and say hello.

I love the fresh water prawns but they are expensive.  The ones on the left are $4 and $5 for the ones on the right.  For that price you get about 4 prawns.  Enough for a meal for one.

Selling fish.

This monk was collecting alms for the day's food.  He was happy to have his photo taken.  I was happy to contribute.

This is what foreigners look like shopping.  Ok, there are no other foreigners shopping - this is my friend Saundi with one of our favorite vendors.  If you are thinking of visiting Myanmar, this is why you should come now.  Foreigners are a novelty and are happily accepted.  As happy as I am to go to the market each week, the vendors seem equally happy to have the foreigner come back each week. I've been shopping here for almost two years.  Today, as I took photos, they seemed so happy to be included.  It slowed the shopping experience but made for a great day.

My favorite tomato lady.  She always greets me with a huge smile.  After Christmas, when I was out of the country for 3 weeks, she expressed great concern and joy that I was back.  She is one of the many reasons I love living in Myanmar.

These girls were walking by and saw me taking photos of my "tomato lady" friend.  They were happy to have their picture taken.

The smile that comes with every tomato.

I had a tough time connecting with this vendor.  She sells mostly avocados.  The first time I found her, I asked for 3.  She had a huge stack but would only give me 1.  WTH?  I realized later, only the one was perfectly ripe.  Now, we have an agreement.  She will sell me several and uses hand movements so I know how many days until each is perfectly ripe.  She is always dead on.

This lady is across from my avocado vendor.  She sells only dried fish and accepts that I love vegetables but not her products.  She always says hello anyway.

My favorite avocado lady.

This is thanaka.  You grind it, make it into a paste with water and put it on your face and body.  It prevents sun burn, makes the skin cooler, looks nice and helps the skin.  Mostly used by women and children.  

So many shoes and not a single one in my size.  Imagine my excitement when, later in the day, we went to a mall and I found wonderful shoes in my size!

Beautiful Myanmar girl.

And her friend - the girls are slim, polite and beautiful.   Grace and beauty are important in their culture.

This vendor is also beautiful but she was busy and I couldn't get a great photo of her.,  The vendors track their sales in notebooks like the one she is holding.  

Saundi, silly girl, thought she could buy undies at the market.  The one she is holding is an extra large.  XL for Myanmar butts is teeny tiny for Western butts.

Another beautiful Myanmar woman in a traditional longyi, tracking her sales in her notebook.

Ok, I love kids.  That's why I teach first grade.  But really, a toddler with charm and matching beverage?  Too cute!

The toddler had been saluting for me but I couldn't catch him on camera.  Got this photo of his mom and (aunt?) as they got my strawberries in a bag.  Perfect, amazing strawberries, $1 per kilo.  That's over two pounds.  The season is short so I'm gorging on strawberries now.  The women are wearing thanaka on their faces.

I bought fresh paneer cheese from this lady.  $.20 for a bag of fresh, warm cheese.  And you ask why I love Myanmar?

Samoan friends!  I was not lying or kidding you.  These are banana flowers for sale and they eat them. They are delicious!

These ladies saw me taking pictures and wanted to get in on the action.  The one is "feeding" coffee to her friend.  We hugged after the photo.

Lots of fresh produce, including wonderful tomatoes from Shan state.  About $.50 a kilo.

A married couple of vendors.

A proud grandma and her baby.

Outside the market, these guys offer rides on their trishaws.  

A close up of the guys.  They were happy to pose and interested to see how they looked in the photo.

Young monks.  Monks, of all ages, are everywhere.  These guys are carrying their lunch pails.

A second before this photo, these guys were 2 inches from our car and we were smiling at each other.

Typical street scene in downtown Mandalay.  Yes, if you look closely, that's a vehicle that's decomposing.

The sidewalk.  That's sewage/water under the sidewalk.  I loved that someone put a heart in the cement.  My toes and my driver's toes.

Have I mentioned I love babies?  And babies with big cheeks are even better!  This family was in front of their very nice store.  I went in and it became a shopping, photo-taking, gift giving experience.  I bought a few things and found a pen with a thumbs up rubber thing on the end. I asked the price - free - a present because I let them take my picture.

Want to see the latest American movies?  $.40 or 3 for $1 in Mandalay. 

Does that look like booze being sold?  Nope, oil, in liquor bottles for sale. 

People carry their entire business on their head here.  They have much better posture than I do.

She's frying a delicious kind of bread. On the sidewalk.

She used an ingenious extruder tooln to make the bread.  Americans are smart but we can learn a lot from the people making a living on the street in Asia.

Cute kid who turned shy when her mom told her to say hello to me.

Oreos are everywhere, including at street vendors in Myanmar.

Creative way to put tables on stairs. 

I admired a baby.  Then I went into their very nice store.  I bought a couple of things (cards/deodorant) then they asked to take photos.

It may be illegal to ride in the back of pickups in the U.S., but it is typical in Asia.

Saundi wanted to buy a cabinet.  Our driver took us to the "rich people" mall for furniture.  He doesn't realize that all foreigners are not rich people.

Sorry, but I'm just not into the Asian aesthetic of decor.

We then went to the "real people" furniture area of town and while Saundi shopped, I met this cutie.

Motorbikes are very common in Mandalay.  Motorcycles, like this Yamaha are treasured and rare.

While Saundi shopped, I sat in the proffered chair and watched the world go by.

As I sat in the shade on a 103 degree day, these folks jammed into the local transport.

High class hotel and local vendor.

The guys who offered me the chair and kept me company while Saundi was shopping.

Let the photo taking with the foreigner commence.  I was the only one not chewing betel nut.

He took the previous photo.  His wife was so embarrassed to be in the picture.

After sitting for awhile and taking photos, I got bored and walked down the street.  This may look like a dump in front of a pagoda but when evening comes, this will transform into a restaurant.

Mandalay is over 50% Chinese, which is apparent in restaurant signs.

I'm going to have to do a whole blog about this place.  I saw the sign and went in.  It's form of Chinese medicine that is free and guaranteed to help reduce weight.  When Saundi asked our driver how long it would take to make her look like the very slim Myanmar girl telling us about the treatment, he said "A year."

After all that shopping we were hungry and tried a new restaurant (there are so many!) in town.  This Thai restaurant, near CitiMart, was good but tasted more Chinese than Thai.

But we were eager for the food - including the pork skin. 

After lunch we went to SP Bakery, where I enjoyed a blackberry cheesecake tart.  I felt compelled to use the glove that came with the tart.

Next, Style Star!  This is where we get our weekly pampering.  The lady in the center is my favorite. You can tell by the uniforms that the other two are trainees.  If you are in Myanmar, take a break from visiting pagodas.  Every shampoo includes a massage.  The best $2.50 you'll ever spend.

Saundi enjoying her shampoo.

After the massage, shampoo, mani/pedi, as we waited for our driver I spotted a cute baby nearby.  I walked down to say hello and this lady asked to take my photo.

Then the family photos began.

We talked, laughed, took photos, gave high fives....a five minute experience while waiting for a taxi in Mandalay.  I can't wait to see them next week when I go to Style Star.