The Mini-Monks of Yangon

I got up and got everything together, then had some breakfast while I waited for my guide. She arrived and we went to go get gas, you are only allowed a few gallons a week, that is unless you buy on the black market. My guide remembered how interested I was when I exchanged money on the black market so she thought I would find this interesting as well, and it was. Even though they are out in the open and everyone knows where it is, they said no pictures. The police know about it, but as long as they continue to get their weekly envelopes, they can’t ever seem to catch anyone. With the minor excitement behind me we headed to the Shwedagon Pagoda, said to hold eight hairs from Buddha. However they were locked in a secret cavern underground and no one has seen them.




This place has a lot of daily visitors, not tourists, but local visitors. There are eight days on the Buddhist calendar, Wednesday being divided in to morning and evening. Depending on the time and day you are born, you come here to pray at one of the eight temples around the Pagoda.


The structure ahead is supposed to have the secret entry to the underground cavern, but it was locked.






We then headed to the market.


People eating breakfast.


Jackfruit.






The seafood section, with actual fish and crab that had not been flattened and dried, it was fresh.


Looked good too.




Until I got to this lady, she specializes in fish head soup.


The fresh meet looked pretty good as well.




The special cuts are in back.


You can buy any part you like, the face, ears, and intestines. I was going to get a replacement liver but was not sure how to get it through airport security.




Boy, that’s a whole lot of something.


The market was pretty busy and most people sell everything they have by the end of the day, which is good because they have little refrigeration options.






She cleaned the fish.


And he cleaned the dishes.


We then went down to the docks and watched them unload rice.


Sellers come in and hand out different colored sticks to people looking for work. A person goes to the boat with the colored stick, grabs a bag of rice, and returns to the seller, dropping off his stick. This way everyone gets the same count.


We then made a quick stop at the world’s largest reclining Buddha.


Yup, that’s big alright.


We then headed to the Kalaywa Tawya monastery, where the novice monks reside. Each day they head out in to town and ask for food for themselves for the day. They return and line up for lunch. If someone comes up empty handed or a little light, one of the head monks helps to evenly distribute today’s rations. The younger kids typically bring in the biggest haul.








They are not allowed to talk while they eat.








And of course shoes are to be left outside.


On the other side live the nuns in training. They also go out for food but typically do not do as well as the monks and often have to get additional food from them.


Not only that, but they also get stuck with having to do everyone’s laundry.


It was getting close to my flight so we headed to the airport. I said goodbye to my guide and checked in. I was flying Bangkok Airways from Yangon to Bangkok, and then Korean Air from Bangkok to Incheon. They were able to check my luggage all the way to Incheon even through it was two different airlines. I no longer had to worry about my luggage and had over three hours in the Bangkok airport. Finally, I had nothing to do but get a Singha beer and Thai pancake. What a perfect way to end the trip, so good that I enjoyed two of each before I boarded my flight, taking some time to begin to process my experiences. My flight left around 10pm and got to Seoul around 5am in the morning. I put on my slippers, dialed up some crappy movie, had a glass of wine, and tried to get as much sleep as I could before we landed.

VIDEO: Day 9 - Yangon