Cappuccino

Annual book list, coming in just before the end of the year. 2015 was a good year.

Burmese perceptions of books that tourists might enjoy.

Throwback to my first day, when I had aaaaaalllll the monies.

Precarious-seeming canoe-ing on Inle. (It wasn't actually this tipsy; it just seems it was.)

I write more. I email less. I try to knit together theories to explain what I’m seeing: the kid out of school, the sidewalk mobile shop, the hour of 2-for-1 at the teashop.

Saw Aung Sun Sui Kyi across Myanmar: with her father, with a monk (both in temples), outside a home in Myin Ka Bar, and at a 3d printing workshop in Yangon. "The lady is very strong," one taxi driver* told me, "but she has no power. And they will not let her get power, because they know it will be their end." Just last week, parliament decided not to lift the ban on people-who-have-married foreigners holding the presidency. The military has enough seats (per the constitution!) to determine any measure .. and ASSK's late husband was British. * yeah, I totally did that traveling-in-developing-countries thing and talked to taxi drivers about politics. Old habits die hard!

Fabric fabric everywhere at Bogyoke Aung San market, the country's largest bazaar. The market holds hundreds of stalls, selling Burmese handicrafts and lacquerware, gold and jade jewelry, and flowy clothing. I saw a tourist bus and nearly more foreign (incl Chinese) shoppers than Myanmar ones. The vendors are wise to our speech patterns. "Just looking, just looking!" They'll call, prospering up their wares.

The mobbed, brand-new, super exciting kfc in downtown Yangon. Two pieces of chicken will run you 2500 kyat, which is ~$2.50 and (for comparison's sake) the minimum wage in a factory.

Silk making (for tourists) on Inle Lake

Voice of Hope by Alan Clements – some of these questions were a little self-serving, but it’s hard to knock Aung San Suu Kyi

today's MR, relevant to my longyi-inclined interests!

My last day in Yangon, I took the circle train around the city. It's a 45km, 3 mile journey, and it's the cheapest way around town. (It cost me a dollar; it costs locals 10 cents.) The ride hasn't really been updated since the British, save doubling the tracks, but the produce sacks don't seem to mind.

Yangon's buildings are very tall, and they haven't got elevators. They do have pullys -- that is, strings with clips, locks, or rings attached -- for street level deliveries.

The Nyaung Shwe market at lunchtime. I was watching from a noodle shop across the street. I chose my place at mostly-random among a quarter-dozens shops, and they seated me outside. Before I'd finished slurping, my foreigner-ness had attracted three more sets of tourists to the same stall. And here I'd never considered myself a good marketer!

When it's really time to go home

Uber with Chinese characteristics

Escape all the way to Yangon and there's still mobile chat apps taking over subway cars. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯