Day 271 - Art Gallery - Bogyoke Market - Bus to Bagan
Thursday, April 4th, 2019.
When we went to the rooftop restaurant for our breakfast, the waitress recognized us and gave us a big smile and I said, "Welcome back." I realized later that she was supposed to say that.
After breakfast, we went back to our room to finish packing our backpacks for Bagan. We also spent all morning on the phone with Chase Visa, trying to locate our new credit card because the replacement still had not arrived. I get very emotional and Gregory kept telling me to calm down. We also spent an hour on the phone with them last night, talking to a manager, with the same response: "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do."
Gregory on the side kept saying, "Yes you can, call UPS and tell them to give you a tracking number." The supervisor kept saying that she could not even do that. Why not? I really don't understand. The fact is, here we are in our hotel, we are leaving tomorrow, and our credit card, which had been sent a week ago, hasn't arrived and there is no tracking number!
Anyway, when I hung up with nothing resolved, it was almost time to check out! We finished packing and then went downstairs to pay. I asked the "kids" at the reception (they are super young) if we could leave our suitcases again and they agreed. We also left our backpacks to go to the art gallery and for lunch.
Walking outside in the streets it was misery. The temperature must have been 90F. The art gallery, Nawaday Tharlar, was a small place on the 3rd floor but it felt like the 10th floor with the heat. [Gregory's note: it never ceases to amaze me that Lili is always telling people she comes from Mexico where it's hot like this, but she can't seem to handle the heat! Or maybe saying how hot it is cools her down? I doubt it. Anyway, it was close to 100F (36C).]
I thought we were going to see only one artist art but they showed us art from many local artists. We went with the intention of buying one of the paintings we saw at the restaurant, but the prices were in the hundreds to thousands of dollars, plus they were huge pieces. We told them we were going to think about it and we walked to a family restaurant that they recommended us! The food was amazing and even the kids ate well. They both preferred Indian food and they are tired of eating rice and noodles. Not me, nor Gregory.
After lunch, we walked to the Bogyoke market. At first, I didn't want to go because I didn't want to buy anything and also because it was so hot outside. I needed AC but the moment I saw the bags, the jewelry, the stones, the art, I forgot about the heat and started to walk through the market. Sunshine got a bracelet for collection and I found a "jade" cross for mine!
Most of the stands sold the same things and the same kind of jewelry. Again, I can't figure out why they can't do something different, be creative and think outside the box. All the jewelry stands had the exact same bracelets, necklaces, and earrings. What I was happy to see was that some of the stands sold art and each piece was different. It wasn't like the Maasai Market in Arusha where every stand sold the same piece of art! We didn't find anything we loved, the paintings looked amateur or souvenir-style. After walking through some more stands, everyone was done. The heat was killing us so we walked to the New Bogyoke shopping mall across the street which had AC.
Here I noticed that women were not wearing thanaka and fewer men were wearing longyi (the long skirt). I guess it's like every other place we've been: the people with money want to be more Western and have stores with English signs and look more European or American. We found a cafe and ordered iced coffee and lemonade. The bill came to $3. We love it here. After that, we bought some snacks for the bus and went outside to get a taxi.
We made to our hotel and hung around there for half an hour, then we requested Grab. I like to call it "crap" and this time it was. Just after we took left, we heard a weird sound from the engine. The driver stopped to check and told us to wait because the car was overheating. He spoke very little English. I got very frustrated and told him that we couldn't wait because we had a bus to catch. I told Gregory to cancel the ride and try to get another one. We got out of the car. There was so much traffic and it started to get dark. My mood was getting dark as well. The taxi driver showed up with a bottle of water that he poured into the engine and said that it was OK now. Good thing because Grab didn't have any free cars.
I prayed all the way to the bus station for the car not to stop or explode! It took forever to get to our final destination. I freaked out when he passed the airport and Gregory said, "You know that we are going to the bus station right?" I wanted to scream but I just kept praying. It took an hour and a half to get to this bus station. It was 7:40 when I started to tell Gregory that maybe the driver should call the bus company to let them know that we were coming. The driver had the same idea, but didn't call because we were almost there but the fact that he had to stop twice and ask were our bus made me want to slap him on the back. I could tell that he was feeling bad but I was feeling even worse. [Gregory's note: there is no bus station per se. It's an entire neighborhood where buses load. We passed literally hundreds of buses here, and it's a miracle that both times the driver asked, the people here knew exactly where he had to go. Still, it was like finding a needle in a haystack.]
We made it five minutes before the departure time! I was finally able to breathe. A lady welcomed us with a paper on her hand and gave us our seat numbers. We got the VIP bus with only 3 wide seats in each row. It was spacious but tacky and the blankets could really use a wash. I thought about my friend Mimi, who is very neat like me. I took out my wipes and cleaned the headrest and all around my seat. I put away the dirty blanket which I have seen everyone use on their faces and bare feet and took out mine, which was clean.
I read for a long time because I couldn't sleep. I'm really enjoying the book recommended by my book club, Educated. The bus stopped twice for half an hour breaks. Once at midnight for food!!! Who eats at this time? All the locals do, apparently. They were ordering soup and noodles and lots of food. Around 3:00am, the assistant driver passed around a wet towel, a toothbrush, and a toothpaste. Really? Now, you give out the toothbrushes. My family stayed on the bus and I got out to go the bathroom. Let me just said that I wish I had stayed on the bus because the bathrooms were in the back of a restaurant, dark and were squat-style, stinky bathrooms. I figured I better go because the bus was probably going to be late.
I forgot to describe what we saw on the breaks: many little food stands, some of them selling, are you ready? dried octopus in plastic bags, dried shrimp, another kind of fish, peanuts and some dried fruit with chili. Finally, the worst I thought, was the roasted chicks. Yes, whole roasted baby chickens on a spit. They also had chicken, skinny and bigger ones but I was shocked and sad to see the little ones. Another good reason to become vegetarian. Sunshine is one already, Daniel and I still eat chicken from time to time!
Click here for pictures
https://photos.app.goo.gl/x68cYivYfTiZoDDC9
When we went to the rooftop restaurant for our breakfast, the waitress recognized us and gave us a big smile and I said, "Welcome back." I realized later that she was supposed to say that.
After breakfast, we went back to our room to finish packing our backpacks for Bagan. We also spent all morning on the phone with Chase Visa, trying to locate our new credit card because the replacement still had not arrived. I get very emotional and Gregory kept telling me to calm down. We also spent an hour on the phone with them last night, talking to a manager, with the same response: "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do."
Gregory on the side kept saying, "Yes you can, call UPS and tell them to give you a tracking number." The supervisor kept saying that she could not even do that. Why not? I really don't understand. The fact is, here we are in our hotel, we are leaving tomorrow, and our credit card, which had been sent a week ago, hasn't arrived and there is no tracking number!
Anyway, when I hung up with nothing resolved, it was almost time to check out! We finished packing and then went downstairs to pay. I asked the "kids" at the reception (they are super young) if we could leave our suitcases again and they agreed. We also left our backpacks to go to the art gallery and for lunch.
Walking outside in the streets it was misery. The temperature must have been 90F. The art gallery, Nawaday Tharlar, was a small place on the 3rd floor but it felt like the 10th floor with the heat. [Gregory's note: it never ceases to amaze me that Lili is always telling people she comes from Mexico where it's hot like this, but she can't seem to handle the heat! Or maybe saying how hot it is cools her down? I doubt it. Anyway, it was close to 100F (36C).]
I thought we were going to see only one artist art but they showed us art from many local artists. We went with the intention of buying one of the paintings we saw at the restaurant, but the prices were in the hundreds to thousands of dollars, plus they were huge pieces. We told them we were going to think about it and we walked to a family restaurant that they recommended us! The food was amazing and even the kids ate well. They both preferred Indian food and they are tired of eating rice and noodles. Not me, nor Gregory.
After lunch, we walked to the Bogyoke market. At first, I didn't want to go because I didn't want to buy anything and also because it was so hot outside. I needed AC but the moment I saw the bags, the jewelry, the stones, the art, I forgot about the heat and started to walk through the market. Sunshine got a bracelet for collection and I found a "jade" cross for mine!
Most of the stands sold the same things and the same kind of jewelry. Again, I can't figure out why they can't do something different, be creative and think outside the box. All the jewelry stands had the exact same bracelets, necklaces, and earrings. What I was happy to see was that some of the stands sold art and each piece was different. It wasn't like the Maasai Market in Arusha where every stand sold the same piece of art! We didn't find anything we loved, the paintings looked amateur or souvenir-style. After walking through some more stands, everyone was done. The heat was killing us so we walked to the New Bogyoke shopping mall across the street which had AC.
Here I noticed that women were not wearing thanaka and fewer men were wearing longyi (the long skirt). I guess it's like every other place we've been: the people with money want to be more Western and have stores with English signs and look more European or American. We found a cafe and ordered iced coffee and lemonade. The bill came to $3. We love it here. After that, we bought some snacks for the bus and went outside to get a taxi.
We made to our hotel and hung around there for half an hour, then we requested Grab. I like to call it "crap" and this time it was. Just after we took left, we heard a weird sound from the engine. The driver stopped to check and told us to wait because the car was overheating. He spoke very little English. I got very frustrated and told him that we couldn't wait because we had a bus to catch. I told Gregory to cancel the ride and try to get another one. We got out of the car. There was so much traffic and it started to get dark. My mood was getting dark as well. The taxi driver showed up with a bottle of water that he poured into the engine and said that it was OK now. Good thing because Grab didn't have any free cars.
I prayed all the way to the bus station for the car not to stop or explode! It took forever to get to our final destination. I freaked out when he passed the airport and Gregory said, "You know that we are going to the bus station right?" I wanted to scream but I just kept praying. It took an hour and a half to get to this bus station. It was 7:40 when I started to tell Gregory that maybe the driver should call the bus company to let them know that we were coming. The driver had the same idea, but didn't call because we were almost there but the fact that he had to stop twice and ask were our bus made me want to slap him on the back. I could tell that he was feeling bad but I was feeling even worse. [Gregory's note: there is no bus station per se. It's an entire neighborhood where buses load. We passed literally hundreds of buses here, and it's a miracle that both times the driver asked, the people here knew exactly where he had to go. Still, it was like finding a needle in a haystack.]
We made it five minutes before the departure time! I was finally able to breathe. A lady welcomed us with a paper on her hand and gave us our seat numbers. We got the VIP bus with only 3 wide seats in each row. It was spacious but tacky and the blankets could really use a wash. I thought about my friend Mimi, who is very neat like me. I took out my wipes and cleaned the headrest and all around my seat. I put away the dirty blanket which I have seen everyone use on their faces and bare feet and took out mine, which was clean.
I read for a long time because I couldn't sleep. I'm really enjoying the book recommended by my book club, Educated. The bus stopped twice for half an hour breaks. Once at midnight for food!!! Who eats at this time? All the locals do, apparently. They were ordering soup and noodles and lots of food. Around 3:00am, the assistant driver passed around a wet towel, a toothbrush, and a toothpaste. Really? Now, you give out the toothbrushes. My family stayed on the bus and I got out to go the bathroom. Let me just said that I wish I had stayed on the bus because the bathrooms were in the back of a restaurant, dark and were squat-style, stinky bathrooms. I figured I better go because the bus was probably going to be late.
I forgot to describe what we saw on the breaks: many little food stands, some of them selling, are you ready? dried octopus in plastic bags, dried shrimp, another kind of fish, peanuts and some dried fruit with chili. Finally, the worst I thought, was the roasted chicks. Yes, whole roasted baby chickens on a spit. They also had chicken, skinny and bigger ones but I was shocked and sad to see the little ones. Another good reason to become vegetarian. Sunshine is one already, Daniel and I still eat chicken from time to time!
Click here for pictures
https://photos.app.goo.gl/x68cYivYfTiZoDDC9
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