profoundfluxpudding

When I start talking about something I want to do, I can’t rest until I’ve done it. I so hate when people are ATNA (all talk no action) that I will do anything to avoid this. Often, this means that I do things too quickly and don’t plan thoroughly. But sometimes it works out.

I’ve been talking about buying a blender for a week or so now. I’ve started dreaming up smoothie concoctions – banana, mango, and soymilk or passionfruit, banana, and yogurt. Maybe I can use cucumbers for something. Or avocado. Does mangosteen work for smoothies?

I haven’t been this into smoothies since middle school when they came out as a hot new fad. But I’ve been searching for a breakfast routine here quite unsuccessfully. I went through a phase of eating pho, of making oatmeal in a rice cooker, and of eating yogurt with homemade granola. But I’m so fickle lately. Now the idea of smoothies has captivated my every cell.

Finally, on my way home today, I stopped at an electronics store on electronics street. I instantly fell in love with a retro green blender. It costs 650,000VND, the lady at the store told me.

Shoot, I only had 550,000 VND in my wallet. I showed her my empty wallet. I knew this meant that I would just have to come back another day and buy my blender. But I was CRUSHED.

She showed me a different blender that cost 550,000VND. It was white and boring – nothing like the cute green blender that reminded me of the Kitchenaid products I’ve always coveted. “I don’t like this one,” I said.

“Hold on one minute,” she told me. She went to confer with someone else. Then the miraculous happened – she told me I could have the green blender for 550,000VND.

It wasn’t even that I had set out to bargain. Had I had the extra 100,000VND (all of US$5) in my wallet, I would have paid the amount she told me and thought nothing of it. But my inadvertent bargaining strategy had worked – probably because I was totally sincere and they felt sorry for the girl who was about to spend all her money so that she could make breakfast smoothies.

Anyways, it felt good to be on the right side of a rip-off. Maybe now that my 1 year anniversary in Vietnam is coming up, I am finally starting to get it.

And now I will dream of smoothies.

Just in case I haven’t had enough outlets for  writing lately, I wrote reflective pieces for the Dartmouth  09 Newsletter and for my NGO:

• Here is an article I wrote for the Dartmouth 09 Newsletter. The key to success with anything dealing with Dartmouth: mention Greek life, outdoor adventures, and economics classes.
• This makes me sound like I’ve been busy at IUCN. Notice the title….

It is good for me to read these reflections about this past year because I am in a strange place right now. After getting sunburnt in Ko Samet, Thailand, I was thankful for the rain and gray skies in Hanoi. But now I crave the public transportation, food, shopping, and smiles of Thailand. I am planning my next year and  wondering if Hanoi has lost some of its magic for me.

My parents are coming this weekend and I hope that showing them my adopted city will respark the fire. So glad they are on their way…I get big hugs in T-2 days!!!

(photo from the flower market in the Chinatown of Bangkok)

Rice is really important. The majority of people in our world have diets consisting mainly of rice. 2004 was the International Year of Rice  (IYR). There is a trendy New York City restaurant called Rice that acknowledges the importance of rice around the world.

Rice is so variable and it is perfect for a gluten-free diet. I am in the right part of the world to love rice  because Vietnam is the world’s second largest exporter of rice (Thailand is the first).  I eat rice in more ways than Forrest Gump eats shrimp. I can name so many different forms and variations of rice: jasmine rice, glutinous rice, pho noodles, bun noodles, rice paper, rice pudding, brown rice, red rice, rice and beans, and on and on. However, it was only yesterday that I discovered a new type of rice: GABA rice drink.

I found this drink at Lemon Farm, an organic and macrobiotic grocery and cafe in Bangkok. The drink is made from GABA brown rice and five types of beans. There were real kidney beans in this drink! (This might have grossed me out before I decided to love che).

Brown rice that germinates for a longer time than usual has GABA, an amino acid produced from the brain that helps block the neurons that produce anxiety and stress. So GABA naturally reduces stress and anxiety and has other health benefits. (I’ve done some Internet research)

I’m a strong believer in better health through amazing foods (and of course, the reverse: packaged foods, added hormones, and corn syrup are killers). I think this GABA rice drink is a superfood and it will become big trend real soon (mark my words!). I’ve been drinking Kombucha for years and now it just finally made it as a “trend” on the New York Times Thursday Styles. NYT can be slow to pick up on trends! (well, to their credit, there was an article about Kombucha in 1994, but it was not about the fad.)

It will only be a matter of time before Hollywood health gurus and yogis start walking around cities with their GABA rice milk drinks. In a few years, The New York Times will write about this new trend.  Instead of gabbing about GABA, I should probably find a GABA brown rice drink to invest in….

Did you know that rice could be so trendy?

Monday March 8 was International Women’s Day. I had never heard of this holiday before moving abroad, but it seems like other countries really play it up. In Hanoi, there were tons of restaurants and bars offering special deals for women. The streets were filled with people selling flowers and balloons for the day. A friend asked me to join a group of women for a fancy Italian dinner at the Sofitel Metropole with free champagne. I was really tempted, but I had signed up for bootcamp and did not want to miss my workout.

As I was biking to bootcamp, the traffic was frustrating and the wind was so strong it blew me off my bike. “What am I doing?” I asked myself, “I could be enjoying a nice evening and celebrating womanhood, but instead I am going to an exercise class.” But I kept going. Many years of being a swimmer, runner, and triathlete had taught me that the less I wanted to workout, the more I needed to.

The truth is, I wish I did not need to sacrifice my social life for exercise. I have been a lot more lax since moving to Asia and no longer run anywhere near as much as I used to. But I needed endorphins and I needed motivation. I found exactly this in the bootcamp workout. The class is all women way older than me. But they are strong and enthusiastic. After a hard hour of weights, cardio, and awesome cross-training, I knew I had made the right decision to come to this class. Celebrating women’s day is about being a strong women. And I was even able to make it to a bar later that night to enjoy a few free glasses of wine with the girls.

I thought women’s day was made-up and humorous, but the truth is, women need more empowering! I didn’t need chocolate or roses for this day, but its a necessary day. Women do not have equal worldwide rights. If four years at Dartmouth had any impact on me, it made me a feminist. I think all women need to be feminists.

Entrepreneurism is one of my passions and I believe it can do a lot for women. I recently came across a website called Ladies Who Launch and read about some of my everyday heros, like the woman who created Larabar and Paige of Paige Premium Denim.

Something I had never considered as a benefit for women in developing countries was the proliferation of motorbikes. However, according to an article in The Economist,  scooters have provided a fairly safe and reliable way for women to travel to more distant places for education and work, greatly increasing their opportunities and productivity. While some innovations, technologies, and entrepreneurial activities, benefit men more than women, scooters and microcredit are benefitting women in developing areas.

I wonder what other innovations could help liberate women.

More on the status of women today:

• The Female Factor
• Secret Life of Girls (my beloved Kitchen Sisters)

New pho is almost as oxymoronic as old news. There are pho shops sprinkled all over Hanoi and to the untrained eye, they are pretty much identical. Some offer chicken or beef and other just one or the other. Most offer pho xao and ap chao as well. All should have a container for chopsticks, napkins, and spoons that sits a top a metal or plastic table. There is always a spicy red condiment jar, a clear garlicky condiment jar, limes, and slice of hot pepper.

Still, I was curious when I saw a sign for a grand opening of a pho shop near my office and had to check it out. It said it was pho Nam Dinh, the province that pho originated in. According to an article about pho in the Voice of Vietnam, villagers from Nam Dinh came to Hanoi to sell pho because there was more of a demand in the city. As the owner of Pho Lanh on Nui Truc says, “Although the dish originated in our village it was unable to fully develop there because the people had very low incomes; there wasn’t a high demand for this type of food, which was relatively expensive. Consequently, many of us have had to set up businesses outside of our homeland.”

While even the founder of Hanoi Cooking Centre Tracey Lister believes that pho originated in Nam Dinh, ambiguity remains over the origin of this quintessential Vietnamese dish. Some say its a combination of Chinese and French influences – the rice noodles coming from China and the beef coming from France. Others refuse to attribute any influence to these invading forces and claim that pho is purely Vietnamese.

Some of the original Nam Dinh pho shops remain popular in Hanoi and I am now on a mission to seek these out and see if I can tell a difference. I am not sure if the pho Nam Dinh that just opened at 12 Van Phuc is real or a copycat (welcome to Vietnam, the country of copycats). Also,  I like to order ap chao because it had more greens, tomato, and garlic, but ap chao is not as traditional. In fact, as I was eating a bowl of it last week, some awkward Vietnamese guy decided to join me and chat. He told me that if I liked ap chao, it meant I had very modern tastes (Hanoians seem to like their food boring and same same). At first I was entertained by his presence, but then he tried to get me to go to a cafe or bia hoi with him and asked for my number. I was not interested so I quickly slurped my noodles and ran off down the street.

In addition to the new pho place on my street, a Pho 24 just opened near my house. According to the “Pho” Nam Dinh article, this chain is a threat to the traditional pho shops. I think it is a sign of development and a country in flux (for better and worse). I like to eat pho on the street and dislike the fact that little shops are being threatened by mammoth chains with special deals and combo meals. The pho 24 even has WIFI. The idea of advertising for WIFI at a pho shop is a perfect example of how Hanoi is changing and trying to balance age-old tastes with new-age technology.

I try to keep my pho real. I don’t want faux Louis Vuitton and I don’t want faux pho.

Update: It seems that I am not the only one that can write endlessly about pho. Food writer Mimi Sheraton also found the simultaneously simple and complex soup to be noteworthy. Read her article in the Smithsonian Magazine (March 2010 issue).

Whenever I decide to cook in Hanoi, I almost always make Mexican-inspired food. I have hosted countless quesadilla/rice&beans nights.

Part of the reason is that Mexican food is simply my favorite (tortilla soup might as well be my religion) and it is hard to find any decent Mexican food here…. the pho you can find in Fresno is way better than the tacos you can find in Hanoi. There is one place called Cafe 129 that actually has some decent Mexican inspirations (either that or my sense of Mexican food has gone as awry as my sense of fashion since living here). At Cafe 129, there are three Mexican items on the menu: fajitas, taco, and burrito. The funny thing is that the fajitas come wrapped up like a taco!

Another reason why I love to cook Mexican food in Hanoi is that most of the key ingredients are readily available. I have to go to a speciality grocery store for cheese and tortillas, but I can find almost everything else in the small market in my alley: cilantro, lime, spicy peppers, pepper, garlic, rice,tomato, onion, and avocado. One time I ate guacamole with shrimp crackers and had an epiphany for creating a Vietnamese-Mexican fusion Restaurant. I typically like things that are genuine and fusions always seem awkwardly forced, but I think this could be a lot of fun:

• guacamole spring rolls
• tortilla soup pho
• spring rolls taquitos
• rice paper burrito
• bun dau with salsa
• bun cha with cheese
• rice and beans with fish sauce

Ok so maybe I still need to do some experimenting, but I think this would be a perfect restaurant to open in California! As soon as its avocado season, I am going to get to work on this plan. Oh, and perhaps I should take a few more Vietnamese cooking classes in the mean time…

And the name of my restaurant would be Profound Vexed Pudding (Vexed  = confused Vietnamese Mexican).

This week I invented quinoa burritos. It did not have any Vietnamese flavors, but it was a delicious gluten free vegan meal.

Recipe (with no measurements because I don’t have any measuring tools in my kitchen)

1. cook about 3/4 c quinoa in a rice cooker
2. saute onion, then add red pepper until cooked. Add in canned corn, canned kidney beans, cilantro, and cooked quinoa. Flavor with turmeric, salt, pepper, and hot sauce.
3. wrap quinoa mix in a corn tortilla with lettuce.
4. Add more hot sauce. Enjoy!

I had some intense blog posts in the works, but I received a suggestion that I should be more careful about what I say about governments, etc on this blog. So for now I will stick to what is safe: Writing about ME.

In Hanoi, you are always meeting new people. It is a city of transient souls and there are certain established questions that go along with every initial interaction. Here are some of my answers.

I am thinking about profiling some of my friends too and asking these same questions:

How long have you been in Hanoi?

I have been here since August. I had been saying “five months” for a long time, but now it is about seven months. Wow, how time flies!

Where do you live?

I live off of Doi Can, a crazy traffic-infested street with lots of accessory shops and some street food. To get to my house, you have to make about twenty turns in an alley. There is a morning market with breakfast stalls and fruit and vegetable sellers that always smile at me. I have my favorite ladies that I buy from.

Actually, we have been quite unlucky with people stealing things from our house. It is so strange what goes missing – slippers, money, a plastic buddha, a necklace, a ring, an MP3 player, sunglasses… I am getting really frustrated and looking to move. I think a fresh location would give me a new perspective and be quite nice.

What is your job?

I have a fellowship through Princeton in Asia to work at an environmental NGO. I also teach one english class a week because I really enjoy being with kids and I learn a lot about the culture by teaching. My favorite thing that I have been doing is freelancing for The Word, a magazine about life in Hanoi. I have been able to do some really cool things – like take cooking courses and attend a boot camp – because I was writing articles.

Where are you from?

I’m from the United States…. Oh really, you don’t think I look American? Well we aren’t all huge and obnoxious, I promise. I just graduated from a college that you have never heard of and majored in history, which seems worthless to you.

Where do you normally hang out?

This may sound lame, but I actually think I hang out at The Cinematheque, although not in that creepy middle school sort of way. There are always really interesting films and it is a gathering spot for many of my friends. I love being able to bring a glass of white wine or a lemongrass martini into the theater. There is also a nice outdoor space that is used for classy social events.

Do you drive a motorbike?

No, I have been riding a bicycle for seven months. For the most part, I really enjoy my biking and my commute to work is short so it works. However, bicyclists get no respect in this city and I am always getting run off the road. Also, it gets frustrating that I cannot wear skirts or dresses to work when I ride my bicycle. My bike is a piece of junk with no gears, but it does have a lovely basket and a new bell.

Sometimes I get tired and don’t want to cycle so I end up taking a xe om. I am so sick of dealing with xe om drivers, especially the drunk toothless ones. Luckily, I have a reliable xe om mien phi (free xe om = boyfriend), but I am about to take the plunge and get my own set of wheels. I have a crush on the electric scooters because they are little, automatic, and don’t add to the pollution in this town!

How is your Vietnamese?

Oh…not so good. I had been taking lessons, but my tutor/great friend went to Australia for 2.5 months and it has all be downhill. I can get around and go shopping, and I  am good at understanding hand gestures. My boyfriend always makes fun of me for the way I talk in Vietnamese…it reminds me of how my sister makes fun of me for the way I speak Spanish. Yes, I am a gringa. And, I should really get back to studying Vietnamese. Duoc, khong?

Have you traveled around the area a lot?

Yes, I refuse to be one of those expats who get stuck in this Hanoi vortex scene and forget to explore the country. I have been to Ha Giang, Sapa, Hoi An, Ha Long Bay, Tam Dao, and Saigon. I still want to go to a lot of places like Phu Quoc, Mai Chau, Ba Vi, and all those other names that people rattle off but will mean nothing to me until I go there!

And there are so many places I want to go outside of Vietnam. So far, I have been to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Singapore. My list of places I want to go is endless, but Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia are on the top of my list!

What is your favorite street food?

I could eat pho quon on Truc Bach any day of the week. I’ve lately lost my taste for pho. My typical lunch is rice line or bun dau. I want to get more into che so that I can tell the difference between those refreshing  globs.

How long do you plan to stay?

My contract is until August. I would consider breaking it if something amazing came up…. I might stick around Hanoi or move somewhere else in Asia. I also have a strong desire to move to Tel Aviv, to New Orleans, or to San Francisco. But, I am not going to plan or worry too much about the future. When an opportunity arises, I will try my best to seize it!

If you would like to be profiled in my blog, let me know. I think this could be a great series!

*This is really in-depth and probably not that interesting unless you really love me or you are planning a trip to Burma.

DAY 5:

• Spent the morning enjoying the relaxing town around Inlay Lake. We bicycled 45 minutes on a rural path to a hot springs. The road seemed to go to no where, so we climbed a deserted pagoda for a better view. Sure enough, the hot springs were just around the corner! There were only a few other people there. Each pool got hotter and I felt my circulation and digestive system improving with each wince of heat. We another typical multi-course meal at Smiling Moon. I was most excited by the avocado with rice crackers and fried bananas. We relished every moment of the day and finally showed up at the hotel at 4 pm to begin another long drive to Mandalay.
• The roads were not good. In some parts, they were just dirt. We shook and rattled for many hours. We stopped to get dinner along the road and continued driving into the night. We finally arrived at the ET hotel in Mandalay at 2 am.  From my 2 am viewpoint, Mandalay seemed big, dirty, and unspectacular.

DAY 6:

• We spent the day around Mandalay. It is the places nearby that drive tourists to this sprawling and dusty city. We wanted to be in the monastery at Amarapura by 10:30 AM so that we could see the thousands of monks line up and eat breakfast. This turned out to be kind of uncomfortable because there were many tourists who wanted to watch monks eat.  We felt guilty taking photos and quickly left to go to the longest teak bridge in the world.
• The bridge was also a touristy attraction, but the little cafe that we found to drink a strawberry drink at was authentic and delicious (The outhouse I peed in afterwards was also authentic, but not delicious).
• Next, we went to Sagaing Hill, a hillside that is full of monasteries and pagodas. It is the place were monks go when they are stressed out. One monk quietly showed us around. He kept wanting to take photos of me in particular places with my camera. What I really wanted was a photo of him taking a photo because his maroon robe matched my camera perfectly.
• Stopped by a few more pagodas, got picked up by another monk who sat down with us for tea, and then headed back to the city.
• That night, we walked through a night market on our way to see The Mustache Brothers – the comedy/dancing troupe that is infamous for criticizing the government.  The main guy talked about how the government was rich and the people were poor, about how the government is always watching, and about one of the brothers that was sentenced to jail. And then there was a lot of silly dancing.
• We tried to grab a late dinner, but the city was dead by 10 pm. We finally found some Indian briyani on the street, but the little children begging by my side made me completely lose my appetite.

DAY 7:

• We rented bikes for the day – a clutch decision.
• Started the day with a climb up Mandalay Hill to a pagoda. I really enjoyed the morning stair workout. Besides this hill, the city is completely flat.
• There just was not that much to do in Mandalay and it was hot so we decided to go to the pool. The local Olympic-sized pool looked great for swimming laps, but not that inviting for reading besides it. We sauntered in with an affected air to the Mandalay Hill Resort and enjoyed a lovely afternoon of dipping in the pool and reading. It was a nice break for us, but seriously, I cannot believe that people would come to Myanmar to stay at 5-star resorts and hang out by the pool the whole time. What’s the point? If that is what you want, sit by the beach in Thailand!
• After a five-star shower, went to TooToo, a home style restaurant. While it is listed as a MUST go in Lonely Planet, there are no signs of it selling out to tourists. Completely authentic mush!!
• Savored our last hours playing connect four in a bar and then at 8 pm, began the overnight drive back to Yangon. This drive was really scary because I knew the driver must be getting tired. The night was a complete haze of roadside tea and peeing off the side of the road.

DAY 8:

• Finally arrived back in Yangon around 10 AM. I was dizzy and exhausted.  I really wanted to run the Hash House Harriers at 3 pm so I set out to energize myself: a lemongrass drink, a lime drink, and a coffee drink.
• Still felt woozy, but really wanted to run. Good thing because the Hash turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip. We met a bunch of expats and were able to get a feeling for the expat life. Turns out, they were surprisingly normal! The run was about an hour – through thatched-roof huts and dry fields. At one point, the monks and villagers were pointing us which way to go!
• By the time the run and following festivities ended, I was exhausted and satisfied. Tomorrow we would leave early and spend the day shopping at the weekend market, getting Thai massages, seeing old friends, and eating pad thai in Bangkok

People seem to want more information on this trip. Vietnam Airlines is opening up a direct flight from Hanoi – Yangon soon so I think more and more people from Hanoi plan to go to Myanmar.  While everything is still fresh in my mind, I might as well craft a little travel guide based on my trip. My friend Dave sent us a lot of information from his trip that was really helpful. There really is a dearth of information flowing in and out of Myanmar so this is my attempt to help others who want to go!

DAY 1:

• We arrived to Yangon and were met by the friendly staff from The Motherland Inn (2). This backpacker hostel is Lonely Planet’s “our pick.” It was not glamorous, but the people were really nice and there was a good breakfast. One of the staff members, Zaw Zaw, helped us plan our whole trip. He convinced us to go by car with a driver so that we could see more of the country and save time commuting around airports. I HATE car trips so was wary, but ultimately decided it was the best decision. Based on what we wanted, Zaw Zaw said we should go to Bago (spend the night in Taugwoo), Kalaw, Lake Inlay, Mandalay, Amarapura and Sagaing, and then back to Yangon
• We spent the rest of the day exploring Yangon – went to the market, ate a questionable cold rice noodle      salad (the woman mixed it with her bare hands), walked along the Strand and stopped in at one of the   fancy hotels near the British Embassy, and saw the very impressive Shwedagon Pagoda during sunset.

DAY 2 (Valentine’s Day):

• Ate a dosa for breakfast on the street (for some reason the idea of eggs at hostels makes me squirm). The dosa was delicious and we enjoyed it with Myanmar tea – like Indian tea, but not spicy and with condensed milk…hmm…. We got in our car, our home away from home for the next few days, and headed to Bago.  Our driver did not speak any English, so Aung was there to be our semi-guide. He was nice and easy-going, but did not speak enough English to really tell us much about the sites.
• Bago is like a miniature Bagan – we went to so many pagodas that it became an endurance event. After not being able to walk around and have our shoeless feet burn anymore, we decided to get our palms read. According to some guy at a pagoda in Bago, I have a brave mind and a lot of leadership capabilities (well he said some other things too, but I only chose to remember what I liked). We ate some mushy curry and headed to Taugwoo. On the way we saw a little fair and asked the driver to stop. It was such a “genuine” and not touristy experience. I bought some sticky rice in bamboo and we rode possibly the sketchiest fair ride ever.
• I think we stayed at a nice place in Taugwoo but we never saw it in the daylight because we arrived after       dark and left before dawn.

DAY 3:

• Started with one of the longest and most uncomfortable car rides of my life. We finally arrived to the quaint town of Kalaw and had lunch at Everest Nepali restaurant. We did not have time for the standard hike from Kalaw to Lake Inlay, so we did a five hour trek. It felt so great to stretch my legs.
• Our guide was a really interesting and well-educated man in his 50s. He told us  about his life and a lot about his thoughts on the government and the people. He thinks that tourists are important because they help inform Burmese people about the world outside. He asked as a lot of questions about American politics that we tried to answer as honestly as we could. He said that most people do not know about other types of government, all they know is fear. He tried to compare the Burmese people to an Aesop’s fable called “We got the leader we deserve.” His point was that the people are smiling Buddhists who do not plan for the future. Our trekking guide seemed to double as a medicine man for the towns that we visited. Ha handed out medication to an old woman and a young girl. Tourists give him money to buy medicine so we chipped in as well.
• We bought some really cool paintings from Law Ka Nat art gallery and went to Sam’s Family Restaurant for dinner.

DAY 4:

• After buying some warm blankets at the market, we are off again. I was not happy to get back in the car, but the ride to Lake Inlay was only three hours. We arrived to our hotel and immediately rented bicycles.
• Biking on retro bikes around the paths outside of town made me feel like I was in another era, in another world. I immediately thought how good of a place this would be for a fashion catalogue photo shoot.  We stopped for lunch at Green Chili, a really beautiful restaurant that looks way more expensive than it actually is.
• For the afternoon, we did our tour of the lake. I did not realize that the lake was so inaccessible – you have to get on guided motorboats to get there. The boat ride was great, but the whole tour seemed a little weird. A big draw is a monastery where bored monks have taught cats to jump…did I mention I am NOT a cat person? We went to a cigarette-making workshop and a weaving workshop. We opted out of seeing the women with long necks. These women wear metal braces that elongate their necks. It was first done so that young girls would not be attractive to men, but now more and more girls get this treatment because tourists like to take photos. Lonely Planet advised us not to stop for photos. It is times like these that you realize what profound impacts tourism can have on society. I will forever be a more conscience tourist.
• We went to a winery restaurant called The Viewpoint for dinner. Shan food is better than most Myanmar food – lots of soups, salad, and avocado! Apparently Shan kings would be served 300 plates at each meal. Five was way too much for me… Still, it was another gorgeous restaurant. Not exactly what I was expecting from Myanmar, but there is definitely some upscale tourism here (with money oftentimes going straight into the the hands of the government)

* I am really not a numbers person, but sometimes numbers can provide worthwhile insight…

• 1,000 kyat. The largest note in Myanmar is about $1 USD. When you exchange a crispy $100 bill, you receive 960 of these oversized notes that do not fit in any standard wallet. I walked around with my kyat in a rubber band in my purse.
• 15 hours. The length of our longest drive from Mandalay back to Yangon. We did this drive during the night and the roads were not as bad as some that we had been on.
• 1 in 3. A combination that people in Myanmar love. Whether it is coffee, tea, lime drink, ovaltine, or cereal, so many products are advertised as being one in three. I was guilty of enjoying many a sweet coffee combo drink.
• 400,000. About the number of monks in Myanmar (which is 90% devout Buddhist). This number is about equal to the number of army personnel that terrorize the country.
• 2005. The year that the government decided to move the capital from Yangon to Nay Pwi Daw – a random dusty wasteland that we drove past on the way to Kalaw. Some say that they moved the government for security reasons. The wide empty streets with brand new buildings are eerie. It is illegal to stop for photos.
• 1.2 km. The longest teak bridge in the world is located in Amarapura, just a few kilometers away from Mandalay. We walked across this bridge, drank a strawberry drink besides it, and took a colorful boat back to the other side.
• 7 years. The amount of time that Pa Pa Lay, one of the mustache brothers that perform a comedy routine we saw in Mandalay, was sentenced to jail for telling jokes against the government.