Myanmar Trip 2013 - Day Seven

A full day in Yangon, and in retrospect the most expensive day of the trip. Khan Ruey and I began the day with a trip to the Bogyoke Aung San Market for some souvenir-hunting. After some scouting around, we came across a man selling artwork made of straw. The intricacy of the work piqued us, and I ended up grabbing a few pieces of the artwork, along with a set of cards with simpler straw art on the front - for the colleagues at work.

We had planned to meet Ben and Vanessa at our hotel lobby at noon, and from there we took a short stroll to Nilar Briyani for lunch. The portions were decent, but I personally preferred the briyani we'd had in Mawlamyine. A hefty lunch, before we proceeded to graze around downtown Yangon. It wasn't long before the scorching summer heat became unbearable, and we decided to head back to our respective hotels until later in the afternoon. We met again at 5.00pm around the train station, where we boarded a cab to the northern side of Yangon. We agreed on a fee of 12000 kyat with the cabbie, for him to take us up north to see the Aung San Suu Kyi residence. Upon reaching we noticed the building was surrounded by high walls, and its entrance guarded.

Guarded walls of Suu Kyi's residence

You could imagine the disappointment in our faces at that point, until our cabbie tells us there's more. He drives us a few hundred metres away into a monastery by the lake, where we take our footwear off and proceed towards a makeshift jetty. From here, we were able to see the backyard of Aung San Suu Kyi's home - what logically would have been the point from where American citizen John Yettaw infamously trespassed upon Suu Kyi's residence a couple of weeks before her scheduled release from house arrest in 2009. 

Backyard of the Aung San Suu Kyi residence

Of course, Lake Inya itself is a spectacle to behold, and we had an excellent view of the lake,  Across the lake, we could also see the boathouse of Suu Kyi's long-time nemesis - Ne Win, who served as leader of the oppressed Burma for 26 years. Our cabbie proceeded to show us the office where Suu Kyi works, before taking us back to downtown Yangon. The sun was just about to set along the Yangon waterfront. The skies reveled in shades of pink and blue. The setting couldn't have been better. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner by the riverside at Junior Duck, a quaint restaurant next to Pansodan Jetty that serves up Chinese fare. Half-way through the dinner, we were already musing about our next activity for the night - drinks at The Strand's bar across the street.

Suu Kyi's office

Never thought I'd spot this classic sewing machine in front of Suu Kyi's office - there's one of this in my home

Alas, it was time to sample the cocktails of Myanmar at what is widely regarded as Yangon's (if not Myanmar's) top bar; what's more on a Friday night when it is Happy Hour (5pm to 11pm) and the drinks are served at half their price. Each of us ordered a round of different cocktails, before we sat back along the bar and began sipping our cocktails (of course, there was the mandatory mooching-off from each other's glasses). Ben and I have been passionate about cocktails for a long time now, and we're often caught in intriguing discussions about mixers, consistency and aftertaste. We both agreed that the cocktails at The Strand were delicious, and the aged man behind the bar most certainly knew what he was doing - something unfortunately we have never been able to say about most of the bars we've visited in Malaysia.

Strand cocktails - Set #1

Strand cocktails - Set #2

The well-stocked bar at The Strand