Myanmar: The Golden Land Pt 1

Some ritual at Shwezigon Paya, Bagan
If only those tourists were not frantically clicking away... I guess the ones at the back of me would say the same thing about me, but I'm different! I look Myanmese hehehe.

OK here's my take on Myanmar: The Golden Land.

Myanmar is an incredibly friendly and wonderful place to visit.
It is not too expensive, ...even for Malaysians.
Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to convert 200 US Dollars to Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC) anymore. You will need a tourist visa, flight tickets and liquid USDs.
1 USD = 900 kyat (change it only when you are at the city, not at the airport. Why? Go find out yourself, hehe).
Kyat is pronounced 'cat' as in Malay for paint, not cat as in the type that catches mice.
(Note for Dad: the 'c' in Malay is unaspirated, like the 'ch' in Chee Eng, not the 'ch' in cheese. The unaspirated 'ch' is spelt 'ky' in Burmese, so Chee Eng would be spelt Kyi Eng. Aung San Su Kyi is pronounced Aung San Suci (as in Malay for 'holy'). The 'j' sound is spelt 'gy' in Burmese so brother's name would be Gyason Ong in Burmese I suppose. This rule applies to all Burmese place names).

The Golden Land
Burmese like to gild their temples and Buddha images in gold. They are experts at making 'gold leaves' for to stick onto whatever religious things they can afford to.

Attire
Very few Burmese wear jeans (at least not while I was there). They don't like to wear them coz they're hard to wash (...I made that up hehe, but try washing them with your hands!) 90% of Burmese wear sarongs, for home, work and even formal occassions regardless of their religion or race. I don't know whether they wear anything underneath, I didn't ask, I'm not a pervert! Unlike Indians, I have not seen a Burmese peeing by the streets (except 1 who was drunk), although I figured it'd be easier if you wear sarongs, right? Indians are the true experts of street-peeing, Indians can street-pee while wearing slacks, squatting, and surrounded by hordes of people, with the utmost discretion (meaning you won't be able to see the 'parts' you're not supposed to see, unless you try very hard, which means ...that there must be something mighty wrong with you!)
Burmese prefer sandals to shoes, because every other place is a temple or monastery compound, and you're NOT supposed to wear your shoes, NOR your socks in them. Same goes to a lot of offices (and of course, houses). Most Burmese sport velvet-lined 'Japanese' sandals (flip-flops). If you visit, bring a light pair and plastic bags so that you can store them in your bag without coating everything in your bag with street-dust.

Food
Burmese like their food thickly coated with oil. The oil is supposed to protect the food underneath from germs. Don't ask me how you're supposed to eat the food without eating the oil, I still haven't figured it out yet.
Unlike Indians, Burmese eat their cows and pigs. I did not see a stray cow or a pig around the streets, only dogs, and cats, and oh yeah, horses (Horse carts are the No 1 mode of public transportation in Bagan, costs 6000 kyat per day. Nope I didn't try it, bicycles only costs 500 kyat per day (about RM 2), hehehe, cheapskate).
Most popular Burmese soup is 'hin-jo'. Tastes something like salted vegetable soup (ham-choi thong / kiam-chai theng) or 'chai-boei'.
Most popular condiment is 'ngapi'. Tastes like 'sambal belacan'.
Most popular drink is chinese tea. Every table has a thermal flask which waiters constantly top up with boiling water.
If you don't like Burmese food, there're lots of Chinese and Indian restaurants around.

...To be continued. I think I better post this first, it's getting mighty long-winded as usual.