This Little American Went to Market

After breakfast, as the ship steamed toward Pakokku, the head chef did a cooking demonstration on making Mohinga, the traditional Burmese breakfast.  (Sorry, but I say “Mohinga” I always want to add an exclamation point – “Mohinga!” and I can’t help but think of Ralphie’s dad cursing over the heater and saying something that sounds like “Buttafinga!” in a Christmas Story.)  (Another movie for Ye Ye to add to his list of movies, if he has not already seen it.)

The recipe took too long and was so complex that I didn’t stick around to taste it – I had to return to our room to apply sunscreen for our morning excursion.  Carol had planned ahead and already sunscreened up, so she did stay around for a taste.  She said it was good, but I will never find out unless we return to Myanmar (once was great, not sure we need to go back).

We bused from the shore to the Pakokku market.  The road close to the market was so crowded we had to get off the bus and walk (Third World problems?).  It wasn’t a problem at all – just a note about how crowded the roads around the market became.   Part of the fun of walking there was avoiding getting run over.  The Myanmarianics (I think that’s another made up one – unless I’m recycling from earlier in the blog!) seem to treat it as a sport to see how close vehicles can come to running them over without actually getting hit.

On our way to the main part of the market, we walked past an egg stand with a young kid passed out sleeping cutely  and another one playing.  It was a cool scene.

As a group of ten (plus our fearless leader, which makes eleven), we buzzed through the market at a slower pace than Carol/I/Aye Aye did in Yangon.  These markets are fascinating experiences.  The food, the color of the textiles/clothing, the toys, and the many crafts make for a dizzying spectacle.  The sight of dried fish in the baskets was not very appetizing, but still worth seeing.

 

Our doctors in the group (four – Pamela & Kevin, Valerie & Michelle) were particularly fascinated by the pharmacy, which had mostly Eastern/holistic medicine, but, if memory serves, did have some western medicine (probably British, so maybe that doesn’t even count!  Ha, just kidding – if my Brit friends read this!).

I would have loved to go through the meat market, but we didn’t quite get that chance.  After that, we headed back to the ship for lunch and head to Bagan.