Yangon Magic!

The overnight bus was awesome! VIP indeed with attendant, snacks, more room than a plane and extra blankets for the cold temperatures. They gave me a can of orange juice that was almost hot! Not to worry! With temperatures hovering near refrigerator temp’s, I knew it would be cold in a couple hours so drank it then.

Indication of quick changes in Myanmar: this bus was the most expensive and nicest I’ve ridden. And, I was the ONLY foreign tourist on board! Wealth is growing for many in this tourist oriented country now.

I slept about 7 hours on this comfortable bus and arrived at the hostel around 8:00 am with a room waiting for me. Cool!

Two priorities and a fantasy!

Coming back to the largest city in Myanmar, I had two priorities and one fantasy to engage with.

Priorities: find a pharmacy and look for a novel and fun new baseball hat.

Fantasy: my camera has an annoying spot I can’t get rid of and I’m out of lens cleaning paper. Options: find a camera cleaning place??? Or, find lens cloth? And, I’m traveling with a 55mm Canon lens cap replacing the cheap piece of crap from Sony that broke within 9 months of me buying the nice new lens.

Guess which one of the three happened? I googled camera cleaning and found two companies but both were a long walk and away from anything else that interested me.

I opted to walk to a hostel a few blocks away and connect with a friend. About 100 meters from the hostel, I noticed an electronics store with a “SONY” special event happening! They didn’t have a lens cloth nor lens cap…not surprised. They pointed me to an electronics street.

After visiting the hostel, I went to the street and into the first large store I saw. Same story, nothing. After some staff group consulting, they told me to go to a place not far away. Interestingly, it was on the way to my massage and the coffee shop I wanted to visit…Moe’s Coffee.

Inside, the first person I talked with was greatly confused??? The next person had a better idea. They, they waited for man behind the counter to finish with a customer. I started visiting with a woman wearing a shirt that had the expression: “100 percent real” on the front. Cool!

The man behind the counter picked up my camera and proceeded to take things apart, cleaning every part carefully. He handed it back to me and the spot was completely gone! Awesome!

Tentatively, I pointed to the Canon cap on my SONY camera lens. He took off the Canon cap, saw the size and, in a few moments, put on the proper SONY lens cap replacement! Outstanding. The impossible fantasy happened in the snap of a finger.

I asked hime how much I owed him? He said $3,000 KYAT. YOU ARE KIDDING ME?! A lens cap is near $20 in the US. How much is a camera cleaning, around $75 US? He charged me the equivalent of $2 US!

Then I found the massage which was foot, leg, hands, arm and neck…for $4 US dollars! Really nice massage if a bit brutal…deep and painful at first.

And that if my first day back here! Tonight, I’m going to restaurant I learned about that hires kids in poverty and trains them in a career. I’m wondering what other magic might show up?

And by the way, the two priorities haven’t happened yet at all!