Wonder.Food.Travel

Means Hello, Mandalay. The official language of Myanmar is Burmese. I didn't even know how to say the simple words of Hello and Thank You then, or how the language sounded until when i was in the country. Written, it looks circular and curvy. Bluish white or whitish blue? In a sea of mini pagodas. I liked Mandalay most. The bus journey along the highway from Bagan was smooth. Suddenly, the bus halted by the road nearing Mandalay city, at what appeared to be a bus station. Another JJ bus was already on stand by. An attendant came onto our bus and asked for our destination. He directed us to board it. Like a feeder bus to the city, it was packed with passengers when we got up. The attendant informed us of our stop and we got down. Instantly, we felt transported back to city life with plenty of vehicles on the road and taller concrete buildings. Mandalay city was well organized and structured in a grid with numbers as road or street names. We gingerly crossed the road and...

On my way home from the airport, my Grab driver asked me where i went. I told him Myanmar and this quickly piqued his curiousity. He mentioned that he seldom hear of people traveling to Myanmar, what more for leisure, and continued with a few more questions about the country i now know the answers to. Do you know that Myanmar is the second largest country by land in Southeast Asia? Driven by the agriculture industry, the current country population is 1.7 times that of Malaysia according to World Population Review 2019. I gladly replied him while replaying the week-long travel i just returned from. Despite the many temple visits (at least one pagoda/stupa/temple everyday in our itinerary), this travel was more cultural to me than it was spiritual. And i thoroughly enjoyed the food! I even mentioned it to my Grab driver who didn't sound convinced. Mon ethnic cuisine, Shan state inspired delicacies, Chinese and Indian mixed dishes occupy the menu beside local food fares. Vegetarian...