Sunday morning I had a traditional breakfast of baybyo (spiced chick peas and onions) with 3 kinds of sticky rice (black, white and turmeric-yellow), with jack fruit, pineapple and papaya. (Vendors walk through the streets in the morning calling out out khauq nin and baybyo for sale like women in Mexico do with tamales, and their cries are reliable as the roosters'). Later I went to the top of Sakura Tower, the tallest building in Rangoon to take in the views and the layout of the city, something I wish I had done before. The sparkling pagodas and green palm trees mask the squalor at street level, especially this morning, which appears to be market day. I took my chances on a game of Frogger and visited Sule Pagoda, located in a roundabout downtown. Luckily it was early and there weren’t too many cars bearing down on me as I crossed 4 lanes of traffic to get there.
Later that day I flew to Sittwe in the northwest of the country, close to the border with Bangladesh. It is the gateway to Mrauk U, the ancient capital of the Rakhine State (think ruined stone palace and lots of ruined pagodas). In Sittwe, I witnessed the spectacle of thousands of fruit bats competing with thousands of crows for prime sunset roosts in the trees outside my hotel. The cacophony was incredible!
Later that day I flew to Sittwe in the northwest of the country, close to the border with Bangladesh. It is the gateway to Mrauk U, the ancient capital of the Rakhine State (think ruined stone palace and lots of ruined pagodas). In Sittwe, I witnessed the spectacle of thousands of fruit bats competing with thousands of crows for prime sunset roosts in the trees outside my hotel. The cacophony was incredible! 
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