EXPERIENCING AUTHENTIC MYANMAR | Nate bought a Skirt

Today is day three aboard the Irrawaddy Explorer, and last night we sailed to the town of Migue, or I should probably say city of McGuy, which is where we'll be exploring today.

Since we've been on this boat, we have only been passing these tiny villages, little fishing tents, animals, like, not much of anything. And then last night, we get to this huge city with, like, lights and a gas station.

It's a city of over 300,000 people.

And if you looked at our itinerary today, you would have thought that it is, like, a classic, Karen, A travel day. It's supposed to get up to 102 today, which is why we're up bright and early to go explore before it gets too hot.

One of my favorite parts of getting off the ship is all the staff lines up and they all tell you to have a good day on your way out, and then when you come back, they all tell you welcome back. Just makes you feel so special.

Okay, please take your limousine.

These are the trishaws, which is the local transportation that we're taking to the market.

So part of me, as a tourist wants to feel a little guilty about this jumping on something that's pedal powered by another human. But this is the local form of transportation. This is how a lot of people actually get around here.

He told us not to feel bad because the locals stack on three people. One here, one on the front, and one on the back. I still feel bad, though.

Hello, minerva.

That was the cutest.

So we've just made it to the local market. That ride was so much fun. Not only was there, like, so much to see, but even though we're in this big city, very few tourists come here, from what we understand. So we were kind of like a novelty driving down the street, and everybody was just so excited to, like, smile and wave at us. That was awesome. Okay, while we're here at the market, I actually do have one thing that I need to buy. The traditional skirt that all the men wear is called a longi, and I'm currently wearing shorts. We're going in a pagoda later, so I have to cover my knees. That means that I'm forcing myself to buy something while we're here. I've really just been looking for an excuse to be able to buy one. Plus, it's super hot, and I don't want to wear pants all day. So if I buy a longi, I can just carry it with me and then throw it around me every time we go into a pagoda. Just walked into this woman's veggies. So just learned that if you're a couple here at Myanmar, instead of like walking around hanging on each other to show your affection, you do that by buying matching shirts and walking around town. Really wants buy these. I'm not going to.

L.

I am obsessed with the people in Myanmar. I know I've said it a million times. Everybody is just so friendly and always, my people especially.

She said to you and she said, this is. This color is very, very fitting for you. Color. She said. Well, she says this is the one I need. And this the one I need. Yeah, it is. Hey, Cara, how about you? So 5,000 for this one?

Yeah.

Okay. Will you show me how to tie it up? Okay. You think they just tie it? But there's a very specific way that you do this. I don't know. How good is that? I love it. Now I'm ready to go in the pagoda and we match.

My cheats are sore from smiling so much at the people at the market. But we are leaving now and we have about a 25 minute ride to the pagoda. Savage.

So we've just arrived at the pagoda, and one of my favorite things about Myanmar is being able to watch the monks go around and collect their alms in the morning. We've seen that once before in Laos, and it had just kind of like turned into this tourist parade, but here it's still very authentic. They're going around, they're collecting food, and that's the lunch that they're going to take back to the monastery to eat. They walk around with the bowls and people from the community cook food for them and contribute to their lunch every day. And it's just really cool to get to witness the authentic version of that. And now we're going up a lot of steps.

This has been our favorite morning in Myanmar by far. Interacting with the locals there was so much fun. Our guide told us that some of the people there were from really far away villages and we were the first listeners they had ever seen. So we took a ton of selfies and it was so much fun.

After we got back on board, we enjoyed another delicious lunch. And this afternoon we've just been sailing further up the river, so they took that opportunity to give us some tips and tricks on the local culture. They taught me how to properly tie a longi. So the one that I bought today I can continue to wear without it falling down like it did pretty much the whole day today.

And they taught me how to properly use.

All the ladies here wear this on their face. And some of the males do too. It's basically tree bark. I have the prepackaged kind, but the locals take this certain kind of tree, it's kind of like a lemon tree, and they grind it on the stone and add some water and then apply it directly to their faces. Supposed to be a natural sunscreen, natural bug spray. Supposed to get rid of sunspots. It's supposed to get rid of wrinkles and all of these amazing things. Our guide Zaw is 32, but he could totally pass for an 18 year old. He said he puts it on his face every single night. Guess who's gonna put in his eye every single night. If it does work, I'll be taking orders and mailing it back to the us so leave a comment below if you would like.

Don't do that. So the rest of the evening we're just gonna be sailing up river, enjoying more beautiful views. We're gonna try to get another workout in, enjoy a delicious dinner, and then tomorrow we'll be in a new place. Love.

Cruising.

Is day four. We are in the town of sale today, which we heard is kind of stuck in the 1930s. So we're gonna go see what that's all about.

Actually at 7 o'clock in for.

So before the 1900s, this was a sleepy little town like any of them that we've been passing here along the river. But in the early 1900s, the British came here and they discovered oil and everybody in this town got extremely rich by Burmese standards. And they really liked the British because they were the ones that were giving them all of this money. So they started building their houses to match the British colonial style. So that's why we're seeing a lot of old, old colonial buildings here in this town. But then years later, they built a bridge somewhere else that made it more convenient to have other places than this town. So it's kind of like a boom town. Like a bunch of people lived here. There was a lot of money infused into the economy and then eventually everybody started leaving. So now there's only 6,000 people left in this town. So it has this like really interesting mixture of kind of like old, kind of like village, river life, but then like some weird colonial houses mixed in here and there. It's a very unique city.

We don't buy many souvenirs, but this man is making these amazing paintings out of a razor blade and it was less than $2. How cool is that? He just throws a bunch of paint on there and then takes the razor blade and makes these beautiful paintings.

I'm so excited.

And it's flat, so it'll fit in my backpack.

We just stopped across the river from Bagan, and we're about to go up to a temple for what should be some great beast.

Sam.

Look. I got that little. That little thing. No. One twist. Just one twist. It's hard with the T shirt. My T shirt always gets stuck in. I would not be confident to wear this round without pants on. Then this is. If you let it just hang. That's my pocket. That's old man style. Okay. Yeah. Like, everybody has a nice little organized knot right here. The skinny guys can do the twist. I can't. I don't got enough material. It's gonna take some practice.

This.

I almost made it for the whole tour. I was falling down.

It's pretty good.

I think I nailed it.

You totally did.

I'm getting better.

And we're back. Oh, he told me I was wearing it, too. I told me people would laugh and make fun of me. Yeah, get it. Get it down on the hips.