Mingalaba! We are going shopping this morning, but before we go the ship is going to provide morning meal for the monks. There are over 5,000 monks in Bagan and they are not allowed to cook for themselves, so each morning they must go to the villagers and ask for rice from the cook pot in each house. It is considered an honor to feed the monks who give up all worldly possessions to follow their religion. The kitchen staff has a huge table set up on shore and the monks of all ages file through the line.
We go first to a lacquer work shop and see the procedure of this fine precise art and then to Nyaung-Oo market. We arrive at the market and Mr Thet says we have 40 minutes before we must return to the bus and then the ship. I feel like I am reliving that TV show where people were in a grocery store and had only a few minutes to throw everything into their shopping cart before the bell rang. Bartering is out of the question, I don’t have time. Ready set go! A lacquer tube for paintings, a mother of pearl soap dish, lacquer bracelet, 2 mandarin blouses with matching lonjyis, two silk scarves, two pillowcases, and a puppet.
The puppet vendor is where I find my two friends from San Francisco bartering with the guy for two very large puppets. My watch says it is pumpkin time and as we all run for the bus I see stalls for a million things I would like to pick up, but time is not on my side. We all scramble back on the boat and set sail for Mandalay.
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