< Back To This Issue's Index >< Subscribe >< Send a Letter to the Editor >

When it comes to shopping, people are very partisan. They rave about Bangkok or swear by Dubai. In the Middle East, women spend whole evenings comparing the merits of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul with the Great Suq in Damascus. Then again, my aunty Maggie who was born in Rangoon should know better. She insists that anything she can't buy in Harrods' can certainly be obtained in Hong Kong. Strange, isn't it, how worked up they get? Somehow, for them, shopping has become inextricably mixed up with travel. Well, those of us who live here know better as the real shopping experience is actually to be had in Yangon (Rangoon). Now, I can hear some of you protesting in disbelief.  'Rubbish', you say. 'We haven't got the Web and we can't purchase the latest computer software!'  Well, as I see it, that isn't shopping: it's purchasing. Let's get it straight from the start, shopping, like any other pursuit, has to be addressed seriously. You don't just pop out of the office into the shop next door to go shopping. On the contrary, you have to trawl the city and track down the right dealer, taking your time, stopping to eat, entering into various conversations on the way, making friends and networking as you go. Finally, you will buy something. That is how to go shopping!  Besides, I don't want to buy the Web, and I have a sneaking suspicion that if I adopt the two principles of the real shopper, namely, take time and spend enough money, I can obtain software to match any sold in Tokyo or LA. It is just a case of finding the right outlet.

Errol Flynn is an Australian Senior Executive with Global Capital Markets, a Luxembourg based Banking Organization and chief representative of the company in Australia. He has been active in Myanmar (Burma) since 1995 and has introduced Australian Mining and Offshore Financial sectors into the country. Errol has been the Chief negotiator with the Myanmar Government for companys wishing to do business in the country and has recommended several Joint ventures between Australian and other foreign countries with Myanmar. Errol's father John Flynn, an Irishman, went to Burma during World War II with the British Army and married there. Errol was born on the hills of Maymyo, now known as Pyin-Oo-Lwin. .. Additional Resources Traveling Abroad  Unique Lifestyles  Myanmar Resources  Errol Flynn's Myanmar website  .

It's legal and official but finding the dealer is the challenge. There are dozens of retailers selling everything from hi-fi and photographic equipment to Muslim prayer mats and worry beads.
 

You can buy toasters, tea sets, tyres and twin-sets, televisions, teddy bears, tarpaulins and tractors. However, the trading rationale is not immediately obvious. Hang Ten, the fashion store, rubs shoulders with the Pedigree Chum pet shop; Sanyo is opposite The Hole in One: Golf Emporium. On the pavement, digital watches lie beside fluffy toys; sequinned bags and peacock feathers are propped against bundles of News Week; can openers and hair dyes front the umbrella stall; mothballs and lipsticks share pride of place with pins and coat-hangers; anatomical charts are next to Vogue dress patterns. It's all there but where exactly remains a mystery.  The same principle, or lack of principle, holds for food vendors who not only render all hope of a diet forlorn, but have honed seduction to the limit. They offer sticky rice, beans, deep-fried savouries, kebabs and skewers, palata, flat bread, coconut rice, doughnuts, and exotic sweetmeats. Should you still resist, there is a whole range of familiar western snacks to tempt you further.  The street has taken on the form of some vast kitchen, but if I wish to eat a balanced meal, I have to proceed carefully, choosing my starter in one street and my dessert in another. By the time I find what I really want, I am hungry again. Could this be some cunning marketing strategy? I wonder? ... And I must mention the markets where merchandise abounds. Every township has at least one: Hladen Market, Yuzana Plaza, Theingi Zei, Thiri Mingalar are but a few, and the market 'par excellence' for exotica and luxury items, is

Burmese Dancer in Yellow  Sir Gerald Kelly

Bogyuke. The ultimate goal for the shopping addict has to be a Sunday trip to Bogyuke Market. Here, between the hours of 1000 and 1700, any day except Monday, we can see locals and foreigners alike walking with that rapt look which betokens men bent on finding a bargain. 

There are delights for everyone. No one need be bored. Foreigners target lacquer stalls and debate whether to buy Shan bags or laphet. Should they buy a kalaga to bring back to Singapore, jade or gem stones to take to Europe or cheroots to smoke in Boston? Meanwhile, locals are snapping up Giordano t-shirts to wear with the newly purchased longyi: men haggle over emeralds or gold bracelets and an entire family inspects rattan furniture. Two sisters dawdle between the cosmetics counter and the material shop, making it an occasion, as they shop for stress or anxiety, as they fail to find it among the bales of cloth.
.

Burmese Dancer in Pink  Sir Gerald Kelly

It is just a good excuse for backtracking to Theingi Zei, which covers an area of more than four street blocks between Anawrahta and Mahabandoola. With such scope for idling they will certainly be able to spend several more hours fingering the textiles before making a decision. Besides, if the desired fabric still eludes them they can console themselves with some Myanmar taywah shampoo or buy some thanakha.  However, it's tiring work this shopping. Perhaps a snack would be in order. Here again the choice is enormous. Should one patronise one of the roadside cafes or go to a more exclusive eatery? Will it be noodles or a dish of salad or something sweet? Indeed, as Sunday is a holiday and we have plenty time, a visit to Shwe Pu Zun near Lammadaw might be in order. Not only can one find a range of the best cakes in Yangon here, but there is also an excellent selection of ice-cream flavours. Who would guess that under its massive golden prawn sign such delicacies are for sale? Yet, despite masquerading as a fish shop, this is one of the best patisseries this side of Hong Kong.  After a snack, it is back to shopping. Why not go for some fashionable footwear, some wedge-soled slippers as featured in the TV commercial? But, where should one go? There are so many shops. In addition, on every street footpath-vendors spread their wares; pairs of fashionable slippers lie next stacks of kitchen utensils. Whilst looking for German crockery recently I actual saw some exquisite Malaysian sandals. Where was it exactly? Was it downtown near Sule or was it in Hladen? I definitely remember seeing the pair I wanted lurking next some bicycle gears. Were I not a real shopper, I

would be totally confused and feel a neurotic crisis coming on. Still that is not a problem either, as the shopping hypochondriac can find plenty palliatives in Yangon. A trip to any pharmacy will soon assuage all symptoms. 

Throughout the city there are enough chemists and pharmacies to ensure a constant supply of tonics and vitamins to the most health-obsessed of individuals. All kinds of treatments and placebos, both eastern and western, are available. Moreover, should you be an afficinado of the sub-continent you need not go without your ayurvedic potions. 

For the total experience one just has to slip downtown to the area around the lower blocks of 26th Street where the apothecaries are busy with their mortars and pestles. There, one will certainly find a nerve tonic. If toothache is a bother, quickly purchase a vial of clove oil; lassitude calls for ginseng; for inadequacies of a more personal nature, you can consume snake blood, gingko leaf, and possibly you may be offered Viagra. There is a cure for every affliction. Here is a calmative, which might do the trick for the over zealous shopper, and it can be consumed either as soup or tea. Now, that is what I call choice. 

Scattered staying with health? Should one check one's eyes? This could be the true test for a shopper. Indeed, I have come out of certain European opticians vowing to remain short-sighted, and I have lived in towns where an eye test meant thick lens and granny glasses. Not so in Yangon, where I can purchase Raybans, Dior frames and the latest trendy shades. The place to go is Shwe Bontha Street. Here, every alternative shop offers everything from soft lens to wrap-round goggles in a variety of designs. Moreover, they are certainly cheaper than anything to be had in Harley Street or Tokyo. And talking of Japan, brings me to super-markets. 

Where can one find a connoisseur's selection of seaweed and spices, cooking utensils and rice –steamers, green tea and dragon claw cough sweets? Go to the Japanese supermarket in Golden Valley. No ex-pat need crave wafer thin crackers or crunchy appetisers as eaten in Osaka. Should you have more basic needs and want to stock up on bottled water or cellophane wrapped tomatoes then drive to City Mart or Eight Mile where you find yourself being seduced by the Malaysian teas on offer. A raft of Chinese spices and sweet plums, however, will distract you from the Scott's Porridge Oats you set out to buy.
.

I could go on and on. Books, CDs, hair attachments, neck ties, mobile phones, tumble driers, brassieres and Beethoven cassettes, second-hand books, golf clubs, Marmite, silk saris and embroidered waistcoats, I have seen them all on my way home from work. All around me, consumer goods, seductive and inviting, beckon and entice.  Satellite Dishes are seen on almost every rooftop. One chap said that he could tune into 200 channels and watches the news on CNN, ABC and live football from Australia. Hell, what more do you want. Each day the consumer in me says, 'Next time, I shall pop in and buy that!' Fortunately, by the time I do, the coveted object has disappeared, and I can hang onto my hard-earned kyat (local currency). Nevertheless, that is why I think Yangon (Rangoon) is a shopper's paradise.

King Nimi Visits First  Burmese

.

Warning - Should you visit Myanmar? The arguments for and against travel to Myanmar are often emotional, but the choices are not black and white. The question of whether informed tourism helps or hinders the restoration of democracy and human rights in Myanmar is the subject of ongoing debate both in and out of the country. - Excerpted from Lonely Planet.  To read more about whether you should or should not visit Myanmar visit the Lonely Planet World Guide - Destination Myanmar - EscapeArtist holds the position that more can be done by going to a place and interacting with the people than by boycotting a place.  Sanctions ended up creating the current nightmare in Rhodesia, (currently Zimbabwe.) Interaction may be a better couse of action.

.