The Myanmar discovery circuit - Day 3 (noon) - Mandalay, lunch at the Mya Nandar restaurant on the Ayeyarwardy river bank - The 14th of November 2015

As we were heading towards the Ayeyarwardy river bank so as to have lunch at a local restaurant we stopped by the road to buy fried crickets, which many of us had been wanting to taste despite the natural awkwardness that might possibly arise from not being used to that type of speciality in the West.

 

Chocho proceeded to the distribution, under the "scrutinising" eyes of our driver, letting us know that the actual body of the cricket was tastier than the head part. It was not necessary to make any special effort because the moment they fell in my mouth I realised they were actually much better than I had imagined they would be and almost instantaneously became addicted to their rather soft spicy flavour.

The Mya Nandar restaurant was a rather well decorated place with a magnificent view over the river Ayeyarwardy, despite the fact that we were not given a table overlooking it.

We moved away from the traditional Burmese cuisine having been given Chinese food instead, once the restaurant pertains to a branch of well known Chinese restaurants in Myanmar, though I must confess I did enjoy lunch and particularly the fact that every plate was "decorated" in terms of presentation and the dessert placed inside a lacquer lamp-like "piece of art". Having spent most of the morning period admiring the handicraft industry of Myanmar I found it to be interesting the "artistic" approach had been kept throughout lunch time.

 

 

 

During lunch we were given the unique opportunity of watching an early day puppet theatre performance in which both the older and younger puppeteers were particularly good, as the marionettes moved around the stage in swift  gracious dancing movements I wish I could use and adapt onto my working day-to-day "chores".