Buy some nice souvenirs

During our trips, we visited lovely places, some of which have dedicated art work that I still would love to take home. Despite the limited budget, we have bought a couple of souvenirs and we are very glad we did, although we could have bought more. 

This blog post will guide you through the best places to go ‘shopping’ and list the best pieces you can buy and bring back from Myanmar.

Yangon

What should you buy in Yangon?

I would say everything you didn't buy elsewhere. Yangon in itself doesn't have any specific souvenirs, but if you miss out something from elsewhere try to find it again in Yangon. It might be a bit pricier, and you have more chances to find it into the big market.

Also by walking around, it may give you further ideas.

Markets

In Yangon, the Bogyoke Aung San Market (formerly Scott's Market) is the biggest one and you will find lots of small shops with local specialties. Here is the link to find it out on the map http://goo.gl/KDXYsw

We didn’t try this one as we were in Yangon on a Monday, which is the only day the market is closed. Instead, we went to Theingyi Market which wasn’t opened until late in the morning. This market is smaller and is specialised in drugs, medicine with a couple of small antique shops. There are also many vendors around on the streets, but we didn’t really found out something interesting to bring back home. 

At night, along the streets, the black market pops up. Lots of unofficial shops open and offer t-shirts, glasses, leather wallets… Almost anything, the price is very cheap, so maybe the quality as well.

I was surprised that on some items there was a price tag, and as it comes so cheap, no need to discuss a further discount.  

The Green Elephant

As advised by our traveler book, we went to the Green Elephant to find out some lacquerware gift before returning back home. 

The shop is located far from the city centre, direction north towards the airport, next to the university. It is quite a walk under the heavy sun.  The prices are more expensive than elsewhere, but the shop (also a high end restaurant) selects the best pieces from over the country, so the selection is quite good.

In the end we bought some little souvenir, the least expensive we could find.

Airport

It is your last opportunity to buy some souvenirs from the country at the tax free shop within the transit area. Be aware that the airport souvenir shops are really, really overpriced! Easily up to 5X the normal price!!

An example? A small lacquerware box to hold some cheerot (local cigarette), was tagged at 15 USD; double the price from Inle Lake, and without the cigarettes.

The advantage of buying at the airport?

• All price are USD, and you can buy by card
• The selection of souvenirs is quite good
• But once again, it is way too expensive!

Mandalay

In Mandalay as such, there is not much to visit but once you go a bit outside, it is a very nice place. It is the same on the souvenir side. 

We did a bike tour, and our guide showed us a typical market. I can't really remember the name of it, and where it was, but we bought the typical Myanmar dress, a longyi. Longyi come in standard size, women's one are colorful and they tight it up on the side, men's one have plain color with squares, they tight it up in the front. Price for 2 longyis, 6500 MMK, a really good deal!

The famous longyi

The longyi is very traditional, all men and women wear it on the street. Also, it is part of the official school uniform. For this reason, I would say, it is a must buy. That's all we bought in Mandalay.

Bagan

Bagan is located next to the river Irrawaddy and offer a beautiful landscape with over 2000 pagodas. As it is very dry, and hot all day long, the ground is mainly sand and that is the base material of the sand painting. 

In each pagoda, you will meet a lot of locals, young children as young as 2 years old, trying to sell you post card for 1000 MMK each. It is rather expensive but I am sure you can negotiate the price. Other locals, teens and adult will teach you the history of the pagoda, either in French or in English and show you the way to climb it up and enjoy the beautiful view. In exchange, they will ask for your time to sit down, so that they can display their artwork: sand painting.

Example of sand painting in Bagan from our pagoda guide

As the name suggest, sand painting is a drawing in color or B/W made with the sand from Bagan . It represents either the beautiful landscape of Bagan, some Buddha, or characters linked to Buddha. 

Most of the paintings are really well made, and it takes up to 5 days to make one depending on the size and complexity. 

The artist will insist to have a look at all of his painting, and will reassure you by saying 'just looking, no buy'. Once seated, he will quietly display them all, his technique gauges your interest in any of them. Of course, he will try to sell one or more of them. Then it comes to the price, our pagoda guide started with an asking price of 20 000 MMK for a nice colorful Bagan landscape. Of course, the price was overstated, so he asked for the price I would give. In addition, he stated the time he spends making it and emphasize the family helping him at work. It is just a technique to make the deal in his favor by making it more emotional. 

So, I said half the price, and came to an agreement mid way between his price and mine. 

Thinking a bit more about the transaction, I could have lowered the price even more but it was already too late. Anyway, I am very happy with our purchase. 

One thing to know, you will find only these sand paintings in Bagan and nowhere else. So, if you like them, you'd better buy them there. We only bought one are happy about it, but we could have bought a couple more, unfortunately we already left the city. 

Kalaw

Altough Kalaw is a nice little city, with a beautiful market, we didn't buy anything. There was nothing special we could have thought of. 

Inle Lake

Inle Lake is a beautiful region, where a whole village is built upon water; therefore you really need a boat for your journey. 

There are many specialties around Inle lake:

• Lacquer ware
• Sun umbrella
• Paper lampshade
• Silk and cotton clothes
• Jewelry

Lacquer ware

Around Inle Lake you can find pretty much anything made of lacquer, from the small cigarette box to a much larger one. 

The boxes are really nice, well made with a typical design from Myanmar. In addition, they are quite affordable, so why not by a couple of them?

For instance, we bought one in Inle Lake at a cheerot factory, a small box containing the cigarettes for 7 000 MMK. I admit, it was a bit expensive, but the place had a lot of choice and we wanted to buy one. The same box would have been half the price at NyaungShwe. 

Sun umbrella

Hand made from the Inle Lake area. Made from paper, I think these are really fragile and could be damaged on a plane even in the cabin. We thought it was too fragile to take one back, we preferred to take a picture instead.

What about the price, sun umbrella comes in different size, consequently with different price tag. I have no clue given that we didn't buy one.

Paper lampshade

Made with the same material as the sun umbrella,  the paper lampshade is lighter as there is no wood structure. Folded, it doesn't take a lot a space in the luggage, and naturally you have some beautiful design. Some lampshade have the form of a star, and come in different colors. 

Price tag 1000 MMK each.

A paper lampshade once hanging

Silk and cotton clothes

At the Inle Lake as well, there is a clothe factory that produce its own silk, also from the lotus flower. There are up to 100 workers, mainly women to take care of all the production steps manually. 

The factory is rather busy, but allows for tourist to visit. All the steps are explained through, and at the end of the visit, there is the big shop where any clothe is on sale. 

Given the quality of the fiber, and the time needed to make a scarf for instance, the price tag is expensive. The shop is rather well equipped as it is possible to pay with credit card....

Manual fiber fabrication

Jewelry

Also in Inle Lake, jewelry is hand made by a limited number of workers. They are pretty agile melting the silver and carving it into jewelry. They pay a lot of attention to details. 

At the end of the visit, there is a mandatory stop by the shop to show the entire collection of jewelry. Again the goal is to sell to the tourist, price are negotiable and one can pay with visa.

Silver is melting at very high temperature before being carved to make it a jewel

If you really like their pieces of jewelry and are not afraid of the price, this place is a good one.
On our side, we have opted for smaller pieces bought at the NyaungShwe market, at a discounted price of course. It is another interesting place to buy souvenirs, if you missed the ones during your boat trip on Inle lake.