When we finally made it out we walked to the Sule Pagoda and then on towards China town. We grabbed a local shan noodle dish in a restaurant which was very tasty. We also bought a SIM card and 2gb of data for 25p! The friendly men helped set it up in the phone for us, as the messages coming through were in local language! Next stop was the ladies hair salon where Christine was pampered once again. A full head and shoulder massage, shampoo and cut. All this cost a staggering 6000 Kyat (£3). Darryl sat, watched and drank a free bottle of isotonic energy drink which the hairdresser gave him. It tasted like rehydration powder.
Once Christine was groomed, we checked out what was happening outside the hairdresser. There were hundreds of seats being set up and some tall poles on a central stage. People were starting to sit so we joined them. We were in for a treat!
The Chinese New Year celebrations we had sat ourselves down for was the most incredible Chinese lion dancing competition. We were spotted as westerners and asked to move to other seats, with a better view and given free drinks, the same as at the hairdresser's.
The performance was unbelievable! 2 men dressed as a Chinese lion jumping on top of poles far off the ground, doing tricks and things that seemed impossible. Even walking on a parallel tight rope! They were supported by their team bands who played music to time the lion's movements. They carried out tricks with balls, ate flowers and completed perfectly synchronised dismount summersaults from the pole, all as though they were a real lion! The competition went on until 11pm when trophies were awarded to the top 3 teams. The winner was obviously everyone's favourite as from the moment they started their dance everyone was chanting their name and cheering them on. They really were extremely good!
We left and grabbed some local snacks from a stall in China town. One was like a savory pancake cut into pieces and the other more like a very thin savory crepe. Both with chick peas, coriander and curry flavour and very tasty. As we walked back to our hostel we passed the central park which had been prepared for the national holiday with lots of coloured lights and chairs around the monument. A very pretty sight.
