And thus we come to the sequel of the adventures of Han Ren and R. Following their adventure in the heart of the Indian community the other day, they decided to take a step towards their Southeast Asian neighbours, namely, Myanmar.
There was makeup class today and cm tagged along with my jc friends for lunch. Not bad we managed to troll Vivi that he was from econs. He even told her the reason why he wasn't used to the building was that it was renovations so it meant that some of his classes were held at business school instead. Wtf this level of trolling like quite high. After marketing, we studied a while more while chewing on the gummy bear I bought yesterday and it was just me and R again. With determination inside and adrenaline pumping, we decided to head over to peninsular plaza for a mission - to interview a Burmese for his project. He had attempted the other day but failed and he was ready to stay the whole night to just find one interviewee for his project.
Okay before we started to scout for the Burmese, we took a tour of the mall. Apparently we were literally transported into the heart of Myanmar. Peninsular plaza was also known as little Burma to the locals as the shops exhibited the Burmese flavors. The shops aimed to cater towards Myanmar internationals who were working here to give them a little familiarity and let them have a place to enjoy themselves. The corridors were lined with Burmese probably waiting for their friends as they started to clear away when it reached 7pm. I guess most of them are free on weekends starting from 7pm.
Sometimes they take enjoying too far you know 
We stopped by the grocery stores and was fascinated by the number of balachan they were selling. There were even mixtures of fish within the chilli which was being sold at a crazy rate. I see tons of people buying these chips and a bottle of balachan. I guess this is one of their comfort food. Or maybe they just want a little taste of home in this foreign country. And maybe this would give them more energy to fight on and work harder for their families back home. After all, it's the little things that count.
Okay we had a dinner break for a while. We went to this Myanmar restaurant and tried this dish called mohinga. It was rice noodle cooked in their own fish sauce stew. It didn't taste that special, but mixing in peanuts and garlic really made the dish fragrant. The tofu fritters were not bad but the bittergourd fritters were BADDD. And Myanmar milk tea tastes less fragrant compared to the Thai version of it. Overall the Inle outlet didn't really justify its steep price. The chendol I ordered afterwards was the saving grace or else this place was really not worth the money.
After dinner and walking around a bit more, R and I split up so that he could concentrate on his task while I start my YOLO one man trip in little Myanmar. I hit the clothes store first but the designs were too Burmese for my liking. So I turned my attention towards other stores and that was when I was reminded..
"What can balachan be cooked with?"
I asked the shopowner and he gave me this astonished look as if I was retarded. He told me that you don't need to cook it with anything, you can just eat it with rice. I tried questioning him about the fish sauce but he realised I wasn't a paying customer and turned his attention to someone who was actually gonna pay him money. I then headed down to find out if that bugger R had completed his mission.
I was pleasantly surprised when I came upon this sight. He was actually interviewing some guy. After the interview, he told me that the Burmese has been working in Singapore for 5 years as a construction worker. He plans to go back to Myanmar to set up his own business in a few years time. He still has some contacts there by maintaining relations through Facebook and vibre. I guess technology does make home feel closer nowadays.
This was the end of the little Burma adventures. And R told me it's time we hit other places. Looks like this touring of random places is going to be a real thing. Looking forward to creating havoc with him during recess week.
Until then.
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