If you have read some of our previous posts you will know that we love to explore local markets! Well, the Banana & Coconut Wholesale Market in Yangon was definitely one of our favourite markets in Myanmar. The whole area was just very, very exotic for us – given that neither coconuts nor bananas grow in Austria… 🙂 The bananas, coconuts and sugar cane arrive both by boat as well as truck at the market where they get de-leaved and sorted into bundles before being reloaded into tuk-tuks, onto motorcycles, taxis or tricycles to be carted off. Below we have included a few impressions of the market.
Bananas grow in many parts of Myanmar and we have been eating them every single day. It was also interesting to see the various kinds that grow here. Different kinds also have different prices – something we had to figure out painfully ourselves… Up in the area around Inle Lake we got a whole bundle of about 15-20 bananas for 300 kyat or about 20 cents. On our last day in Yangon we really wanted to eat some last bananas – probably because we had just been to the banana wholesale market. So we asked around and a lady in town offered us a single banana for 100 kyat. We compared this to the 300 for the whole bundle, thought it outrageously expensive and moved on. Turns out, this was actually quite a fair price given the banana was a lot bigger and it seems to be more expensive in the big city too.
Bananas and coconuts in Myanmar are not just for eating. Green bananas and coconuts, some decorated with gold, are often used as offerings to Buddha at pagodas or shrines.
Tanja & Christoph on the Road 
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