Tripatini contributor Bev Malzard writes:

“´I have a robe for you’. This short statement left me laughing and engaging with a gentle sense of humour that crossed politics and the equator. The line came from a monk in the precinct where the mighty Shwedagon Paya (Pagoda) gleams and beams across the city of Yangon.

We had been wandering around the centrepiece of Yangon being dazzled by the exemplary temples, buildings, animal statues and Buddha images – cleaned to within an inch of their many karmic lives. Lift your eyes and golden spires swirl above you, lower your eyes and small, feet are padding across the tiled outdoor floors. Small feet belonging to many maroon robed monks.

One of my travelling companions was very fair and has a nicely shaped head, denuded of all hair and polished to perfection.  We were chatting and noticed this smiling monk walk past us and he said the words to a fellow bald person! It took a micro second for the penny to drop – and that’s when the conversation began to flow. A good sense of humour will cross more than oceans!

This is Yangon (formerly Rangoon ‘meaning ‘end of strife’), the largest city in Myanmar (Burma), with a population of more than 4 million.¨

Read more in her post A Visit to Yangon, Myanmar (aka Rangoon, Burma)