Inya Lake, My Yangon Routine

Yangon has become home over this last month. I can leapfrog through traffic, I know all of the restaurants near the Morning Dew B&B where I've been staying, I have my regular tea leaf salad lady across the street from work, and I've discovered my favorite little packaged snacks (salted broad beans anyone?). I live a five minute walk from Inya Lake where I go to run and sometimes in the evenings just to hang out and people watch. 

I love the scene at Inya Lake in the morning! The busiest time is from 6:00 am to 7:00 am when it's abuzz with young people jogging, old people stretching and walking, a few people playing badmitton or guitar, and my favorite, the groups of exercising ladies! 

Before and around sunrise is really the only time when it's cool enough and the sun isn't as strong to exercise outdoors. 

There are usually three different groups of exercising ladies always in the same place, each group wearing a different color matching T-shirt every day.

On this particular day the different groups of ladies were wearing purple, green, and white.

The ladies in purple are the smallest group, the best choreographed and most well-rehearsed. Their dance moves are generally in sync.

These purple ladies' music is always battling it out with the tai-chi/fan dancers who are right next to them on the same stage.

Then there are the ladies in green who are always on the main stairs. 

They do just basic exercises to music, and are a larger group with a few random men thrown in who seemed to have just walked by and stopped.  

Then the ladies in white are somewhere in between. They're usually in two lines at the end of the lake, and are usually more in sync than the ladies in green, but not quite up to par with the purple ladies. 

I've seen Inya Lake at all hours. It's a privilege to live some place long enough to see its different faces and feels.

At night, Inya Lake is packed with young people in groups playing the guitar and singing, couples sharing a picnic or cuddling, a lot of people walking, taking selfies and hanging out. Little children carry lit balloons, roving street vendors sell mechanical toys and food.

It's easy for the sounds and rhythms to just swallow me up, especially on nights when the power goes out and the lake is bathed in darkness.