The middle block is the interesting block for our purposes.

Than Zay (meaning metal market) is a five storey market building:
* In the basement is a huge wet market accessible from both 17th Street and Lanmadaw Road.
* The ground floor is the “metal market” itself, which means kitchenware and stainless steel items including pots big enough to cook for an entire village – it is quite a sight. It also sells every sort of plate and cup, in fact, everything for both cooking and eating (and BBQ items too!)
* The first floor has a strange mix of safety equipment shops – with safety shoes, goggles, fluorescent jackets, traffic cones, wellington boots (for children too); and dry goods such as onions, potatoes and flour.
* The second floor has more safety equipment, and many many metal trunks for storage, and some shops selling plastic buckets and plastic furniture.
* The third floor used to be a billiard and snooker hall but was damaged in a fire and is now closed, and the fourth floor is a mystery to us – there were lots of si-cars in the hallway (we don’t know how they got there) – and some official looking people in uniforms.
* Finally, on the top floor is the Yangon Book Plaza – with a great selection of books for adults and children in both English and Bamar.

The gold and jade jewellery shops at the intersection of Lanmadaw Road and Mahabandoola Road are apparently renowned, and were certainly extremely crowded in the week before the Thingyan Festival.

If you are looking for onions, garlic and chili (and who isn’t?), there are many sellers in front of the Buddhist temple.