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As the plane pulled up at the gate, Anette and I exchanged eager looks at the sight of the terminal. The intricately decorated golden spires glistened in the pure blue skies above the building and I knew we were in for something special.
I already feel like this country will take over my soul. Sharing large borders with Thailand, India and China, I expected something of a mysterious mix of these wonderfully exciting and enthralling cultures.
Burma is fucking hot. Again, we have arrived at the low season, due to the mid 40’s sweltering heat. Locals can’t even handle the current heat of the day.
It is totally different from everywhere else. Bits of the rest of my travels could be interchanged with any other country, but not here. It feels like adventure travels of old - authentic, no internet, a beautifully written and spoken language devoid of western artefacts, creaking buses and pothole roads, the fact they have no banks and you can only get the currency in the country says enough! Burma has it’s own time zone - 5.5 hours in front of the UK/ Seemingly untouched from the western world, there is not a 7-eleven or
Prayer
Inside one of the 82 temples in the complex McDonalds in sight and even the capital only has electricity between 6 and 11pm! Holy men are still more important and respected than TV/Music stars and locals greet you with pure respect and gratitude rather than the months of ‘you’re beautiful, I give you good price’.
We grabbed a taxi for $5 and arrived at the Golden Smile Inn in southern Yangon (Rangoon to you and me). We met Elan at reception and Russ, a Canadian he picked up at the airport. Shortly after our arrival breakfast of tasty fruit and eggs we were joined by John, from Bristol and we formed a quick plan to travel to Golden Rock tomorrow, a 5 hour bus ride.
After discovering Anette’s laundry had come back the previous day with a load of cockroaches in tow we both decided to clean out the stowaways from our bags, a delightful job which within 2 minutes, left us dripping with sweat and our clothes drenched. It truly is the hottest place I have ever experienced.
Around 2pm we were able to change our money at the guest house; $400 yielded a huge wad of Kyut notes, weighing about 1kg! Elan and Russ had
already seen the sights of Yangon the previous day so John, Anette and I decided follow their footsteps for a few hours walk in the afternoon.
After 30 minutes slumping through the scorching and cracked sidewalks of downtown Yangon we were confronted by a gleaming golden stupa in the middle of the road! We were instructed to remove our shoes as we wandered throughout the ‘complex’; a circle of Buddha sculptures surrounding the gold-leaf pinnacle. I won’t spend too many words on describing how beautiful and magnificent this place of worship was but as beautiful as it was, suffice it to say, the best was yet to come...
After an hour or so admiring the surroundings we ate our first Burmese meal; a great mix of Chinese and Indian style tea, vegetables, curry and rice. Around 4 o’clock we took a taxi to Shwedagon Paya, the glorious golden spire in the centre of the capital, touted as the best Yangon had to offer and a must at sunset. It did not disappoint!
Much more grand than any other place of worship, no...building, I have ever had the pleasure to witness. I began freaking out slightly with the
overwhelming beauty of the glistening golden 98m tall stupa rising into the burning blue sky. On entering the surrounding pavilions it was all too much to take it and I cannot do it justice with words or even photos (although, please scroll down to see some of the hundreds taken on the day!)
The 2500 year old glorious compound contains 82 other buildings and the spire, the tip of which contains 5000 diamonds (a 70+ carat diamond at the centre, as big as a fist) and 2000 other stones. It has collected more than 53 metric tonnes of gold, beaten to leaf and used for gilding and is washed by Buddhist monks several times a day, which I was fortunate enough to watch for nearly an hour. Amazingly enough it got better as the slanting light of sunset illuminated the gilding which honestly quickened my pulse. I spent a total of four hours peacefully wandering to the gentle sound of the chimes on the tops of the buildings and spires, the soft beating of the gongs and the monk’s prayers between the relics. It was absolutely wonderful and I was so pleased to be there. I know I have
uploaded a lot of photos (only a very small section of the ones I took) but please, if you have time to check them all out do.
Literally every few steps, in every direction there was something else outstandingly beautiful to look at.
We eventually tore ourselves away, to a restaurant and I must briefly mention our taxi. The cars here are extremely odd; they are all at least 30 years old, right hand drive like ours, however, they drive on the right as well. This of course means that most drivers can’t see where they are going if they chose to overtake (which they frequently do). Their age means that most cars are not cars as such, more rusty piles of shit. In my extreme tiredness I began to find this hilarious. The taxi back from Shwedagon had broken everything; pieces of rubber fell off the door as we clambered in, the indicator bleeping died halfway back in a hysterical wailing fashion and the giant hole in the floor beneath my feet meant I could do a nice ‘Flintstone’ car impression! 😊
We arrived in fits of laughter at a restaurant serving Chinese food and ordered 4
large and wonderful dishes between us for the grand total of $2. Burma is incredibly cheap for anything you buy on the streets. During our meal, we were interrupted with 2 beers which we hadn’t ordered. When our confusion arose our 8 year old ‘waiter’ exclaimed that they were from the gentlemen across the bar, four locals guys who had taken a polite interest in us. We beckoned them to join us and help us finish the food we couldn’t take in the sweltering heat of the evening. After some lovely conversation we headed back to the room and quickly decided to book a bus ticket for the following day, onto a town slightly north, to see the ‘Golden Rock’ on the road to Mandalay.
As soon as we slipped off our shoes we were both shocked at how disgusting we were (and believe me, I have to be DISGUSTING to actually be shocked by it. Half my ‘tan’ fell off in the much needed shower, and whilst sitting down waiting to dry I was overcome with tiredness. I passed out there and then at 9pm, into a very much needed night’s sleep.
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