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Published: March 21st 2012
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YANGON, MYANMAR. Saturday 10 March, 2012.
We awoke quite early as we had fallen into bed last night at around 10.30 which is early for us. After showering M went to the internet cafe next door to the hotel to post a blog and to check her emails etc. We then had a not so nice breakfast of seriously stewed tea and bad coffee. We also didn't fancy the curries etc that seemed to be on offer - so settled for some pieces of fresh fruit. Today we were going to have a guided tour of Yangon City.
Under British rule Rangoon (now Yangon) became one of the greatest ports of Asia, and was capital of Burma from 1885 until 2005. In 1989 Burma renamed itself Myanmar which was its original name before colonial rule. The capital city was relocated to a remote part of the country nine hours by road from Yangon. Officially named Naypyidaw in 2006 (good quiz question for Bar Jo Jo's back home!) it is a gleaming new city. There has been an increase in foreign investment since Aung San Suu Kyi (locally known as 'The Lady'😉 was released from house arrest in 2010.
Yangon city centre nestles at the tip of a peninsula jutting into the Yangon river. The city has a grid plan of streets that makes it fairly easy to find your way around. The smaller streets run north-south and are usually numbered, while the wider boulevards which run east-west may have their old colonial names or their new (post 1989) ones. The British laid out the Cantonment in 1852 around the Sule Paya Pagoda (more of this later).
We were met in the hotel reception at 8.30 am on the dot by our guide for the day who was called Khin Khin Kyi. She was a very diminutive lady of Chinese stock with goofy teeth. She was very nice but difficult to understand at times. Our first stop was just around the corner, as our hotel really was in the middle of downtown Yangon. This was the City Hall which is painted lotus blue and decorated with lotus flowers (a symbol of peace). It was built by the British and is a vast stone edifice clearly intended to suggest the strength of the imperial power. We were looking at City Hall from across the street. To our left was
the Sule Paya Pagoda which is now the centrepiece of a huge roundabout (traffic circle). The pagoda pre-dates the roads which were built around it. It is 48 metres (157 feet) high and this shrine is 2,000 years old and conserves a relic (in this case a single hair ) of Buddah.
We then walked to the right of City Hall around the edge of Mahabandoola Gardens (Formerly Victoria Park) which is the site of the Independence Monument. This is a tall white obelisk marking Burmese independence from Britain in 1948. The gardens, the obelisk being the centrepiece, are beautifully manicured and provide a tranquil spot in the middle of a bustling city. As we turned the corner round the second side of the park we came across the imposing Supreme Court or High Court building located on the eastern side of Mahabandoola Gardens. It was built in the classic Victoria Gothic style that the British exported to all their major colonial cities in the 19th century. We then turned left down Merchant Road until we reached Seikkan Thar Street where we took some photographs of some more colonial builidings, now occupied by the Myanmar Water Board. We turned
left and left again to arrive back at the waiting car opposite City Hall.
We were then driven through India Town until we reached China Town where we were dropped off just outside the market. Khin Khin led us through the bustling market pointing out various fruits, vegetables etc. We saw a stall of the infamous Dorian Fruit which apparently smell like an open sewer but taste divine. We didn't try any as we would have had to buy a whole one and they are the size of a small water melon. They are the same colour too, except they have knobbles all over them - a bit like a World War II deep-sea mine. We saw a stall making the batter wraps for spring rolls and plenty of live crabs, and various meat stalls riddled with various corpses, parts of corpses and intestines hanging on mini meat hooks. The pork stall had M facinated. This stall had all different bits of pig (including heads and tails) hanging on hooks along its sides and above it. A Chinese lady was sitting patiently shaving and plucking the hairs off an ear that had been chopped off an unfortunate pig.
The flower stalls were present again, selling flowers for offerings to Buddha and not for home decoration. Next stop was the Chinese Temple on the corner of Latha Street and Maha Bandoola Road. Khin Khin informed us that the Chinese also worship Buddha. The Chinese Buddha, however, is female. The temple interior was very beautiful, decorated in red and gold with plenty of statues of Chinese Dragons. There were different alcoves containing different statues and images. Khin Khin explained that you made offerings to different statues in order to ask for help in various aspects of your life such as health, business etc.
We returned to the car and were taken to Scott Market (new name Bogyoke Aung San Market but is still mainly referred to as Scott Market by the locals). This market has many stalls with a vast choice of Myanmar arts and crafts, textiles, and jewellery. M had trouble explaining to Khin Khin that we really didn't want to look at jewellery but Khin Khin had other ideas and we meandered through the stalls. Eventually M found a decent Tee Shirt and we persuaded Khin Khin that we really DID want to go somewhere else.
We returned to the car and, at M's request, went to take some photographs of the Swedagon Pagoda in the daylight and then returned to the Kandawgyi Palace where we had eaten and seen the show the night before last. We took some pictures of the lake and the Karaweik Restaurant in the daylight. Khin Khin was now running out of sights to show us fast - as we had curtailed the tour of Scott Market. She suggested that we went to the 'Lady House' - the house where Aung San Suu Kyi was held under house arrest. We zoomed past it in the car without stopping as you are not allowed to take pictures. It was not a building of note - a high barbed wire topped wall with a few flags fluttering outside.
We were then taken to the Sakura Tower which is the tallest building in Yangon. We were met by Chang who bought us lunch in the Sky Bistro which is located on the top floor of the tower with tremendous views over the city. We took some photographs and dined on a set meal that consisted of dishes from Singapore. We were then returned
to the ship by Khin Khin and the driver. This time we were driven right up to the ship. No half hour hike this time. Chang had arranged it last night while we were having dinner. We both agreed that this had been a very successful visit to a new country.
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Kristine
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