Yangon

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We stayed at the Beauty Land I Hotel ($30/night for a double with a balcony, breakfast, TV, and hot water). It's a great hotel that is clean and with nice owners and staff. We were within walking distance to the Shwedagon Pagoda.

Accomodation is in short supply in most of this country so its difficult to get rooms. When you do get rooms they are a bit expensive and not as nice compared to other SE Asian countries. I think part of the problem is not being able to 'put money down' to reserve a room. You can verbally reserve a room but if someone else shows up first, it's gone! Having Chan book us rooms ahead of time really helped.

Yangon is a great city. We spent 3 days here. On one day with Chan we went about 1.5 hours outside the city to a floating pagoda on a river. To be completely honest, it was kind of bad. The best part was wandering around the nearby town and playing Takraw and talking with the locals. He also took us Yangon's reclining buddha and the white (albino) elephants. We usually went into Chinatown for dinner at night and wandered the markets.

On our last day with Chan we didn't do much. We tried to find a Myanmar Kickboxing fight. It was an unsuccesfful adventure but still fun. We ended up going all the way out the training center and talking with some of the managers or fighters or something. There were no fights that night.

Chan took us to his favorite lunch spot in Yangon. Its cheap, delicious, and close to his wife's work. It was wonderful and the people were so friendly. After lunch I tried chewing betel nut. Chan chews it 24 hours a day (or so it seems).

I do not recommend this. Its absolutely disgusting. It tastes like shampoo and made half of my face go numb. I hated it. I went to a sewer and started spitting it all out. A man came over and tried to help me because he thought I wanted to puke. He was motioning for me to squat and not stand. It was really funny. The restaurant owners opened water up to give us some. There were laughing but were also clearly concerned. After it was all over they gave me some palm sugar candies to make the taste go away. It helped but my head still felt funny. I can't believe people chew that all day long!

We got Chan to drop us off at the Sule Paya, a big pagoda right in the middle of downtown Yangon. We did the Lonely Planet walking tour of Yangon and it was really good! We saw lots of beautiful old buildings from when the British rules, went to an art exhibition, poked around the 'book street', used the facilities at the 'Strand Hotel', wandered Little India and just chilled out. Highly recommended!

On our last full day in Yangon (and our first day without Chan) we went to the Boygoke Aung San Market. That evening we went to the Shwedagon Pagoda for sunset. We spent a few hours wandering around the area taking pictures. At sunset they lit hundreds of oil burners and it was georgeous. We saw where 'the lady' always prays (they have a camera set up to monitor her).

The next morning Chan came to drive us to the airport. He insisted and wouldn't let us say no. He was such a good driver and guide. If you want his contact information please let me know!

I was SAD to leave Myanmar. It is such a hard country to explain and I can't compare it to anywhere I have ever been before. It is shocking that it borders Thailand! It is a beautiful place with generous and genuine people.

I say I want to come back but at the same time I'm afraid to see the change that will happen with the continual increase of tourism. Having Chan was beneficial is SO many ways but I think travelling Myanmar without a driver would be a completely different experience. I would also love to see the beaches here, the far north, and the far south. There is so much to see!

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Photos

Floating Pagoda
Outside of Yangon

River Boats
Outside of Yangon