Yangon in a day - Myanmar

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Yangon (Rangoon)

My most recent trip was thanks to two consecutive public holidays in Hong Kong. I love a good public holiday, and it’s always a good excuse to squeeze in some travel!



This time it took me to a place that had been on my radar for a long time, and finally I was able to make it a reality! For a while, it was off limits due to political unrest, but thankfully the doors to Myanmar are open and I gladly entered. My visa had been sorted in Hong Kong, and off I flew to Yangon, about three hours by plane.



Before I go into Yangon details, there were a few general things I noticed whilst in Myanmar.


• A love of stickers – within a day, I had stickers for park entries, stickers for a plane, stickers for another ticket. In fact tickets didn’t seem to exist – it was all sticker based!



• Day one and I found it hard to distinguish between the male and female toilets because both genders wear skirts. I genuinely had to look closely at the signs on the doors (and still got it wrong!)



• Many people, especially women and children, have yellow chalky paint on their faces, mostly on the cheeks in neat circles. This, we later learned, is called Thanaka, and is made from the ground bark of particular trees and is used for sun protection.



Foreigners pay, locals do not. Of course this is fairly normal, and I do not have a problem paying for things when I am a tourist as I am happy to support the tourism industry. It did make us chuckle however, when we would approach a large park from one direction and be requested to pay $3USD to enter, yet there was no entry point in particular. With the sight of a large concrete slab in front of us named "People's Park" screaming previous communism, we decided to skip it. Yet, twenty meters on, we found ourselves wandering onto this square along with others, minus sticker, still holding my $3USD! The ticket system seemed a bit of a gimmick in some places, and I couldn't tell if they were all legitimate.



My big brother and I arrived very late into Yangon International airport, but thankfully the Myanmar Life hotel was conveniently located a three minute drive away, so we overpaid for a taxi to take us there. I could hear howling dogs - there seem to be lots of wild dogs, but they stayed away. I stepped into the lovely room, and swatted the mosquito I found - then realising I was in an 89% Buddhist nation and hoping the staff hadn't seen me!



Our first morning in Myanmar was fuelled by a mixed affair of Asian and Western basics at the buffet. We took a taxi to the Shwedagon Pagoda in central Yangon, and the main tourist attraction as well as popular place of worship. Traffic was quite bad in the city. There are so many cars and a lot of taxis. We saw heavily crowded buses; so crowded that I saw a man squatting on the step in an open doorway. It would be quite dangerous to cycle, never mind the diesel fumes, and the train goes nowhere near the centre of town.



Once at the Pagoda we took a lift up and crossed a bridge - all barefoot. Shoes or socks are not permitted in places of worship. David bought a skirt like a local to cover his legs, and I wrapped up in a sarong. With the correct attire, we were free to roam this enormous shiny tower of gold.. We spent a good hour wandering round the various temples/shrines, some with inscriptions, Buddha's footprint, giant bells and mirror mosaics. All these were placed around the edges of the glimmering main pagoda. Nimble workmen had constructed bamboo scaffolding around it for maintenance work which was quite impressive. We stopped to watch the worshippers at "Wednesday morning corner" where people came to pour water over the statue there. Around the main Pagoda were twelve stations that related to what day of the week you were born on. Yes, there are seven days of the week, but there are certain days in Buddhism where it matters if you were born in the morning or the afternoon!



It began to rain, and then it really began to rain! Rainy season was in full effect. The bright blue morning skies had dissolved into grey and the rain came down! There was thunder as well but it was still warm and quite nice to watch. We found shelter in the photo gallery and sat watching and listening to the rain for half an hour. When it finally ended, we made our way to the north entrance along the lethal pathways now wet from the rain (slight design flaw), and returned to street level again.



From the pagoda, we walked to Lake Kandawgyi (another sticker) for a lakeside 'Myanmar curry special' - chicken curry and potato curry at The Garden Bistro. There is a boardwalk across the large lake, providing pleasant views of the Shwedagon pagoda from afar. The end of the boardwalk led us into the bustling city life of Yangon, which was much like other busy Asian cities with apartment blocks, chaotic traffic and street wires strung all over. We opted to keep it serene, and headed back along the lake!



After People's Park and a lot of walking, an air conditioned dinner stop was very welcome. The sun went down, and we returned for a look at the Pagoda by night. We recruited a local to help us find a taxi back to the hotel before an early flight to Bagan....



JHG



Links:

http://myanmarlifehotels.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanaka

The Garden Bistro

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Photos

Mini Monks
Every Myanmar male is expected to live as a monk twice in his life - once as a child and once as an adult.

Yangon Commute
Every bus I saw was rammed

Off to the Pagoda
Skirts for all

Monday corner
If you're born on a Monday you can head here to pour water on Buddha.