Yangon a minute (Day 131- 135 by Gemma)

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Monday 25th January 2016

To get from Laos to Myanmar we opted to travel by air, which on research seemed to be the best way to go, to be followed by a network of bus trips to get us through the country. After packing up our backpacks, our first flight of the day was mid morning and would take us as far as Bangkok on a 55 minute flight. We were travelling with Bangkok Airways, which has been our favourite airline so far providing a free lounge with free food, drink, wifi and comfy seating. Bonus! Especially important when you have time to spare on a stopover. After a 4hr wait in Bangkok airport we boarded our 2nd plane for another short 1 hour flight to Yangon.

Although both flights together only equated to 2 hours actual travel, when factoring in the transfers to airports, airport processes and stopover we ended up travelling for the whole day arriving at Yangon airport at around 7pm. We were still about a 1.5 to 2 hour taxi ride from the centre of Yangon so didn't find ourselves arriving at our hostel, Agga Bed & Breakfast, until after 9pm. I really dont like arriving in a new place by night, I tend to find it quite disorientating and like to get my bearings by day. The only exception being Hong Kong, where driving through the centre of the bright city by night is the only way to arrive! So arriving by night (and late!) we were keen to get dinner, sleep and get up ready to explore tomorrow. We'd heard that accommodation in Myanmar was on the overpriced side and soon discovered this for ourselves. The £21.20 we'd paid per night, got us a very basic double room with a dubious ensuite that was basically a cube in the corner of the room made of plastic boards and a small Tom & Jerry style mouse hole cut out the back for drainage. Judging by the damp and mould creeping along the walls, the drainage wasn't working out too well for them. Hungry from a day of travelling we headed out to forage some food for ourselves. We soon found ourselves in the heart of China Town (not the all singing, all dancing London version of China Town but the Chinese community of Yangon) with food stalls lining the streets. Normally we'd be all to keen to explore the street food options, but we hesitated slightly here. The sights and smells were unlike anywhere else we'd been so far. Actually unlike anything we'd smelt ever! The mix of meats and spices made for an unusual aroma, think wet dog. But i'm sure it tasted better and it was great to be so quickly immersed into everyday life. We eventually stumbled on a small Japanese restaurant and quickly ordered ourselves some noodles dishes. Food was just ok and about 30mins after arriving we were very quickly given our bill (with a smile) and gestured to leave. We think it might have been a very abrupt closing time, or maybe something to do with the big rat that ran through the restaurant from the kitchen direction?! Either way we didn't argue and called it a night!

Tuesday 26th January 2016

So it seems that our dubious bathroom was the least of our worries, when Chris got woken up by rain dripping through the ceiling onto his forehead after a night of torrential rain. A few hours later and the top part of the bed was soaked, with a beer glass doing little to protect the sheets from our leaking ceiling. After a lot of pointing and umming and ahhhing from the staff, they soon had us packing up to move to their sister hostel on the next street (12th street), the Agga Youth Hotel, which turned out to be a nicer version of where we were with a less dubious bathroom and a functioning roof. With all these shenanigans we'd lost a lot of our day, so rather than doing any of the sights decided to have an aimless wander to get a feel for Yangon.

The first thing that struck us were how few foreigners there were, having spent the past few months on the popular backpacker route through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand & Laos. Tourism in Myanmar had been relatively limited in the past, however since a new government took over in 2012, a 'tourism masterplan' was created to slowly open the country up. In 2012, they hit the 1 million tourist mark, which is still tiny compared to its neighbour Thailand that attracted 22 million tourists in the same year. The growth in tourism is steady but with a target of 7.5 million by 2020, now is a great time to see the country in all its splendour. We were suddenly transported back to China where eyes followed you down the street, some people pointed and giggled, others wanted a photograph. Nothing overbearing or impolite, just curious people or people keen to use their English skills (which we later found was often the case with the Burmese monks). For us, it was a real novelty to be back somewhere slightly off the trodden path and learning about a country we knew very little about. The majority of the men & women we saw were dressed in the traditional Longyi's, which is a sarong type skirt knotted at the front with a big knot for men and tucked in at the waist for women.

We also saw a lot of women & children, and the odd man, wearing a yellowish facepaint, which we later learned is called Thanaka and is painted on the faces for both medicinal and cosmetic reasons. It is a natural substance derived from the Thanaka tree and is thought to be beneficial for the skin and a natural sun cream, as well as being painted on faces in circular or striped designs as decoration. It is a practice that is unique to Mayanmar and it is striking to look at. One less so striking habit we observed was the red spit all over the streets, caused by chewing betel which stains the teeth and mouth of the 'chewer' and is then spat on the floor. Yuck! More than once we tried to have a conversation with a taxi driver with a mouth full of red gunk. Nice! Yangon is a really interesting city to walk through and we were both really surprised to see a much more diverse mix of people than we had expected, with residents from Chinese, Indian and Bangladeshi heritage. A real blend of cultures, religion, food and something we hadn't seen so much in other cities along the way. Another thing that came as a bit of a shock was the traffic. Coming from quieter Laos, it was strange to step into a city with so many cars and so few motorbikes, if any at all. With this comes so much noise from car hooters and bumper-to-bumper traffic jams if you want to get anywhere by taxi! So although a short day, it was definitely an eye-opening one!

Wednesday 27th January 2016

Our night passed peacefully with no leaky roof so rested and revived we started our day with a walking tour through Yangon that took us through the Chinese quarter and the Indian quarter and guided us past signs of Yangon's colonial past. Many of the buildings have fallen into disrepair on the exterior but you can still see signs of the colonial architecture. This can be seen more as you head down towards the port where the large buildings have been maintained and modernised in parts, now housing the British Embassy, the post office and banks. One of the most striking buildings is Custom House. With the red brick exterior and white roof & windows, it has a very Boston, New England feel to it. Our tour took as around Sule Pagoda, which is officially recongised as the centre point of original British Yangon. As tourists, it wasn't the most aesthetic of Pagoda's on offer so we didn't stop too look too long before continuing on our path. The walk finished at Bogyoke Aung San market, which is a huge colonial-style market built in 1926 selling material, clothing, antiques and jewelry. They had the usual touristy stuff there, which you tend to see a version of at every market but what caught our attention were the small antique shops. A lover of all things vintage or antique we couldn't pass by without having a quick look. We ended up getting sidetracked by a huge collection of stamps dating from the 1930s onwards and tracking some of Myanmar's interesting history. We left with two sets of stamps, our own little piece of Burmese history.

From the market we headed to one of Yangon's iconic sights; Shwedagon Pagoda, a towering gold pagoda that can be seen for miles around. After paying the 8000kyat (£4) each to get in and removing our shoes, we spent the next hour wandering around the main pagoda and small surrounding shrines, as locals flocked to the shrine to pray. We noticed crowds getting bigger throughout the afternoon and tv crews heading towards a large roped off area. Curiosity struck and we began to follow the crowds, until we soon saw a procession of people dressed in gold robes carrying gold umbrellas, followed by many monks. We stood and watched for a while but following the procession nothing much seemed to happen so we picked up our self guided tour where we'd left off.

By this time we had a few questions about what we'd just seen and the pagoda itself, when we were approached by Uncle Khiang, a 69 year old local with a topknot keen to share his knowledge. Uncle Khiang started his tour by teaching us about the significance of the day of week we were born according to Burmese Buddhist beliefs and our birth animals, which determines the point we should enter the pagoda and which representation of Buddha we should be praying too. My animal was an elephant with tusks being born on a Wednesday morning (a Wednesday afternoon baby makes you an elephant without tusks!), making me unpredictable, enthusiastic, spontaneous, independent, mild tempered with a desire to be in control of situations. My ruling planet is Mercury and my Buddha being at the Southern entrance. Chris was a guinea pig being born on Friday, making him naturally creative with lots of fabulous ideas but a hard time seeing them through to completion due to his short attention span. He is said to be loving, kind & sympathetic to others, making him a wonderful friend. His ruling planet is Venus (hence the love part!!) and his Buddha being at the Northern entrance. Armed with this information Uncle Khiang took us to the 8 small shrines around the pagoda labelled with the days of the week (8 rather than 7 as Wednesday is split into Wednesday morning and afternoon depending on when in the day you were born) to visit our particular shrines. Given we are not Buddhist, we would normally just observe any religious practices, however Uncle Khiang was very keen to demonstrate the religion in action and we soon found ourselves pouring cups of water over our respective Buddha & animal statues whilst Uncle Khiang offered a prayer for us. He also answered our questions about the days earlier activities, explaining that today a part of Buddha's backbone was being brought from the Himalaya's to Yangon for people to visit and there would be a big mass prayer ceremony at the Pagoda led by notable Buddhist monks. Huge queues of local residents wound through the Pagoda, as people waited to get their moment with the Buddhist relic.

An hour later we bid farewell to Uncle Khiang, by which time the sun was setting. As it had already got late, we decided to wait for it to get dark, as we had heard the Pagoda lit up at night was just as impressive. It didn't take long before the lights were switched on and we got to see the huge gold Pagoda and (neon!) illuminated Buddhas against the dark night. It was at this point we also began to hear the chanting which led us back to the roped off area where we'd been earlier. Except this time, the area was filled with hundreds of kneeling locals watching monks from India & Myanmar on big screens leading prayers in honour of the relic. We were only 2 of a few westerners watching the ceremony and felt privileged to have seen it, getting smiles from local people as they passed. After a packed day of new experiences, we left the Pagoda with prayers still echoing and headed home to grab a bite to eat and relax for the evening.

Thursday 28th January 2016

Today we were keen to see some of Yangon's natural sights, so took a short taxi ride to Inya lake to spend the day walking around the perimeter. The taxi dropped us at Yangon University and we were soon on a paved path along one edge of the lake. At regular intervals along the path, we found ourselves staring at big 'PARK RULES' signs, the most bemusing being a very clear 'NO SEX' rule. It was then we spotted the small covered benches, where couples were shielding themselves from prying eyes with umbrellas. It would appear we'd stumbled on Yangon's ultimate make out spot! Hurrying ourselves along we left the paved edge of the lake to find the path leading us around the perimeter. That's when we discovered it wasn't going to be quite so easy! 10 mins into the walk and we'd found ourselves edging up the equivalent of the M1 being watched by confused looking locals in their cars and no lake in sight. Never ones to give up on an obscure route, we persevered, until we realised the motorway seemed to just connect to another motorway. The closer we tried to get to the lake, the further we seemed to end up. By this time, the temperature had reached 30 degrees and we were getting nowhere so we hailed a taxi to take us back in the direction of downtown.

On our way we passed a flashy looking mall and decided to have a quick peek. It was a completely new development with many shops still being fitted as we passed. Both hungry we headed to the food court to find most restaurants still under construction and more staff than customers. One of the only choices was a familiar one; KFC. Sneaking mischievous glances at each other, we had the 'should we', 'shall we' conversation before finding ourselves walking through the doors and being greeted by the smartest, slimiest, most enthusiastic KFC staff we've both ever seen. Our orders were sung back to us before a glamorous manager ushered us to our table. Here we witnessed another side to Yangon, away from the traditional life, with teens and young couples in ripped jeans, fun dresses and sporting crazy hairstyles. The best bit being watching all ages, young and old, scrambling to get under the KFC sign to get selfies with their Zinger burger and coke. So turns out KFC only came to Myanmar on 7 July 2015. With the country being under military rule, western brands were a rare sight in Myanmar, so the opening of KFC was a huge event for Yangon with people queuing for 3 hours to get a taste of the first US fast food chain to open in Myanmar.

After meandering around the shops for a while we grabbed a taxi to get us back to downtown Yangon. Not our most successful day in terms of seeing the sights, but an interesting one with an unexpected insight into youth culture care of our good friend KFC (who have injected their own take on the meal deal with a tasty little egg custard tart thrown in for good measure!) That evening we decided to eat in the local neighborhood of China Town, feasting on chicken & cashew nuts in a soy based sauce and what tasted like a version of sweet & sour chicken. All washed down with our first taste of local Myanmar beer; the verdict? Not bad, not bad at all!

Friday 29th January 2016

As it was already our last day in Yangon before taking a night bus in the evening, we tried to squeeze in a few more sights before our departure. We started with Botahtaung Pagoda located on Strand Road. The original pagoda was destroyed during WWII when the docks were bombed, but has since been rebuilt. Unlike the other Pagoda's we have visited, which have been solid and so can only be viewed from the outside, this Pagoda has been built hollow with chambers decorated in ornate gold panels that you can walk through. Quite a sight! We spent about an hour at the Pagoda exploring the chambers, then wandering around the temple past a small lake of turtles, before leaving. Not the most awe-inspiring place we have been, but worth a little look. On the steps of the temple we met a Turkish guy called Evrin who had just arrived in Yangon and was keen to explore. We soon got chatting and discovered our new friend was an avid photographer travelling to over 80 countries with his camera & decided to all share a taxi to see Chauk Htat Kyi Buddha, the reclining Buddha. The name means 6-storey Buddha because of its size (65m long)and it's housed in what looks like a decorative aircraft hangar. Compared to the shiny reclining Buddha we saw in Thailand, this reclining Buddha seemed huge and was sporting some very bright clothes and face decoration. The interesting part of the statue is the feet, which (other than being massive!) are covered in 108 gold symbols. With time ticking on, we had to bid farewell to our new photographer friend and headed back to the guesthouse to collect our bags for our next journey.

From the guesthouse we took a 2 hour taxi journey to a manic bus station. We were due to take a 9 hour night bus with a company called JJ Express, who we'd heard had the most comfortable buses in Myanmar. The journey would cost us $18 each so not too pricey. We were early so had a 2 hour wait before boarding our bus, where we were served complimentary coffee (literally the sweetest coffee concoction you've ever tasted) and got chatting to a very chirpy Londoner, Luke, regaling us with his very earnest stories of his travels thus far. Turns out he wasn't a fan of mosquitoes, when mid-conversion he suddenly produced a humongous industrial sized can of mosquito spray that got cheers and laughs from fellow travelers. Who would've thought mosquito repellent could be such an ice breaker, with a young Chinese couple sitting behind us joining in the laughs before enthusiastically sharing out their mosquito repellent stickers (in the shapes of pandas and butterflies!) laced with Chinese herbs. Wish i'd got a picture of a group of grown adults excitedly covering themselves in children's stickers!

We were soon settling ourselves onto quite a luxurious night bus for our 8pm departure, equipped with individual tv screens showing Ice Age & Mission Impossible. As per usual on transport, I was soon asleep. But not for long, before we were all abruptly woken a few hours later by the lights being turned on and an echoey announcement telling us to all get off the bus to go to the toilet at a neon illuminated service station in the middle of no-where. This happened 3 times during the journey, leaving us groggy and disorientated by the last stop at 2am, which I blame for the monumental tumble I took off the side of the kerb grazing both knees and hands. Thanks JJ Express for making me look like a grazed knee 5 year old for the next few weeks!! Back on the bus, we rolled into our final destination, Bagan, at 4.30am tired and with sore knees (well, just me!).

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