Yangon, Busy and Bustling

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Arriving in the early morning after a twelve hour overnight bus ride from Inle Lake, and catching an evening flight out the next day to Kuala Lumpur, we had very little time to spend in this city and get to understand or appreciate it.

During our short time here, we happened to witness a dragon dance on the street, in celebration of the Chinese New Year, and made a point of visiting the Shwe Dagon temple at sunset, which was definitely worthwhile. We expected to see one massive temple covered in Gold Leaf which is particularly stellar when the setting sun and the night lights shine on it. We did not expect to see an array of smaller temples ornately decorated in gold and glass surrounding the large pagoda. So even though we were feeling somewhat "templed out" after our overindulgence in Bagan, it was still quite incredible.

To make the most of our brief time in Yangon, the next day we hired a taxi to take us on a tour of the city for a couple of hours en route to the airport. That was a good call, for we ended up feeling like we had at least seen some of the city's highlights, one of which, for me, was to visit the house where Aung San Su Chi had been held under house arrest for decades. Unfortunately we could only see it from outside the gates, as it was closed for the Chinese New Year holiday.

We stopped at the famously decadent Hotel Strand, where $500 U.S. gets you a basement suite for a night, and the prices go up from there. We passed by some lovely parks and lakes, many not so lovely crowded streets and apartment dwellings, the University of Yangon and the hall where President Obama delivered his speech in 2013, and the temple of the largest Sleeping Buddha, which is six stories tall.

Although we saw a few of the city's highlights, we had very little time to get to appreciate this city. But overall, our time in Myanmar was wonderful, and we are very glad we decided to take this northern detour en route to Malaysia and Indonesia.

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Photos

Stan at The Strand
Hard to believe but true - the lounge in this fancy pants hotel is a smoking lounge. Old traditions die hard, it would appear, and this hotel is nothing, if not old tradition.

Colonial Architecture
Yangon is noted for its abundance of colonial architecture left over from the British era. This is just one of many examples.

Aung San Su Chi's House
This was as much as we could see of her house - the roof is barely visible behind the fence. It is typically open to visitors, but was closed for the New Year holiday.

Stan on the Backstreets of Yangon
Just a little condensed. There were many of these.

Lovely Street Near The University
There were some nice green spaces, parks, lakes, and shady boulevards like this as well.