We marched out from our hotel at around 11.30, excited to venture into this city that we had just arrived. We drafted out our walking plan after consulting the front desk receptionist, who was eager to sharpen her English with us; due to our hotel's location near Botataung Paya (pagoda), we decided to commence our walk heading there first before turning towards the town center.
Yangon was sunny that day, and despite painting myself with adequate sun block I could still feel the pricking heat. Ayerwaddy's miserly river breeze somehow did help a bit with our long walks though. We were thrown with "mingalabars" and "hello there, where you from" by the local pedestrians, making us feel like we were now local celebrities; and every mingalabar that you replied never fails to earn you a smile from the locals! Yangon's streets were dusty and fumes of poorly maintained old vehicles filled the air, but that did not hinder us from venturing out to the streets. After walking past 3 blocks, we finally reached Botataung Paya.
Legends had it that this pagoda was somehow sacred as it enshrines one of Buddha's hair (somehow towards the end of the trip we realized that every pagoda in Burma claims to have Buddha's hair enshrined in it!). Having paid USD3 for the entrance fee, we took off our footwear, and trudged into our first pagoda in Myanmar. Botataung Paya is somehow unique from the others that we would have visited later, as it is hollow inside; there is a shrine of the Buddha's hair in the middle of it, and a maze around it. Aside from the shrine, there was not anything else intriguing with this pagoda, hence after encircling it a couple of times, we decided to go out to the courtyard, snapped a few shots, and proceed with our next destination. We did not linger long there too as our soles could not withstand the baking heat of the tiles in the courtyard!
Exiting the pagoda complex we turned into the Strand Road, named after the famous Strand Hotel, which is one of the most luxurious hotel in Yangon. (Eventually we realized that every city in Myanmar has a Strand Road!) We walked past several buildings, some hideously dilapidated, some grotesquely renovated, and some just left to rot on its own, and finally reached the Sule Paya.
Sule Paya, on its own, is somehow unique as it is located in the roundabout in the middle of the city center. Hence, you can try imagine a pagoda, in a roundabout, surrounded by loads and loads of cars and buses and trucks. The streets leading towards the Sule Pagoda are hustling with stalls, shops and also fortune tellers, and infested with feral pigeons! I was practically starving when we reached the Sule Paya, and since it was not worth its USD2 entrance fee, we decided to just circle around it from the outside and skip it.
Around the Sule Paya are the other colonial buildings - the high court, catholic churches, the city hall, etc., but they weren't really preserved well, so we skipped it as well. Probably we were just starving to be honest. We decided to have lunch in a tea house listed in LP just a stone's throw from the Sule Paya, and a cup of lassi a few walks away, and then venture into Yangon's Chinatown.
Just like any other Chinatown in any other city, it is always the busiest and happening place one can explore. Yangon's chinatown was packed with street vendors selling fruits, flowers, snacks, clothings, lingeries, shoes, reading materials, religious materials, etc.. Goldsmiths and pawn shops were everywhere, and of course, we were taken aback with the presence of a mosque and a synagogue here too! Too bad the caretaker for the synagogue was not around, otherwise I would have my chance to visit my first synagogue!
We stopped in a local Chinese taoist temple - Kheong Hock Kong, for a short rest, and we were welcomed by a caretaker who speaks Hokkien and Mandarin. It was somehow nice meeting someone else who can speak the same language as we do and seeing the temple was nicely preserved by the local Chinese community.
Our next destination was the Bogyoke Aung San market, which was somehow too touristy for us. It was full of vendors selling lacquerware, woodcrafts, gemstones, pottery, counterfeit antiques and such. I was somehow disappointed; there weren't many vendors selling cute little souvenirs or trinkets that I am fond of collecting from countries that I've visited. We only managed to buy a few fridge magnets after searching for it high and low, and the choices were meager.
Frustrated, we walked northwards, heading for the ultimate destination in Yangon, Shwedagon Paya to catch our first sunset in Myanmar!
Yangon was sunny that day, and despite painting myself with adequate sun block I could still feel the pricking heat. Ayerwaddy's miserly river breeze somehow did help a bit with our long walks though. We were thrown with "mingalabars" and "hello there, where you from" by the local pedestrians, making us feel like we were now local celebrities; and every mingalabar that you replied never fails to earn you a smile from the locals! Yangon's streets were dusty and fumes of poorly maintained old vehicles filled the air, but that did not hinder us from venturing out to the streets. After walking past 3 blocks, we finally reached Botataung Paya.
Legends had it that this pagoda was somehow sacred as it enshrines one of Buddha's hair (somehow towards the end of the trip we realized that every pagoda in Burma claims to have Buddha's hair enshrined in it!). Having paid USD3 for the entrance fee, we took off our footwear, and trudged into our first pagoda in Myanmar. Botataung Paya is somehow unique from the others that we would have visited later, as it is hollow inside; there is a shrine of the Buddha's hair in the middle of it, and a maze around it. Aside from the shrine, there was not anything else intriguing with this pagoda, hence after encircling it a couple of times, we decided to go out to the courtyard, snapped a few shots, and proceed with our next destination. We did not linger long there too as our soles could not withstand the baking heat of the tiles in the courtyard!
Exiting the pagoda complex we turned into the Strand Road, named after the famous Strand Hotel, which is one of the most luxurious hotel in Yangon. (Eventually we realized that every city in Myanmar has a Strand Road!) We walked past several buildings, some hideously dilapidated, some grotesquely renovated, and some just left to rot on its own, and finally reached the Sule Paya.
Sule Paya, on its own, is somehow unique as it is located in the roundabout in the middle of the city center. Hence, you can try imagine a pagoda, in a roundabout, surrounded by loads and loads of cars and buses and trucks. The streets leading towards the Sule Pagoda are hustling with stalls, shops and also fortune tellers, and infested with feral pigeons! I was practically starving when we reached the Sule Paya, and since it was not worth its USD2 entrance fee, we decided to just circle around it from the outside and skip it.
Around the Sule Paya are the other colonial buildings - the high court, catholic churches, the city hall, etc., but they weren't really preserved well, so we skipped it as well. Probably we were just starving to be honest. We decided to have lunch in a tea house listed in LP just a stone's throw from the Sule Paya, and a cup of lassi a few walks away, and then venture into Yangon's Chinatown.
Just like any other Chinatown in any other city, it is always the busiest and happening place one can explore. Yangon's chinatown was packed with street vendors selling fruits, flowers, snacks, clothings, lingeries, shoes, reading materials, religious materials, etc.. Goldsmiths and pawn shops were everywhere, and of course, we were taken aback with the presence of a mosque and a synagogue here too! Too bad the caretaker for the synagogue was not around, otherwise I would have my chance to visit my first synagogue!
We stopped in a local Chinese taoist temple - Kheong Hock Kong, for a short rest, and we were welcomed by a caretaker who speaks Hokkien and Mandarin. It was somehow nice meeting someone else who can speak the same language as we do and seeing the temple was nicely preserved by the local Chinese community.
Our next destination was the Bogyoke Aung San market, which was somehow too touristy for us. It was full of vendors selling lacquerware, woodcrafts, gemstones, pottery, counterfeit antiques and such. I was somehow disappointed; there weren't many vendors selling cute little souvenirs or trinkets that I am fond of collecting from countries that I've visited. We only managed to buy a few fridge magnets after searching for it high and low, and the choices were meager.
Frustrated, we walked northwards, heading for the ultimate destination in Yangon, Shwedagon Paya to catch our first sunset in Myanmar!
