Golden Myanmar - Yangon

Yangon
 

We booked an 8.30am boat to leave Koh Kradan and when we got to the resort’s dining area at 8 for breakfast we were told we needed to leg it down the beach if we were going to make it. Thanks for telling us that the boat didn’t leave from our resort then! We had to shout at the manager to allow us to use a trolley to lug the bags down the beach. The customer service there was appalling. 

On the boat we checked we had all the paperwork and passports handy. We needed to print via approval letters from the Myanmar Government after we had completed our e-visa application. As our resort had no printer, we went to the place next door and they helpfully printed the visas for us. Well, two for me and one for David. Halfway back to the mainland I realised that instead of binning the spare one of mine, I had actually binned David’s visa.

We had a good few hours to wait at Trang airport before flying back to Bangkok where we would then wait another couple of hours before heading off to Yangon. As soon as we arrived at Trang airport we ran over to the information desk to ask if they could print the visa for us. The girl on the desk apologised, saying that unfortunately they had no printer and we would need to try to do it in Bangkok. She must have seen our looks of despair as she then whispered to me to Bluetooth her the document, which she sent through to her computer, saved onto a USB which she sent upstairs to the airport offices with her colleague, saying ‘please don’t tell anyone!’. While we were waiting she shared her breakfast with us. Lovely girl. We bought her a big box of biscuits to say thanks and she was thrilled.

At Bangkok airport we went to take some cash out to exchange in Myanmar. I was obviously still not quite with it as I took out 2000 baht instead of 20,000 baht, so about £50 instead of £500. It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t being charged a fiver per transaction! After that, we went to use the ATM next to the first one to see if we would get charged less, and I wasn’t able to get any money out. So, onto the third machine before I had realised I had left my bank card in the second machine. Luckily there are some honest people around as it was quickly handed back to me. I managed to get £250 out of the third machine and walked off to check in our luggage. Without my card. This time I really was lucky to have someone honest behind me in the queue as I wouldn’t have realised that I had forgotten my card until we went to get more money out, probably somewhere in Myanmar. After a day’s travel we arrived in Yangon around 9pm and straight in a cab to the guesthouse. 

Sule Pagoda

The next day, we grabbed a map from reception and wandered all over the city. Myanmar is primarily a Buddhist country and is well-known for its pagodas and stupas. Our first stop was Sule Pagoda, about 15 minutes from our hotel. This holy place is in the middle of a busy traffic intersection so is basically a roundabout. It is over 2,500 years old and is said to contain hair of the Buddha.

Yangon

We took a stroll down through Chinatown and topped up the sim card that Sacha and Andy, our island pals had given us, as they had been there a few weeks’ before us. We moved onto the National Museum which we discovered was shut for a holiday. As we left, someone told  us it would be open at 2pm for an hour, so in the meantime we walked up to the People’s Park round the corner. The People’s Park is huge. It has a shopping mall in it, a fairground, a gym, fountains and gardens, and cost a grand total of 300 kyats each to get in (that’s 20p each).

People's Park

At around half past 1 we legged it across the road to Shwedagon Pagoda before jumping in a cab back to the museum. We were almost ready to take a pic of the front of the pagoda and leave it at that, but we decided we should really go in. Can you tell we hadn’t really done our homework about Yangon yet? I’m not sure we would have got away with lying about going in to Shwedagon…it was huge. It’s also allegedly the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world at 2,600 years old. The large golden pagoda is surrounded by smaller pagodas of different styles, creating almost like a village. 

Shwedagon Pagoda

We reached the National Museum at around 2.30pm and discovered that it was actually open for another hour, so we had a whirlwind visit of this fabulous place. We learned about natural history, heritage, art, culture and music of Myanmar through the ages. Some of the best bits were the random artefacts such as a decorative lime squeezer, coconut scraper and a wooden donation box featuring a baby eating cake!

Time for a drink, this city was hot! We found a rooftop bar near our hotel and enjoyed a few cocktails overlooking the city and watching the sunset. We went in search of the best duck restaurant in town but it must have closed down as we couldn’t find it, and instead walked through the food market and found a cheap place for noodles. 

Market seen from circular train

The next day, Baby D wanted to take the train round the outskirts of the city. There is the circular train which goes round in a loop, takes 3 hours and costs 200 kyat each. I wasn’t sure but went along for the ride. It was basically a local train, used by locals with the odd tourist chucked in for good measure, and gives you a nice insight into everyday life of local people. We didn’t see any amazing, famous landmarks but we did see some characters and their lives. At one small village we saw something horrific – a dead dog strung up to a tree, being skinned by two men. We were both completely shocked by this, but on the train loop we had begun to see the poorer side of this up and coming nation, and who are we to judge?

Boys at work seen from circular train

A few beers in the evening, followed by some roast duck. We were accompanied by a stray dog who looked in need of a good feed so we chucked him a big piece of omelette that was wrapped round our rice. He snubbed his nose at that though and Baby D was bricking it that he would get chucked out of the restaurant for chucking food around like a big er, baby. Seriously though, the dog didn’t want the omelette, what’s that all about? Some snob of a stray he was! He wolfed down the duck’s head that came with our dinner though.

Kandawgyi Lake

We had most of the following day to kill before taking an overnight bus to Bagan, departing at 8pm. We strolled round the Bogyoke market, which is a huge sprawling bazaar, selling jewellery, art, clothing and fabric, souvenirs and food. We visited Inya lake, next to which Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s Prime Minister and freedom fighter was kept under house arrest for 15 years, and we went to Kandawgyi lake, walking on its perilous wooden bridge. It was broken and bowed all the way round, and it is not a short bridge. The Yangon locals seemed to float across without a care in the world, while I was gripping onto the side for dear life with cold sweat pouring down my back, looking like something out of an episode of Mr Bean.

Falooda

On the way back we stopped to buy what we thought was a fruit lassi – yogurt drink – with, what looked like pomegranate seeds and blueberries in it. It was in fact something called falooda, which is a condensed milk-based drink, with rose syrup, vermicelli, sometimes containing ice-cream, and the ‘fruit’ was something like semolina or jelly balls. We had only bought one between us thankfully and we managed to drink half of it to be polite but it was pretty sickly. 

 

We had been told to head for the bus station that evening at 5.30pm in case traffic was bad, so in my infinite wisdom I suggested leaving at 6.30pm as it was only 2km from the hotel according to my unfailing friend Google maps. Well I should obviously know by now that Google maps is a trickster and a liar because 45 minutes later and we were still sat in traffic and I was getting edgy. We made it just in time to check in, and cue a sleepless night on the bus.

#myanmar #yangon #shwedagonpagoda #sulepagoda