Don's Road Less Traveled: Full Day in Yangon

Hey All,

First I would like to throw a shout out to my Son and Daughter In Law Jeremy and Valerie and my 4 beautiful grandchildren, Lydia, Jethro, Vivian and Jarvis. I miss you guys.

Myanmar Money

Unfortunately I barely slept last night. I think I went to bed about 1 and woke up every couple of hours. It did not help that the air in the place is stuck on eternal High mode, which freezes me out, but if you turn it off within an hour you are sweating. So I covered up as much as possible as tried to make the best of it. I guess I would rather be cold than sweating. It did not help that it took me 30 minutes to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night as my knee was really sore. I almost gave up and crawled in there, but afraid I would never get back up - lol.

My driver showing a Longyi that men wear

Last night I talked to the desk because I had so much I wanted to see today and lost time yesterday, so decided to hire a driver for the day to expedite things and cut back on the amount of walking. Turned out to be a great idea.

This morning the knee was sore, but after getting out to have breakfast it started to feel better. I was able to walk, but with a noticeable limp. I met the driver at 9 in the lobby. His name was Ye Min. I told him what I wanted to see and we planned the day. First stop was a large Buddha, he called it the 5 level Buddha, whatever that means. We drove up and like all temple sites, you have to remove your shoes. It was a large covered area with this really big sitting Buddha. There were lots of people there saying prayers. I was the only foreigner there and they all smiled and greeted me. They were taking me to different areas making sure I did not miss anything. I made a small donation to the Pagoda and they gave me this really nice certificate. From there we took a short trip to what he referred to as a level 6 Buddha, This was a huge, much bigger than the last reclining Buddha. This was also in the large covered pavilion type building. There were again lots of people. Ye Min said since it was Sunday was very crowded with locals. It was almost impossible to get the whole thing in a shot.

Large Sitting Buddha

From here we went to Kabareye Pagoda. It was rather small compared to the others but still very nice. I enjoyed walking around it and watching the locals. I once again was able to stay on the white tiles when outside as the colored ones just scalded by foot when I forgot. After this we went to the Myanmar National Museum and spent about an hour going through the exhibits which were very fascinating. Unfortunately you could not take pictures in there.

We left the Museum and headed for lunch. I told him I wanted some traditional Burmese food and he took me to this really busy place. There were cars parked everywhere and he said it was really crowded since it was Sunday. When you walked in this girl in a green shirt follows you with a pad, and you fight your way to the counter where all the food is. You point to what you want and she writes it down. Then you go find a seat and the food gets delivered to your table. It was organized chaos. There must be 50 people working there writing orders, clearing tables, delivering food. It was FUN. I let Ye Min pick out the food. He also ordered these Lime Drinks and they were sooooo good. I don't really know what we ate, but it was good. For desert they bring these white jelly looking things and you eat them with a toothpick. They were good but had a weird texture, but the rest of the meal was really good. I loved the food and the atmosphere, once again the only western person around.

Large Reclining Buddha

After lunch I told him about this big boat I had seen when driving in from the airport and he took me there. It was so impressive at night. I thought it was some royal, ancient item that was about to amaze me. When he took me there he told me its a place where tourist go to have a dinner and watch a dance show. Its a big tourist trap, What a let down, but as you can see from the pics, you could be fooled.

Boat on Lake

The last stop of the day was one I have been looking forward too. There are 3 important Buddhist sites in Myanmar, The Golden Rock, a temple in Mandalay with a Gold Buddha Statue that I will tell you about later, and Shwedagon Pagoda. This is the largest of the Pagodas in Myanmar and is around 2500 years old. It also contains a hair of the Buddha and one of the most sacred sites in Yangon. I was sooo looking forward to this place and heard they were supposed to start covering it for maintenance in November, only to find out when I got there they had already started. The Gold layer is removed and the thing is covered in a bamboo wrap. I was very disappointed. On entry they said my shorts were not covering enough, so they put a Longyi on me to wear inside the Pagoda. I like them, very stylish, and the locals all approved giving me the thumbs up several times. Overall the site is so impressive. There were hundreds of locals milling about enjoying the day. While there it started to rain and it was a really hard downpour that lasted about 45 minutes. Its a very large site and so many things to see. My leg was starting to hurt after this long day and we called in a day from here.

Shwedagon Pagoda

I think the lack of sleep is catching up. I am really tired.

One mission I had for the day was a visit to this travel agent office I had been working with to plan the next part of my trip. I found you cannot get domestic flights online, so you have to use an agent. They arranged a 4 day trip for me starting tomorrow and I had to show up and pick up my papers and pay them. I will be flying to a town called Sittwe, then taking a 6 hour boat ride up this river to the ancient town of Mrauk U. Ye Min said its pronounced (Rock - OO, with the U sounding like Oo. This is the old ancient capital of the Rakhine Kingdom and has some really good old temples and such. Very few people go here as its not easy to get too. I am very excited. Now this is one spot I am sure will not have any internet, so you may not hear from me for a few days. I will do a daily entry and send when I get back to WiFi access.

I found a little pub place by my hotel with good wifi so I am sitting here having a Myanmar Beer writing this and its working much better.

I am so relieved that the knee is getting better. Thanks for all the well wishes.

I ran across the Men's and Women's metal scanners again today. Why you ask? I have no clue.

I noticed another weird thing: You drive on the right, like in the US. But all the cars have the steering wheel on the right, like in Japan or England. So, its backwards. Why, you ask? I have no clue.

Happy Travels, Don