Myanmar

Wednesday 1st June 2016 – Today was our long awaited flight to Myanmar (formally known as Burma). Up at 6.30am we took local transport, metro train and then bus, all the way to the airport for £1.30 each…an hours journey…much better than being stuck in a taxi and paying a premium for it! Everything went surprisingly smoothly even landing in Yangon, the capital city, early. While we were waiting to go through customs, a young British girl traveller named Rita approached us, wide eyed and a little nervous, saying she felt rather disoriented and bemused arriving in a new country and asked to share a taxi with us to her hotel. We agreed…a little cautiously although still wanting to help if she was genuine (watching too many ‘Banged up Abroad’ episodes had made us a bit paranoid around strangers in airports!) Further conversation with her put us at ease that she wasn’t some dangerous drug smuggler and we chatted away amicably in the taxi while journeying to our first hotel in Myanmar…Wai Wai Place. En-route we noticed most men wearing long sarongs called ‘longwis’…very fetching and women and children wearing ‘thanaka’ on their faces…a yellowish white cosmetic paste made from the ground bark of the Elephant Apple Tree…all organic no less…used as a natural sunscreen. Our hotel was an oasis of tranquility and once settled we wandered into town. What a vibrant place, full of activity, sounds and smells of Myanmar life engulfed us. Bicycles with side seats (trishaws) carrying passengers whizzed by us, street food was all around. One popular delicacy appeared in most places…fish head soup! In the market place there was an array of different foods…fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, spices…like a kaleidoscope before our eyes. At the supermarket we picked up some Myanmar rum and on our return to out hotel got a little lost, luckily two local girls happily guided us back…smiles all around when we arrived back safely! That night we dined in the hotel courtyard surrounded by lanterns and plants and feasted on local food.

Thursday 2nd June 2016 – Entering Myanmar I must confess how struck I am with the beauty of the people inside and out. Their warmth and hospitality is truly a breath of fresh air. The women and children have angelic faces that light up to see a traveller in their midst…smiles seem to abound all around on this foreign soil.
After breakfasting on the balcony, we left our colonial, high ceilinged bedroom behind and headed to downtown Yangon to stay for a few nights. From the taxi window we saw in the distance Shwedagon Pagoda…the country’s biggest tourist attraction…rising like a golden Phoenix from the ground. Tomorrow we would visit this spectacular monument. On arrival at Agga Guest House we decided to go on our own downtown walking tour. For a few hours we breathed in the sounds and scents of Yangon, passing colonial heritage buildings, market places and Chinese and Indian neighbourhoods. On entering the docks we fed puppies pork and durians and ambled along the oldest road in Yangon…Shwedagon Pagoda Road…feeding pigeons en-route. The city was charming and vibrant….smells, noises and colours gathered together in a Burmese, British, Chinese, Indian mix. That evening we wandered through Chinatown night market inundated with street food and roadside vendors. We shared a fresh, large sea bream, cooked with delicious herbs, broccoli and mushrooms. For dessert Aaron munched on some more fried bugs…and we tasted some mangosteen, dragon fruit and rambutan fruits. What a soul quenching day!

Friday 3rd June 2016 – Today our plan was to visit Shwedagon Pagoda, the largest golden monument on earth at 99 metres in height. It is the country’s biggest tourist attraction, built approximately 2500 years ago, bygone kings and queens of Myanmar donated gold of their own weight to this golden stupa for it is said to contain the relics of four Buddhas who had attained enlightenment. It was an hours walk from our hotel…off we set along the bustling streets. En-route we sighted pretty nuns dressed in pink with orange sashes…they were shy but allowed me a photo of them. Later a monk stopped in front of Aaron with his bowl and we gave him an offering of some money. We happened upon Maha Wizaya Pagoda first…it possessed a scenic bridge over a pond with turtles bathing in the warmth of the sunshine and swimming to their hearts content. The temple itself was serenely beautiful on a harmonious scale and surprisingly empty of tourists…temple cats and dogs were many here as we tiptoed barefoot around this spectacle at our own pace…such a treat. Afterwards we grabbed a cold drink and then entered Shwedagon Pagoda from the southern stairway. It was of an incredibly grand size…like a golden city scattered with hundreds of smaller pagodas encircling the larger two. Images of Buddhas abounded…it was a truly impressive sight this magnificent monument before us. At the pinnacle a diamond orb containing 1,800 carats adorned the pagoda…the apex diamond sitting pretty at 76 carats all to itself…sparkling and glistening atop the golden body of the structure. Impressive as it was I preferred the Maha Wizaya Pagoda much more for its simplicity, quietness and scale. It was almost as if you were having too much of a good thing as precious metals and gems sparkled all around us vying for attention. The grandeur was a little overwhelming and excessive for my primitive needs unlike Aaron who rather enjoyed being surrounded by such wealth! After lunch we wandered back through the busy streets…there were monks everywhere you looked…sheltering under umbrellas and using their mobile phones…the old and the new working as one…a very bizarre sight indeed!