Yangon: a quick tour and we’re off…

We had a half-day tour of three major sites in Yangon for our last day in Myanmar.  It is almost as hot in Yangon as it was in Bagan – only about 95 degrees rather than the 104 we had for the past two days.

It was so hot that even the stray dogs brought their own water bottles...

Yangon is a bustling city of about five million people and too many cars, jitney truck/buses, and other conveyances to count. The good news is that no motorbikes, motorcycles or mopeds are permitted within the municipal limits. That would appear to be a good thing on the surface, but the main arteries cannot easily accommodate the many buses and jitney vans necessary to move people from one place to another; thus, Yangon suffers from the same traffic issues that plague Bangkok, Saigon, Hanoi, etc..

The map above indicates the three sites we visited.

We left the ship and drove for about an hour through stop-and-go traffic to get to the Shwedagon pagoda (not to be confused with the Shewzigon pagoda we saw in Bagan). The Shwedagon pagoda is one of the main attractions – tourist and otherwise in Yangon. For starters, the stupa and outbuildings are covered in over 80 tons of gold leaf. That is not a typo: 80 tons! The Shwezigon pagoda is also covered in gold, but that is gold paint, not gold leaf.

After the ritual of removing shoes and socks, we took the elevator to the main pavilion level and began our clockwise circuit of the stupa. It was hot. We quickly learned the trick in bare feet is to step only on the white marble tiles as the dark ones retain the heat. Once you learn that maneuver, you can be much more leisurely in your stroll.

As we circled the stupa, we realized that while this is a place of religious worship, it is also a place where families, and individuals, can come to sit and relax, to enjoy the day out, to people-watch, and to do just about what any person might want to do to chill out. The apparent lack of reverence is not antithetical to Buddhism, but appears to be a manifestation of loving one’s fellow man – a basic tenet of Buddhism.

 

We had our stroll and also had time to chill in the shade of one of the many pavilions spread around the main plaza. We just enjoyed watching the people – and being watched. Many of the visitors to the shrine are from out of the city and make this a major pilgrimage. They do not see many, if any, foreigners. There was that rock star thing again…

We saw this parade of novice monks being brought through the main plaza by what we believer was a teacher. The ages appeared to range from about 7 or 8 to about 12 or 13.

After leaving the Shwedagon pagoda we bussed to the Chauk Htat Ghyee (chak-tat-gee) pagoda and its amazing reclining Buddha image. This is the third largest reclining Buddha image in Asia and also attracts many of the faithful as well as scores of tourists.

The last stop was at the Karaweik (ka-ra-wick) Palace. This is an enormous floating concrete royal barge that has been converted into a restaurant. It lies on the shore of one of the two major lakes in downtown Yangon. As a tourist site it is interesting in its opulent decadence, but otherwise had no interest to us. The nicest thing about it for us was that we received a complimentary cold drink.

Back in the bus and a long, bumpy ride back to the ship.

Our next port call is Cochin, India for a quick half-day. This is followed by a special stop in Mumbai that will get us to Agra and the Taj Mahal. Stay tuned…