The Golden Shwedagon

In the midst of this country that is regarded as one of the poorest in Asia, there is a temple that is made of "tonnes of gold, thousands of rubies and sapphires and a 76-carat-diamond". It is located in the city, visible in every direction by its genuine gold pagoda gleaming in the hot sun. Yes, it is none other than the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

This temple is believed to be built 2500 years ago. It is regarded as the most sacred temple in Burma which says a lot because there are literally thousands of temples in this country as it hold the relics of four Buddhas.

Part of the norm as respect for the temple is to take off our shoe before entering. Be prepared to bring some plastic bags with you or you will be harassed by kids shoving plastic bags at you for your shoes at exorbitant price. Best time to visit the temple would be in late afternoon after the rage of the sun has mellow down or your feet will suffer in the hot tile floor.

Throngs of locals come to this temple to pray everyday but on the 1st and 15th of the month, which is consider to be 'holy' day by Buddhist in general, more people will come. Big corporations in Burma takes the opportunity to set up stall in the temple compound to give out free foods and drinks to locals. As for foreigners, the entrance fee is USD5 per person.

I think this ritual or parade only happens on 1st and 15th of the month. I'm not sure what the small boys are supposed to represents but they are cute.

According to a tourist guide, this is the original stupa / pagoda. Measure about 50 metres high.

There are four entrance to the temple, the main entrance however is the North Gate or so I presumed from the crowds that goes as far as your eyes can see.

Road leading to North Entrance of the temple.

There are many small temples within the temple and so either you are a local who are quite familiar of where to go or you definitely need a guide. After walking around for an hour or so, a guide spotted us and came to tell us about the temple. Apparently in the Burmese calendar, there are 8 animals in the zodiac sign. You need to know which zodiac sign you are (from your date of birth) and go to the right 'station' to bath the statue 7 times to tame the fire of angry, jealousy etc (very much like the concept of the 7 Deadly Sins) and gain peace. So he took out a small guide book and told us our zodiac sign. Apparently I'm a Garuda. As a Christian, I of course politely abstain myself from doing that. My two other travel buddies are both Tiger and they went ahead to bath the animal after paying some donation for the ticket to do so.

The Tiger 'station'
Hope you gals are blessed with peace and tranquility

That basically sums up my trip to Yangon. I'm glad to be home and bringing with me some good, some bad memories of this country that has just awaken from its slumber.

Sunset in Yangon

Location : Yangon, Myanmar
Date of travel : March 2013

The sleeping Buddha is not sleeping

We were bored and have been disappointed over and over again for the closing of Bogyoke market for 3 consecutive days while we were there because the market is supposed to close on Monday; Tuesday is the 15th of the month which is holy day for Buddhist and Wednesday is Army Day. Bet they are not familiar about 'retailing' which is supposed to open everyday regardless whether it is holy day or public holiday. How else will people have time to go shopping? How about tourist like us who only stop by for the few days they are closed? Bogyoke market in Yangon is somewhat like Chatuchak market in Bangkok. Thousands of stalls selling souvvenirs and knick knacks but of course, we will never find out.

So, out of boredom we hailed a cab to a Chaukhtatgyi Temple which houses a sleeping buddha. According to Trip Advisor it is ranked #5 attraction in Yangon. 

So I thought, OK another sleeping buddha but let's go. My total uninterested mood was lifted when saw It. I couldn't help but gasped at the sheer size of the statue.

The main thing to see in this sleeping buddha is the sole of the feet. It has 108 marks indicating elements in the 3 worlds and buddha is supposedly greater than all three worlds, the inanimate world, the animate world and the world of the conditioned. Well for us, it is just another opportunity to take pictures.

Huge buddha staring at its worshippers

Well lucky for us the sleeping buddha is not sleeping. 

Next, The Golden Shwedagon

Off the beaten railway-track

See, I was in total working mode before we left for Yangon and so I left the planning to my travel buddies without knowing exactly what we are doing or visiting in Yangon. And then on the 2nd day, I found out that we are supposed to take a train to the country side of Yangon on that day. It only cost USD1 for that 3 hours circular train ride and we can hop on and hop off.  "You're kidding, right?" was my response. I wasn't even sure that their information was right until I reach the train station. 

Of course the signage pasted all over the train station has such a nerve-calming effect on me because so far there aren't a lot of Burmese who can speak English. We might take a train that brings us to Timbuktu for all I  know. Anyway, as we walked to the ticket counter, the guy were shouting 'foreigner, foreigner' and then another guy ushered us past the ticket counter straight into the station. So far, pretty impressed. There was a sort of booth with the above signage by the railway track and the guy warmly welcome us and issue us a 'receipt' of USD5 for 5 persons and assured us that yes, we can hop on and hop off the whole day.  Of course we later found out that locals only pay 10kyats per ticket while USD1 is equivalent to 1000kyats. No kidding.

We asked for a map of the station where we can hop on and hop off. He showed us the one and only hand written map that he had. So yup, so we took a picture with our iPhone. I guess USD1 can't include a printed map/guide. 

The rest of the train journey was a blur to me. We and 3 other foreigners (2 Caucasians, 1 Japanese) are the only brave ones to have taken this off the beaten railway-track route. So, just enjoy the photos that I have the opportunity to take while struggling to cramp in the coach along with bicycle, vegetables and live chickens. 

Yeah, we are boarding this LV train, haha

The braves or the sillies, your take

Dangerous trails

Vendors by the station

Strong headed

Paddy field or was it vegetables?

My fellow brave hearts

The 'other' passengers has arrives!

View of our starting to filled up coach

The market station, sorry, I forgot what's the Burmese station name

By now, both my legs are on the seat.

About 1 kilometre long of junk yard full of cars, a few tiers high.

So the cab we took in Yangon is not old enough to qualify being thrown here ... wow

A very dirty little boy helping his mother to lug the gunny sack into the train.

So after 2 hours, we decided to stop in Kyat Kone station to see the white elephant (which by the way is far from white, not even greyish white), we decided to take a cab home.

Ya, pay the money, blast the air-cond please, please, I beg you.

Next, The sleeping Buddha is not sleeping

The country that has been in slumber for decades

Oh my gawddd, the shower in my bathroom feels like Heaven! The first powerful spray of hot clean filtered water is such a welcome after what seems like eternity in a place I wanted to leave almost as soon as I arrived. My thoughts goes back to about a week before I left, some friends and family members asked why do I want to go to a third world down trodden country for holiday? My reply was a holiday in London or Paris that is oh so glamour and beautiful and classy and cold and clean is not the only thing that one should experience. And how true is that; because without knowing and experiencing in the first person how in some parts of the world, people are still living in the 70s although it is now 2013, show how we should be humble and grateful for our blessings.

After decades of being isolated from the world and facing the wrath of economic sanctions on them, have in two years ago opened up to the world. The once powerful kingdom has fallen so behind in fact it is regarded as the most backward country in Asia. Their people are among the poorest and in fact many are scattered around the world, running away from the countries as refugees seeking for a better life. Something must be done and they did that finally in 2011, open themselves up to the world. The famous Lady, Au Sang Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless courage to 'wake-up' the Burmese who has been in slumber for the past 5 decades.

Yes, I was in Burma or the now Myanmar.

To be honest, my original plan was to go Bagan (the city of thousand pagodas) but then realised it was mighty far from Yangon and the plane fare from Yangon (the one and only international airport in Burma) to Bagan is more expensive than me flying from KL to Yangon. So we decided to scrap the plan and just hang around in Yangon; and hang around we did.

The city centre of Yangon to be honest is very small. In fact, after spending 4 days there, we can direct the cab drivers of which 95% can't speak a word of English to move around town.

A street in the middle of the town

Must be a very luxurious residence in Yangon

What seems like an antic to us is an actual sewing machine for them

As someone who is in pharmaceutical business, this dilapidated 'pharmacy' in the middle of the town interest  me greatly. Unfortunately the 'pharmacist' can't speak English and so I can't engage a conversation with him.

Specialist clinic which we will rather be sick than to seek help is probably only be able to afford by few in Yangon

Food in Burma is very humble in my opinion. The national food is Mohingga which is like a bowl of soup noodle. For foreigners who can afford it, we can go to Chinese Restaurants who charged somewhat like 75,000 kyats for 6 dishes meal and that is probably a month salary for many.

Sitting on the road side in Kyot Kone

For those who don't mind to try out some street food, there are aplenty all around town. We tried and did not suffer food poisoning so I guess it is pretty safe. But we have been detected as tourist and pay double, even triple of what the local pays for the same thing. So in the end, eating in a small restaurants cost the same with street food.

Street food. Salad here means noodles with no soup.

19th street in China Town seems to be very popular with foodies of Trip Advisors.
The street comes to life as the sun sets but all closed by 9pm.

Another popular place among Trip Advisor foodies is the Shan Noodle Restaurant in No-wa-day Road.

My verdict for the Shan Noodle : Just another bowl of noodles.

For those who likes souvenirs, Burma who apparently is rich with stones offers jades, rubies, sapphires at unbelievable price. It is so unbelievable that it is not to be believed. 

This lion gatekeeper jade figurine only cost 1500 kyats = USD1.
So I bought it to stick on my fridge as fridge magnet :)

Hotel, oh my gawdddd so expensive.

We have decided to stay in the Garden Home which is somewhat like a boutique hotel of 10 rooms near the German Embassy. We chose the hotel because it is brand new and you can't go wrong with brand new hotel. There are many Germans staying there supposedly working or visiting the embassy nearby. It cost USD95 per night including breakfast which to me is acceptable. Staying in 3 or 4 stars hotel will cost somewhat USD200 and above per night.

Cab in Yangon is another 'attraction' all on its own. My travel buddy Evonne, had a really hard time accepting the fact that she has to climb in the 20 or 30-year-old-car with original fabric seats still intact. Air-cond in the cab in a 38C country is a luxury. Half the cabs doesn't have air cond, the other half requires us to pay extra for them to switch on the air cond. What an experience! There is an indescribable scary feeling we start to develop every time we gave up walking and hailed a cab. By the third day, every time we hailed a cab, we inspect the inside of the cab before we begin struggling how to tell the driver where we wanna go and how much we are willing to pay.

It is not possible that anyone can survived 4 days without a faint spell sitting inside a cab in Yangon, I bet all my Kyats on it.

Next, Off the beaten railway-track