Yangon

We arrived in Yangon expecting to be met with hassle at immigration African style, but we breezed through with relative ease.  We had booked accommodation in advance partly for visa reasons and also the guest house we booked offered us an airport pick up service.  When we arrived we were met at arrivals with a guy holding up a name sign.  I thought Burma was going to be a difficult country to travel in, but already it was obvious that it was a bit more organised and easier than I expected.  We weren’t the only ones being picked up at the airport, there were several other travellers.  We crammed into a small minibus and got chatting to a guy from London, Danny.  He was studying Burmese in London and had been for the last two years, he was in Burma to do his elective year, and with any luck try and study at the University of Yangon. 

We arrived at our guesthouse expecting the worst but were pleasantly surprised when we found out we had a perfectly adequate twin room, with air conditioning, hot shower and even a mini bar.    We went to bed early, eager to get up sharpish and explore.

Yangon is one strange city.  It’s very different from most South East Asian city I’ve been to.  Motorbikes and Bicycles are banned so the traffic really isn’t a problem.  Crossing the road is an absolute doddle compared with Jakarta.  The government limits the amount of cars imported into the country causing Burma to have among the most expensive cost price vehicles in the world.  This contributes to quiet roads and a vast range of very old, very noisy and very unreliable bangers.  Most of these dodgy bangers tend to be taxis and were our mode of transport around town.  The other things that stand out in Burma are:

• Most of the men wear skirts.  They sport a wraparound sarong called a longyi.  It’s totally understandable when you think about the heat they have to put up with.  Besides I’m a Scotsmen, so men wearing skirts is nothing new to me.
• Women, young kids and some men appear to have mud on their faces.  It’s a strange fashion trend, thanakha (powdered bark) is used as make up, and I believe it’s a natural sun cream and mosquito repellent too.  It’s applied liberally to the face either in stripes or blotches.
• Red spit.  There are red droplets of spit on most pavements and street corners, this is the by-product of chewing betel.  Betel is big in Burma, it’s made up of the chopped betel nut, optional fruits and a leaf wrap.  Not only does it look unsightly on the pavement, but it stains the chewer’s teeth a nasty dark red/black colour. 

The city has a strange look, unless you are downtown, most buildings are of the same height, eight storeys high.  This is because the government passed a law that any building over 8 storeys needs to have a self contained elevator.  Elevators are expensive, and Burma is poor, so this leads to Yangon being full of poorly constructed eight storey apartment blocks.   It’s not a pretty city by any means, a lot of the buildings, especially the old colonial buildings look very dirty and are in dire need of a lick of paint. 

The main sight to see in Yangon is the Shwedagon Pagoda, a glittering gold Buddhist temple at the heart of city.  We saw it briefly when we arrived passing it on our minibus, you couldn’t really miss it, it’s built on a hill standing nearly 100m tall from its base.  It’s the Eiffel tower or Statue of Liberty of Burma and has a great deal of historical significance with claims that it’s 2500 years old, although archaeologists suggest the original stupa was built somewhere between the 6^th and 10^th centuries. 

We visited it briefly on our second day in Burma and got a guide to take us round the next day.  The whole site is rather large with the Stupa in the centre and lots of other modern temples around it.  It’s not apparent by looking at it how old the structure actually is, this is due to the fact that it is continually refurbished.  Every five years all the gold is removed, smelted, cleaned and put back on again.  Hanging at the very top there’s an array of expensive jewellery including a huge diamond, rubies and sapphires.  To me it seems like a bit of a waste of money having millions of pounds worth of gold and jewels on a building, you can’t even see the jewels without binoculars and you could paint the stupa gold and get a similar effect.  Our guide told us that back in the day, if the monks were short of cash they would take some of the gold off the stupa and spend it.  They used the pagoda as a giant piggy bank.  These days this doesn’t happen and it seems more people than ever are donating gold.  If you have enough money, you can donate enough cash for a Buddha covered in gold leaf to be built.  This Buddha would then be displayed in one of the modern temples with a plate noting your name.  Burmese Buddhists believe that if you do this you will reap the rewards in your next life. 

Myself and Nev at the Shwedagon

The Shwedagon pagoda is impressive in its size, but it’s certainly not unique.  There are thousands, possibly tens of thousands of similar pagodas in Burma with the characteristic dome shape, which is meant to symbolise the leaf of the bodhi tree, the tree under which Buddha found enlightenment.  The surrounding temples are interesting but seem fairly modern, there are plenty of golden Buddhas but none are remarkable, no giant ones.  It’s a massive draw for the Burmese with many coming on long pilgrimages.  It’s very interesting watching the rituals, people washing little Buddhas, people fanning big Buddhas with overhead fans with a pull cord attached.  This was, as I found out later, to scare off the birds and keep the Buddhas free from bird droppings.  There was also a whole lot of praying, bell chiming, and monks kicking around.  We got talking to a few and they were all very friendly.  People in Burma aren’t used to tourists and on our visits we were met with many an inquisitive look, especially from children.

Shwedagon at Night

 I can see the significance of the building both historically and religiously, but for me it’s not a classic building.  It’s more like an enormous extravagant jewellery piece rather than a grand architectural design. 

We spent our second evening out with Danny and one of his classmates.  It was very handy going out for dinner, most menus are in Burmese and have no English translation.  So this time round we actually knew what we were ordering. 

The rest of our time in Yangon we spent mostly visiting other Pagodas.  One interesting one was on the middle of a roundabout in downtown Yangon.  Only in Yangon would you find a Pagoda on a traffic island. 

Enjoying a Burmese Cultural Experience, a Burmese Cigar

The nightlife in Yangon wasn’t up to much, everything shuts down by 10:30pm.  This was fine for us as we were getting up early in the morning and having a wee rest in the afternoon to avoid the heat.  After spending a few days in Yangon, we felt like moving on so we booked our bus to Mandalay.