Despite getting to my hotel very late the night before, I arose early and after showering headed downstairs in my flip-flop sandals. That was my first mistake, because the wet sandals had very little traction, causing me to slip on the stairs and fall hard, injuring my tailbone and back. This injury would set me back a bit for the rest of my stay, and wasn't the most auspicious start to my time in Myanmar.
After a simple breakfast of scones, hot tea, and fresh papaya, I changed into proper shoes and left my hotel. The hotel had a great location within walking distance of Yangon's - if not Myanmar's biggest attraction.
Walking down the street to the pagoda was my first real experience with Myanmar. This is the only place I've ever been where the majority of the people still wear the traditional outfits. One of the first things I noticed was that probably eighty percent of the people I saw - men, women, and children - were wearing the longyi, a long skirt-like wrap. Some businessmen I saw wore slacks, and a very few teenagers had jeans, but for the most part nearly everyone wore the longyi.
Admission to the Schwedagon Paya for a foreigner costs 8000 Myanmar Kyat (pronounced "chat"), equal to about eight dollars. I had foolishly not learned my lesson at the Grand Palace, and had only packed shorts. At the foreign admission desk, they also sold me a longyi for k7000 and provided me with an excellent map to the pagoda and a cubby in which to store my shoes and socks. This was the most expensive thing I did during my stay in Myanmar, but it was completely worth every kyat of the admission price.
I circled the pagoda on the slick, wet marble floor several times, gazing in absolute awe at the amazing golden behemoth before me. The legends say that the first pagoda was built on this site nearly 2600 years ago to house a holy relic- the bell-shaped zedi supposedly holds a hair from the Buddha brought to Burma from India by two merchants. At three hundred twenty-five feet tall, covered in twenty-seven metric tons of gold, countless jewels, and topped by a seventy-six carat diamond, the central pagoda and the sixty-four smaller pagodas surrounding it make Shwedagon the most important religious site in the country. It is a goal of most Burmese to visit at least once in their lifetime.
I spent over two hours walking around and taking in my gilded surroundings, but it was starting to rain a bit, so I walked back to my hotel to look at my guidebook and make a plan for the afternoon. Actually, after having seen Shwedagon, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do next.
Just as I was walking back to my room I was greeted by a Chinese girl who was staying there as well. After talking for a minute, she said that she had just met a British girl downstairs at breakfast, and they were planning on seeing a lake and some temples, and that I was welcome to come along if I'd like.
It was raining steadily, but not heavily enough to deter us. In fact, I didn't mind the rain at all as it kept the temperature fairly cool. At the end of the boardwalk on the other side of the lake, we came across a muddy piece of ground and an unexpected old military tank. This seemed to be a real reminder of Myanmar's recent history.
After leaving the lake, we followed the map in our Lonely Planet guidebook to the Bogyoke Aung San Museum. Bogyoke (General) Aung San was a Burmese leader who helped fight against Japanese occupation during the Second World War, and brokered a deal with the British for independence in the late 1940's. Sadly, his assassination by his political rivals in 1947 threw the country into chaos and led to much of the current political situation as the military junta seized control. His daughter, British-educated Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is currently an opposition parliament member and champion for Burmese democracy, despite her nearly twenty years of house arrest and the laws barring her from gaining any real power.
The house where General Aung San and his family lived for just a few years until his death (when Aung San Suu Kyi was only two years old) is now open to the public for a k300 ($0.30) admission price - worth way more than that. The house still has much of its original furniture, as well as several old family photos and articles explaining about the family's life there.
 |
| Overcast skies at Schwedagon |
Walking down the street to the pagoda was my first real experience with Myanmar. This is the only place I've ever been where the majority of the people still wear the traditional outfits. One of the first things I noticed was that probably eighty percent of the people I saw - men, women, and children - were wearing the longyi, a long skirt-like wrap. Some businessmen I saw wore slacks, and a very few teenagers had jeans, but for the most part nearly everyone wore the longyi.
Admission to the Schwedagon Paya for a foreigner costs 8000 Myanmar Kyat (pronounced "chat"), equal to about eight dollars. I had foolishly not learned my lesson at the Grand Palace, and had only packed shorts. At the foreign admission desk, they also sold me a longyi for k7000 and provided me with an excellent map to the pagoda and a cubby in which to store my shoes and socks. This was the most expensive thing I did during my stay in Myanmar, but it was completely worth every kyat of the admission price.
I circled the pagoda on the slick, wet marble floor several times, gazing in absolute awe at the amazing golden behemoth before me. The legends say that the first pagoda was built on this site nearly 2600 years ago to house a holy relic- the bell-shaped zedi supposedly holds a hair from the Buddha brought to Burma from India by two merchants. At three hundred twenty-five feet tall, covered in twenty-seven metric tons of gold, countless jewels, and topped by a seventy-six carat diamond, the central pagoda and the sixty-four smaller pagodas surrounding it make Shwedagon the most important religious site in the country. It is a goal of most Burmese to visit at least once in their lifetime.
I spent over two hours walking around and taking in my gilded surroundings, but it was starting to rain a bit, so I walked back to my hotel to look at my guidebook and make a plan for the afternoon. Actually, after having seen Shwedagon, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do next.
Just as I was walking back to my room I was greeted by a Chinese girl who was staying there as well. After talking for a minute, she said that she had just met a British girl downstairs at breakfast, and they were planning on seeing a lake and some temples, and that I was welcome to come along if I'd like.
First we visited Kandawagyi Lake, a former British reservoir, now a recreational area. There is a an excellent view of the pagoda and the surrounding jungle vegetation from a wooden boardwalk that circles the green water. Xin, Helen, and I walked along the tranquil boardwalk, enjoying the stillness of the Burmese afternoon, and talked about our travels. For a city of five million people (admittedly only half the size of Bangkok), parts of Yangon often felt quite rural and sleepy.
One of the big attractions at the lake is Karaweik Palace, the giant concrete recreation of an old royal Burmese barge.
It was raining steadily, but not heavily enough to deter us. In fact, I didn't mind the rain at all as it kept the temperature fairly cool. At the end of the boardwalk on the other side of the lake, we came across a muddy piece of ground and an unexpected old military tank. This seemed to be a real reminder of Myanmar's recent history.
After leaving the lake, we followed the map in our Lonely Planet guidebook to the Bogyoke Aung San Museum. Bogyoke (General) Aung San was a Burmese leader who helped fight against Japanese occupation during the Second World War, and brokered a deal with the British for independence in the late 1940's. Sadly, his assassination by his political rivals in 1947 threw the country into chaos and led to much of the current political situation as the military junta seized control. His daughter, British-educated Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is currently an opposition parliament member and champion for Burmese democracy, despite her nearly twenty years of house arrest and the laws barring her from gaining any real power.
 |
| General Aung San's House |
The house where General Aung San and his family lived for just a few years until his death (when Aung San Suu Kyi was only two years old) is now open to the public for a k300 ($0.30) admission price - worth way more than that. The house still has much of its original furniture, as well as several old family photos and articles explaining about the family's life there.
In fact, in the rainy grey afternoon, the house was a bit spooky. It seemed almost like something from a Hitchcock film, and a really dark somber mood hung over over the colonial estate that didn't really have anything to do with the dreary weather.
 |
| the General's official car |
Leaving the Aung San House, we walked down a dirt street past a Buddhist monastery where the crimson robes of the Burmese monks were hanging to dry. Next we planned on visiting two stunning, but mostly unknown temples.
No comments:
Post a Comment