Tuesday November 11, 2025
This morning, I managed to eat half an
omelet and some toast. I felt well
enough to tour but my legs were weak.
Usually, people don't see Yangon as a
metropolis compared to Bangkok, Singapore or Ho Chi Minh City, but compared to
the other places we have visited in Myanmar it was a bustling city. Yangon was
formerly Rangoon.
Our first stop was Chaukhtatyi Paya, which
has one of the largest reclining Buddha images in Myanmar measuring 66 meters
(217 feet).
Originally built in 1907 as an
open-air seated Buddha, the image was later reconstructed in its reclining form
in the mid-20th century. The Buddha's serene expression and peaceful posture
exude a sense of tranquility. The large lifelike eyes are made of glass. The
robe is intricately adorned with detailed pleats and folds, adding to the
realism of the sculpture. The soles of his feet show 108 gilded sacred Buddhist
symbols.
There is a giant wall painting of
Buddha from being a young prince to a real Buddha and his activities with the
monks around the structure’s walls and there are 8 shrines representing each
day of the week (Wednesday is split into 2) surrounding the statue.
As we were circling the Buddha an
older lady showed me how gong the bell and asked for money. We handed her
several bills (less than a dollar total) and she seemed so thankful.
Next, we took a walk around Kandawgyi
Lake aka Royal Lake which is famous for the Karaweik Palace, a replica of a
Burmese royal barge. Myint Swe told us it’s now a restaurant so you can no longer go inside for a tour.
I was looking forward to taking the
Circular Train, but Myint Swe said it now only runs a couple times a day and
they only use 1 car. Yangon Circular Train is 45km
in length and normally takes about 3 hours to complete the loop. We didn’t do
the full loop and were on for less than an hour. It did give us a taste of
watching people going about their daily lives. The train stops every 5 minutes,
and the locals only have a couple of minutes to hop on or hop off. When we got
off, it felt like we were just getting off a slowly moving train.
A young Chinese lady came over to sit
next to me, and she told me she lives in Yangon and said she had never been to China,
and she learned Chinese in school. Her brother lives in Florida, and she has
applied for a US visa twice and it’s always denied. I didn’t get a chance to
ask where in Florida as it was time to go.
The train has been around for decades,
and several things are contributing to its decay. The slowness of the train
makes it unreasonable for getting anywhere quickly. (longer commutes to work or
school) So, modernized trains or other modes of transportation are forcing it
out. The other is since the military coup; the new government hasn’t
financially supported it. So, probably more of a tourist thing these days and
the few locals that support it. It was a fun experience to see people come and
go. One brought on things he was taking somewhere to sell.
We were to have lunch at Pandonmar
Restaurant, but that was changed to the Monsoon Restaurant. The food was very
good and wasn’t family style like most of our lunches. We had several courses
that included vegetable tempura, soup and salad, chicken and potato curry, and
fried banana and ice cream. It was here that I started to notice a change of
attitude in Myint Swe. He really took charge and even complained when they didn’t
fill his water glass full enough. They were super attentive (as have been all of the restaurants we visited for lunch) to please western tourists (or any tourists really),
There was a shop downstairs, and I saw
a couple of small wooden carved trinkets and I really liked the monk and the
nun with their alms. I didn’t buy them since we were headed to a large market,
and I figured I could find something like that there.
We
went to Bogyoke Aung San Market, and it was a ton of jewelry shops and art, and
not really much in the way of tourist stuff, so I didn’t find the monk
and nun statues. There were nuns that were singing (like trick or treating) at
the various stalls and they would be given candy or other items. Myint Swe took
Greg to a money exchange to get more cash for the rest of our stay in Myanmar. As
markets go, it wasn’t one of my favorites.
We skipped Aung
San Suu Kyi's House where she was held on house arrest for over 15 years. Myint
Swe said people can’t tour inside and all you can see is a very high fence, a
steel gate and security guards. Many people go just to get their photo in front
of it.
Aung San Suu Ky was a Democracy leader
and Nobel laureate, and Burma's military rulers have repeatedly imprisoned her.
She in the daughter of Burma's leading independence figure, General Aung San,
for her promotion of democracy and human rights in Burma. She is now imprisoned
in an undisclosed location.
After the market we went back to the hotel,
and we had a couple of hours until seeing Shwedagon
Pagoda at sunset.
We went to the mall and checked out
all the floors and Greg showed me a French Chicken place that looked awesome to
try after our tour tonight.
The formal name of the Shwedagon
Pagoda is Shwedagon Zedi Daw, which translates as The Great Golden Mountain
Stupa and it is the most sacred Buddhist stupa in Myanmar. The complex sits
atop Singuttara Hill and at nearly 2,600-years-old, it has the distinction of
not just being the world’s oldest pagoda, it also claims to being the world’s
most expensive. The central stupa alone is plated with over 20,000 bars of gold
over brick. The stupa’s crown, known as the umbrella, has around 5,500
diamonds, 2,300 rubies and 4,000 golden bells and other precious gemstones line
the crown. Sitting at the very top of the umbrella is its largest and most
precious gemstone, a 72-carat diamond. The gem-encrusted Crown of Burma is
estimated to be valued at $3 billion USD.
What was kind of distracting was the
various areas covered with some unattractive cloth. Myint Swe told us it was to
protect the delicate gold leaf from the elements such as intense sun, wind and
monsoons.
Myint Swe urged us to participate in a
ritual blessing that devotees perform by pouring water over Buddha statues at
eight planetary posts corresponding with our birth day of the week. Each is marked
with an animal symbol (Elephants for Wednesday and Guinea Pig for Friday). This
ritual, part of Burmese astrology, involves offering flowers, candles, and
water to gain merit and is a central practice at the pagoda's base. Cathy and
Greg were born on a Monday and Tom and I were born on a Friday, So, we went
around to find our stations and poured water over the buddha’s statue.
We walked around it slowly taking in
all the shrines and colorful temples, stupas, and statues that reflect the
architectural era spanning almost 2,500 years. We stopped into the museum to
see the many photos and artifacts of the transitions over the years. People
watching was also quite interesting. I don’t think Myint Swe wanted to leave,
he seemed content to just sit and take it all in. We, however, wanted to get
back to the hotel for some dinner.
We had dinner at the mall at the French
chicken place, and they had killer pot pies. Mine beef sautéed mushrooms and
onions over mashed potatoes topped with a crust, which really hit the spot
after being sick and I finally had an appetite.
We then had ice cream at the hotel
before preparing to pack up and leave all of our luggage except for a backpack
for our overnight trip to Golden Rock up in the mountains.
Tomorrow, we drive to Golden Rock.
Album Yangon https://photos.app.goo.gl/LQ9isRSjHbZCp1Uz8
No comments:
Post a Comment