A circle around Yangon

I look forward to every new country that I go to, but the more I read about Myanmar, the more excited I got. It has really only been open to tourism since 2012. This country has a very complicated and interesting history that will get its own post. This post won't be written while I'm in Myanmar however, because government censorship (though not as intense as a few years ago) is still strong in this country. And I have been guided to watch what I say or write as well as what types of conversations I have with locals.

Anyway, I was so excited to see Myanmar when I landed in Yangon. And the country did not disappoint. As I wandered around on my first afternoon the first thing I noticed was the diversity. I've been in countries that are much more ethnically homogeneous. But Yangon has so many ethnicities living together. It ranges from Indian men (who for some reason dye their hair and beards a bright red color) to tiny Chinese women selling street food in China town to Burmese women with paint on their faces carrying trays of watermelon for sale on their heads. The monks here seem to wear mostly maroon instead of the orange I was used to seeing in other countries.

"Sidewalks"

It was overwhelming because everywhere I looked, I saw something interesting. A tuktuk so full of people that the men are sitting on the top or standing on the back. Men doing construction work in flip flops under a big sign that says safety first. Women balancing massive bags on their heads and walking like they weigh nothing.

Sketchy ice + a glowing liquid. 

On my first full day, we hit People's Park and the Schwedagon Pagoda. The park was great to just putz around in. It had pretty flowers, trees, and an amusement park. So of course we rode the log flume and a spinning roller coaster.

Bridges through the trees!

Awwww.

After a long lunch and a short nap in the shade we headed across the street to the most sacred pagoda in Myanmar. I can't say I'm an expert in this temple, but it's a massive stupa on a hill that's covered in gold and is supposed to contain relics of four Buddhas. It was built sometime between the 6th and 10th centuries. The crown of the stupa is covered with thousands of diamonds and rubies and it's topped off with a 76 carat (15 g) diamond. It's one of the poorest countries in the world and yet some of their temples are covered in gold and jewels.

I loved all the mirrors!! 

Pretty sure he was people watching

Pouring water on my birth day Buddha (Sunday)

We walked around the pagoda and figured it would take a couple hours. We were there for probably between four and five. We got to have a great conversation with one of the monks and he recommended a couple of places to us. We had read that we were not allowed to go that far west as foreigners, but he was adamant we visit. We visited a couple weeks later and it was just as beautiful as he promised. While at the pagoda, I poured water on the Buddha statue for Sunday (the day I was born on).The Myanmar week has 8 days in it, and no one could really explain why. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Morning, Wednesday Evening, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Also, odd numbers are good luck. Never burn an even number of incense sticks or pour an even number of cups of water. They are very insistent. Never four. Three or five.

Some fun with night photos

The next day we decided to take the train. It's a circle train that takes about three hours to circle the city. It only cost $0.50 and it's basically three hours of amazing people watching. We got to watch people getting on and off for a variety of reasons. Going to work. Lugging massive bags of produce onto the train for the market. It was fun watching a group of preteen boys ride the train along with us. These kids were well-dressed and definitely just killing time together on a Saturday morning, smoking cigarettes and hoping on and off the train at every stop.

Smokin' and sittin' in the stairwell.

No idea what they were talking about but it looked epic.

Watermelon love.

Slicing fruit.

Waiting for the train to pass.

Old trains.

Quail eggs are a popular snack I think.

The next thing to do was wander around the downtown area and see all the sights. We started this off by stopping at a tea shop. Myanmar does tea shops right. You can get a couple small cups of milk tea and a snack (like a steam bun or a piece of french toast) for around a dollar or two. Cheyenne and I stopped at many of them through Myanmar. This first one that we stopped at was also full of teenage boys goofing around and working. It was hilarious. You'd order from one of them and they would just turn around and holler at the kitchen. I turned around and caught a couple of the boys sneaking drinks of something stiff back behind the counter. The look on the kids face reminded me a bit of the way I feel after drinking vodka.

There are a ton of old British colonial buildings so it was awesome just to walk around and take pictures. In one of the parks, we were reminded that Jesus loves us by a bleached-haired Myanmar man with impeccable English. Not exactly what I was expecting, but he was very friendly. We saw a second temple that has a Buddha hair relic. The inside of the stupa was entirely guilded, and the hair relic was surrounded with jewels. It reminded me of the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin.

The next morning, we got up and headed out of town for Mawlamyine, a sleepy river town where George Orwell was a police officer.