Floyd and I enjoyed a wonderful vacation in Myanmar and Vietnam over Christmas break! Scroll to the bottom for links to blog posts about other parts of the trip.
Here are some of our memories from the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, which is definitely the number one thing to put on your list if you’re picking sites to see in Yangon.
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| The front entrance. There’s a lot more to the temple complex than you can see from here. |
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| This man was our guide, which was really helpful since the pagoda complex is so big. He explained a lot about the history and purpose of the different buildings, as well as quite a bit about Buddhism in general. |
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| Dress code is serious business in Myanmar! All the temples we saw around the country had signs about how to dress appropriately. |
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| Since Floyd was in shorts (not considered “civilized dress”), he was required to buy and wear a “longyi” (wraparound skirt commonly worn by both men and women in Myanmar) before he could enter the temple complex. Everyone had to take off their shoes before going in. |
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| Artwork by the eaves of one of the buildings. |
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| There are lots of separate temples buildings in the Shwe Dagon Pagoda complex. There’s no angle from which one picture could capture them all. |
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| Everything that looks like gold in these pictures really is! Most of the temples were plated with gold leaf. |
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| As you can imagine, idols were everywhere, both in and out of the temples. Many of the people we saw were actively worshipping them. |
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| The sky that day was perfect for photography! |
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| I was impressed by all the elaborate details in the decorations on the temples’ roofs. |
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| This temple is the actual, famous Shwe Dagon Pagoda itself. |
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| There were lots of other tourists and locals there. |
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| Every pagoda was topped with these dangling decorative “umbrellas” (yes, that’s actually what they’re called). |
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| The floor in the whole complex was smooth, cool, and clean (marble, I think?), so it was no problem to go barefoot on it. |
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| Beautiful Shwe Dagon! |
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| Gold was in evidence everywhere, but other building materials added nice color contrasts on some of the roofs. |
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| Some people were there to worship, others just to hang out. |
After our experience at Shwe Dagon, on the evening of our first full day in Myanmar, we got on a bus (the “JJ Express”) for the overnight trip to our next destination: the highland region of Inle Lake. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw what the bus was like!
Want to see more memories from our trip? Click on the links below!
Floyd and I enjoyed a wonderful vacation in Myanmar and Vietnam over Christmas break! Scroll to the bottom for links to blog posts about other parts of the trip.
Here are some of our memories from the first few days in Myanmar, which we spent in the capital city of Yangon.
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| These Christmas decorations greeted us in the airport when we arrived. |
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| We stayed in the Royal Star Guest House: nothing special to look at from the outside (kind of a hole in the wall, actually), but it was clean and comfortable, and the staff went above and beyond the call of duty to be helpful. Above left and center: the upstairs lounge area. Upper right: the entrance from the street. Lower right: the breakfast they served us (we discovered that fried rice with a fried egg on top is quite a common dish in Myanmar). Lower left: the view from our bedroom window. |
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| It was too late in the evening to do much sight-seeing when we arrived, but the folks at our guest house recommended the Sule Pagoda just down the street. It was closed for the night, but it looked pretty impressive from the outside. Unfortunately, it wasn’t well lit. Actually, nothing we saw there after dark really was. It was strange to me to see stores open and active night life going on in a place with hardly any street lights. |
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The next morning we enjoyed walking around town and seeing our first real glimpse of Myanmar.
This will give YOU a glimpse of what it’s like walking down the sidewalk in Yangon!
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| This is the famous Scott Market (more commonly called Bogyoke Aung San). We spent a couple hours in there and didn’t even make it through the whole thing. I bought some traditional clothes, and Floyd and I purchased three oil paintings. They sell almost any kind of souvenir you can imagine, and all the prices are negotiable. Definitely the best place for tourists to shop in Yangon! |
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| Star Wars was showing in the theater near our guest house, and we were sorely tempted! (We hadn’t had a chance to watch it yet before we left Taiwan.) But we decided to use our limited time in Yangon for things we COULDN’T do back home. |
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| We asked the staff at our guest house to recommend a nearby restaurant where we could try Myanmar cuisine. They directed us to the Super Wonder Bowl Restaurant just down the street, where we enjoyed a delicious lunch! We especially recommend the stuffed eggplant (bottom right). Like many restaurants in Myanmar, it had several options for different flavored smoothies and lassis (Indian yogurt drinks) on the menu. (I ordered the papaya lassi.) Yum! |
A quick look at what it’s like to drive through Yangon.
The other activity we did in Yangon was visiting the incredible Shwe Dagon Pagoda complex. Stay tuned for my next blog post!
Want to see more memories from our trip? Click on the links below!
