After a fabulous five days over Christmas in Singapore with my in-laws including lots of swimming and tandoori turkey stuffed with biryani (delicious!) on Boxing day, Hiten and I flew to Myanmar (Burma.) Singapore Changi has to be my favourite airport. I highly rate the shops, staff and restaurants. We ate a speedy South Indian dosa at the food court before getting on our Silk Air 2.5 hour flight to Yangon.
Yangon is no longer the official capital as in 2005 the goverment announced a new capital city in central Myanmar called Nay Pyi Taw. Yet it is the largest and commercially most important city in Myanmar. Yangon means ‘the end of strife’ and the name originates from the 18th century. In colonial times, the British called it Rangoon but it was renamed as Yangon in 1989. The city looked more developed infrastructure-wise than I had expected. The painted street kerbs and food stalls with plastic chairs could be a scene in India, However, it was cleaner, had more discipline on the roads and less car horn honking than most major cities in India! December is the winter season but it was still over 30 degrees celsius with high humidity… it gets to above 40 degrees in the summer.
After checking in to our hotel, we had time to visit a couple of sights. First of all, we walked to Shwedagon Paya, the golden temple that is the city’s top attraction. We walked up the steps of the Southern covered arcade after removing our shoes in keeping with Buddhist customs.
The main sight was stunning with the central golden stupa towering 325 feet above and surrounded by smaller stupas. Locals were praying next to the worship areas that represent the day of the week that they were born and volunteers were sweeping the floor. Despite plenty of tourists around (December is peak season after all) the temple complex felt calm. The late afternoon light hit the golden structures beautifully. In a small museum area, we saw close-up photos of the ornate main stupa, decorated with 27 metric tonnes of gold leaf and thousands of diamonds and gems.
As well as local monks, there were quite a few tourist monks. I love the fact that monks take selfies too!
As the sun was setting, we walked along the Kandawgyi Lake. It is a artificial lake built by the British and is now covered in parts with lily pads (pretty) and some litter (less pretty.) Locals were enjoying their evening stroll across the uneven wooden boardwalk and we saw a sweet old couple doing their stretches.
For dinner, we were lucky enough to meet up with a Vietnamese friend from university who happens to live in booming Yangon. She took us out to a local Shan restaurant that was very busy. The tasty flavours were a bit like northern Thai perhaps with some Vietnamese and Chinese thrown in. Dishes included garlic chicken (with lots of whole roasted garlic cloves), spicy beans, roasted whole fish, mashed up spicy aubergine and fresh greens like pak choi. Myanmar shares borders with five countries: Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. In our first day, I could already see a blend of influences in the food, the architecture and the people… an exciting country to explore over nine days!
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