After a cheap and easygoing Air Asia flight, we landed in Yangon in the afternoon. You can tell as soon as you land that Myanmar hasn't been influenced by the western world quite like the more modern Thailand and other Indochina countries. The first thing you notice is that all the men are wearing longyi. These are traditional skirts worn by both sexes and are more common place than shorts or trousers. The women also wear what looks like yellow face paint, but is actually whitening cream not rubbed in to their skin, but instead smeared on in a warpaint fashion... Something that took a lot of getting used to!
This is an exciting time, the government have just started letting tourists back into the country and are slowly opening their doors to more capitalist ideals. While we were in Yangon there was a Southeast Asian economic summit that included the likes of Tony Blair. The consensus from the people is that the country is moving forwards, away from civil unrest towards an influx of foreign investment and tourism. Lets just hope the money is shared amongst the people and not just stuffed into the governments pockets!
The Burmese people are diverse in culture and origin. Each state has its indigenous people and their way of life differs from the food they eat, to the religions they believe in and the languages they speak. We met a young hotel worker who explained that he was from the southern Taninthary division who lived in a fishing village. He moved to Yangon two years ago not being able to speak Myanmar (Yangon's dialect) and couldn't read or write. He spoke fairly good English, but his education consisted of a small amount of schooling and then rice farming with his father.
On the first day we decided to do a walking tour of the city with our new English friends (Ronan and Kerry), starting at Sule Paya (Paya is the Burmese word for temple), located at the centre of the city which the British built the road structure around. We quickly had to buy some umbrellas as the downpour was torrential! Whilst sheltering from the rain in the temple, a monk came and introduced himself and offered to show us around. He explained the two different forms of Buddhism, the history of the temple and about his Buddhist beliefs. He then helped us partake in a ritual where you poor water over a Buddhas head, the amount of times you poor it over the head all depends on your age. The Buddhists believe that there are eight days in their religious week. Each of those has a different animal that represents the corresponding day. Wednesday (the most religious day) is split up into two days, morning and afternoon, an elephant with tusks represents the morning and an elephant without tusks is the afternoon. We found out that we are both born on a Tuesday which is the day of the lion. If you are going to be an animal then the lion is not a bad one to end up with, especially when one day is represented by a rat! Each animal (day of the week) has a different shrine and depending on which day you were born on means you perform the water pouring ritual on your relevant shrine.
We then proceeded to a tea house, we've heard it was a must to do in Yangon and it meant some respite from the monsoon. The first one we came across was completely packed full of locals, which was a pity as it was recomended in the Lonely Planet guide as the best. Nevertheless we pursued our quest to find some good tea and a bite to eat. We ended up in the muslim district in a tea house called Golden Tea. The four of us sat down and had some very sweet tea, not to mine or Lots taste, but the samosas, potato and onion bhajis and the semolina cakes were delicious. We had all this for $2.50, what a bargain!
The tea shops in Yangon are famed for being the places that general day to day business is made. As Burma is only open and running during day time hours, the tea houses act as an English pub would for the locals. Additionally, if you believe the rumours, the government supposedly plant spies in the tea shops to make sure the Burmese populace are behaving and keeping in line with the military run governments directives.
We spent that evening at the famed golden temple, Shwedagon Paya. This for us is the religious jewel of Southeast asia and comes to life at night, when the gilded surface of the Paya is gleaming from the surrounding floodlights. The sheer size and beauty of this religious monument makes the entire place feel mystical. When we visited it was also fairly empty and because it was low season there were no tourists, making it even more enjoyable. The majority of people were monks dressed in their maroon coloured robes and Buddhists worshipping the statues of the Lord Buddha; this only improved the aura surounding the temple and made the experience unforgettable. We finished off the evening in the Chinese district looking for some bargain street food. We hit the jackpot and gorged on some local Burmese cuisine as well as some tasty Shan noodles.
The next day being our final in Yangon, we decided to go on a circular train ride around the city before getting on the night bus to Inle Lake. We were shown on the train by a local who took our nationalities and names for record (we think this may have been the government keeping tabs on us but we're not sure!). The whole trip lasted about two and a half hours. It allowed us to steer away from the tourist trail and get a feel for what the 'real' Burma was like, even though we saw many squallers and horribly poor working conditions, we also saw football matches, children playing in lakes and markets on train platforms. The trip was a pretty good way to spend the morning and an especially good way to gain an insight in how people live outside of the city. It was also not uncommon to see people drying their clothes on the railway tracks, using their initiative we say!
Anyway, next stop Inle Lake. This will be the only place we visit in the Shan District and is suppose to rival most places in Asia for sheer beauty!
This is an exciting time, the government have just started letting tourists back into the country and are slowly opening their doors to more capitalist ideals. While we were in Yangon there was a Southeast Asian economic summit that included the likes of Tony Blair. The consensus from the people is that the country is moving forwards, away from civil unrest towards an influx of foreign investment and tourism. Lets just hope the money is shared amongst the people and not just stuffed into the governments pockets!
The Burmese people are diverse in culture and origin. Each state has its indigenous people and their way of life differs from the food they eat, to the religions they believe in and the languages they speak. We met a young hotel worker who explained that he was from the southern Taninthary division who lived in a fishing village. He moved to Yangon two years ago not being able to speak Myanmar (Yangon's dialect) and couldn't read or write. He spoke fairly good English, but his education consisted of a small amount of schooling and then rice farming with his father.
On the first day we decided to do a walking tour of the city with our new English friends (Ronan and Kerry), starting at Sule Paya (Paya is the Burmese word for temple), located at the centre of the city which the British built the road structure around. We quickly had to buy some umbrellas as the downpour was torrential! Whilst sheltering from the rain in the temple, a monk came and introduced himself and offered to show us around. He explained the two different forms of Buddhism, the history of the temple and about his Buddhist beliefs. He then helped us partake in a ritual where you poor water over a Buddhas head, the amount of times you poor it over the head all depends on your age. The Buddhists believe that there are eight days in their religious week. Each of those has a different animal that represents the corresponding day. Wednesday (the most religious day) is split up into two days, morning and afternoon, an elephant with tusks represents the morning and an elephant without tusks is the afternoon. We found out that we are both born on a Tuesday which is the day of the lion. If you are going to be an animal then the lion is not a bad one to end up with, especially when one day is represented by a rat! Each animal (day of the week) has a different shrine and depending on which day you were born on means you perform the water pouring ritual on your relevant shrine.
We then proceeded to a tea house, we've heard it was a must to do in Yangon and it meant some respite from the monsoon. The first one we came across was completely packed full of locals, which was a pity as it was recomended in the Lonely Planet guide as the best. Nevertheless we pursued our quest to find some good tea and a bite to eat. We ended up in the muslim district in a tea house called Golden Tea. The four of us sat down and had some very sweet tea, not to mine or Lots taste, but the samosas, potato and onion bhajis and the semolina cakes were delicious. We had all this for $2.50, what a bargain!
The tea shops in Yangon are famed for being the places that general day to day business is made. As Burma is only open and running during day time hours, the tea houses act as an English pub would for the locals. Additionally, if you believe the rumours, the government supposedly plant spies in the tea shops to make sure the Burmese populace are behaving and keeping in line with the military run governments directives.
We spent that evening at the famed golden temple, Shwedagon Paya. This for us is the religious jewel of Southeast asia and comes to life at night, when the gilded surface of the Paya is gleaming from the surrounding floodlights. The sheer size and beauty of this religious monument makes the entire place feel mystical. When we visited it was also fairly empty and because it was low season there were no tourists, making it even more enjoyable. The majority of people were monks dressed in their maroon coloured robes and Buddhists worshipping the statues of the Lord Buddha; this only improved the aura surounding the temple and made the experience unforgettable. We finished off the evening in the Chinese district looking for some bargain street food. We hit the jackpot and gorged on some local Burmese cuisine as well as some tasty Shan noodles.
The next day being our final in Yangon, we decided to go on a circular train ride around the city before getting on the night bus to Inle Lake. We were shown on the train by a local who took our nationalities and names for record (we think this may have been the government keeping tabs on us but we're not sure!). The whole trip lasted about two and a half hours. It allowed us to steer away from the tourist trail and get a feel for what the 'real' Burma was like, even though we saw many squallers and horribly poor working conditions, we also saw football matches, children playing in lakes and markets on train platforms. The trip was a pretty good way to spend the morning and an especially good way to gain an insight in how people live outside of the city. It was also not uncommon to see people drying their clothes on the railway tracks, using their initiative we say!
Anyway, next stop Inle Lake. This will be the only place we visit in the Shan District and is suppose to rival most places in Asia for sheer beauty!
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