Yangon again

An early breakfast ... a bit like a dinner buffet but somehow chocolate eclairs at 7 am didn't really appeal.

After breakfast we got onto a small bus and drove past several Embassies close to the hotel. It's interesting to note that less than 5 years ago there were only 32 Embassies here and now there are over a hundred. 

First stop was the Pagoda where we spent about an hour and a half. It is an amazing place and really great for people watching.

We arrived at Shwedagon Pagoda quite early to avoid the crowds and the heat .... and the rain! This must be the 8th wonder of the world. I believe the original part is almost 3000 years old but it has been added to and changed over the centuries. It has an orb at the top that evidently is made of 4,351 diamonds.there are many many thousand other jewels in the parts beneath it.

There are other smaller pagodas around it and many many images of Buddhas. We got a short intro to Buddhism from HayMar and learnt a bit about the significance of the day of the week you were born. There are 8 'day' corners where you go to purify yourself by tipping water over a few things. I found my 'Tuesday' corner. According to the Buddhists, Wednesday is actually 2 days... the morning and the afternoon. 

How lucky were we that it was festival time! At the Pagoda we saw a wedding and an initiation procession for a couple of young boys who were to become monks.

After that we went walkabout through the old colonial part of Rangoon. There were some beautiful buildings but they hadn't been maintained at all and  unfortunately they were in a very bad state.

 There were also areas that had been bombed by the Japanese during WW11 and you could still see parts of the damage.
At this point the heavens opened and it bucketed down.

Some kids were making the most of the rain by playing naked in the puddles. Luckily our next stop was inside... the Reclining Buddha.... so may Buddhas here but this was the biggest... it was enormous.. 70 metres long.

The rain stopped as quickly as it started and we made our way to the domestic airport for our 1 and 1/4 hour flight to Heho 

. It was an hour by bus to our next stop for 3 nights, Nyaung Shwe... near Inle Lake. There was a short stop where we watched people making paper and umbrellas.

Time to check into a reasonably good hotel before going out for dinner.. for Italian!! The owner proudly took us and showed us his kitchen ... they were making their own pasta, the cheese was imported from Italy and the bacon from the Netherlands. This is a tomato growing area so they used fresh tomatoes and were growing real Italian basil. An Italian women evidently taught them how to do all this and I must admit it was good! I had a local wine with it..  a reasonably good Sauvignon Blanc would you believe!

Bed was very welcome.


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