Today we visited the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, Burma’s most important Buddhist pilgrimage site. According to legend the pagoda is more than 2,500 years old dating back to the lifetime of the Buddha.
We had seen the Pagoda many times over the past few days from different points in the city, as it stands a whopping 326 feet tall and is hard to miss. It’s gold plated with the diamond studded spire, which also helps it stand out a bit.
You’ve Got to See This
Seeing the Pagoda up close and personal was a whole different experience. The sheer enormity of the Pagoda was mind-boggling. And besides the featured Pagoda, there’s a 144 acre complex full of golden stupas surrounding it! The pictures just don’t do it justice. I’d highly recommend a trip to Yangon to see it for yourself!
An Active Place of Worship
The pagoda is much more than a tourist attraction, it is the most important religious site in Myanmar. It is a very active place of worship. Scores of monks, pilgrims, and devotees mix among tourists at the monument with their offerings of flowers and incense.
Flowers Everywhere
There must have been half a dozen flower “shops” sprinkled around the complex supplying the beautiful flowers so many worshipers were purchasing as an offering to Buddha.
Celebrity for a Day
We saw some school groups at the Pagoda too. One boy, part of a group all in red numbered jerseys, walked arm in arm with this friends and shouted out a big “Hello” to Steve and I.
When we both said a big “Hello” back, he and his friends were very surprised. They were giggling and whooping it up. I think our greeter made a big hit with his friends that he “communicated” with the foreigners. We were happy to have made that kid a celebrity, if even for a day!
We came to Myanmar to visit a family member of ours who is living here. It’s been nice to visit Yangon with some temporary locals as our hosts.
Travel With Your Own Shade
Everywhere I look around Yangon, women, men, old, and young are hurrying along with umbrellas. Around here you’re either in the intense, unyielding sun or in a downpour. Even the bicycle taxi has an umbrella.
Sarongs Rule
I’d say almost half the people (women and men) around town wear Sarongs. The Sarongs here are like a giant infinity scarf, meaning they are sewn into a closed loop, as opposed to a flat scarf.
Honking Phenomenon
Yes, the Burmese drive by honking (just like in Bangkok), with one notable exception (excuse the pun). Many of the drivers seem to have their own honking tune, unique to them, that they repeat here and there while driving around. Perhaps they are announcing themselves at intersections or to friends out on the street? We’re not sure, but it’s kind of fun.
For one ride we were lucky to have a taxi driver who had his own unique tune. He honked out his tune a couple of times as we drove along. If he had understood English I would have gotten to the bottom of the mystery, you can bet on that.
Burmese Kyat
Our thirteen thousand kyat lunch
The Burmese currency is the kyat, and the current conversion is 1521 kyat to 1 USD, which makes buying anything an exercise in mathematical computation.
Today at lunch Steve told me he had 3,600 kyat left in his wallet (we leave tomorrow). I was a bit concerned, considering the lunch we were in the midst of eating was going to cost around thirteen thousand kyats. Thankfully he had miscalculated and was off by a factor of ten, so we were fine.
The #59 Bus
The #59 local bus we took was ancient and rickety, but got us where we needed to go. It’s a smallish bus and set up to pack ‘em in. There are a few bench seats way in the back. The bulk of the bus is set-up for standing on the shiny metal flooring. The windows are wide open because it’s blazing hot with high humidity.
The Bus Guy
Bus guy wearing plaid, on the far right
There’s a guy on bus #59 who has the job of hanging halfway out the bus door and yelling to everyone in the street. But with all the windows and door wide open, he’s kind of yelling at us too. We assume he is announcing upcoming destinations. He yells with volume and intensity, like an auctioneer. He yells nonstop as we are pulling away from the stop. He yells nonstop as we approach stops. There’s not much time between stops, so there’s lots of yelling.
The #11 Bus
Bus stop, end of the line
The #11 bus heading to the Shwedagon Temple was quite a contrast to the #59 we took the day before. Like night and day different. The #11 was newer, modern, and air-conditioned, with seats throughout (albeit crowded with lots of people standing). It even had two video screens strategically mounted, playing nonstop flashy advertising, complete with catchy jingles.
Nap Hka
Many Burmese people wear a yellowish-whitish cosmetic paste on their face called nap hka. Supposedly it is mostly worn by women and children, but I saw lots of men and teen boys wearing the paste too. Even our taxi driver one afternoon was wearing Nap Hka. Most cultures that have had a similar practice have discontinued it, and only use for the benefit of tourism, but in Myanmar it is still widely seen.
I saw people that had the paste spread over their entire face, whereas others apply a big circle on each cheek. Still others wear angled lines or create patterns like leaves or dots.
I’m a Novelty
The people here seem quite intrigued by us. There are virtually no Caucasian tourists around town (but we did see a few at the Pagoda). Small children stare at me. I smile and wave and they break into a huge grin of delight.
A young teen boy working in a small convenience store looked at me very intently while bagging some groceries. When he saw that I had noticed him looking at me, he too broke into a wide grin.
There was a girl on the bus, probably in her late teens, that openly stared at me for most the bus ride, about 15 minutes, carefully studying everything about me. I met her eyes several times and we both smiled, but she continued to examine me. If only we could have communicated. I would have loved to have been able to talk with her and answer any questions she might have.
The Dogs
Street dogs on my brothers street
We saw at least five large breed street dogs living on my relative’s block. Multiply that by almost every block in Yangon. That’s a lot of dogs.
They wander in and out of the traffic, laze around in the shade, and dig through garbage. With so much chaotic traffic, I honestly don’t know how they don’t get hit by cars, it’s like they’re magic Teflon dogs.
At night they get together and howl and howl. It’s a bit eerie.
Pedestrian Woes
The first afternoon here, I followed my relative as he walked briskly to his apartment from our hotel. He was walking in the street, between the parked cars and masses of heavy, chaotic traffic. I assumed there were no sidewalks, but then I noticed there were.
There are tons of pedestrians walking at all hours and they all walk in the street. It’s very strange. Almost every street has a wide sidewalk, but they are rarely used. I asked my relative why no one uses the sidewalks. He didn’t know why, just that no one does.
Quite often cars coming up behind us are dangerously close. They always honk, even if they are quite a ways back, and we temporarily duck in between the parked cars to let them pass. The sidewalk seems like a much better option, but I don’t want to rock the Burmese boat, so I’m walking in the street with the best of them.
The Sunset
One afternoon Steve and I taxied out to a beautiful park near the Shwedagon Pagoda, just in time for sunset. It was glorious.
