Burma Part III: Rangoon
Myanma Port Authority Building undergoing restoration work
We finally flew back to Rangoon for the last two days of our trip. Despite the very intense heat and sun we managed to wander around the city and enjoy the temples, parks, old colonial architecture, buzzing markets, and the Indian and Chinese quarters.
Rangoon apparently has the largest number of colonial buildings in Southeast Asia, but many are in a distinctly dilapidated condition. Conservationists are hopeful that restoration, rather than demolition, will occur as Rangoon modernizes in the coming years. An interesting article about this and the Burmese perspective on the buildings in the Telegraph here.
Shwedagon Paya, whose golden stupa rises above the city, was one of the most remarkable religious sites that I’ve been to, as it is such a hive of activity for the Burmese. We walked around twice, primarily people watching and staring up at the gold covered stupa, which at the very top is covered in thousands of precious stones including a 76 carat diamond. We could have easily spent more time exploring the complex, but we needed to head on walking downhill into the city centre. We pottered through Bogyoke Aung San Market (formerly Scott’s Market) filled with sandalwood carvings, silver, and lacquer and then on into the old British grid system. Blue seems to be a highly favored colour here as opposed to the mustard yellow so prevalent on colonial buildings in Hanoi.
After some delicious Shan noodles to keep us going, bypassing the offal satay, we headed back north past the railway station and up to the zoo. The zoo has a rather interesting, interactive approach to feeding the animals where one can buy food from the keepers and then feed the animals (from a distance) – sugar cane for the elephants, fish for the otters, bananas for the deer – it certainly seemed a better system than in Cairo where children fed bears ice cream and vendors sold poking sticks to stir the less obliging animals from their slumber. We then walked through the beautiful Kandawgyi Park, whose lake can be appreciated by walking along beautiful teak boardwalks, on our way back up to the Savoy Hotel for a well earned ice cold Myanmar beer. Sixteen kilometers in a sunny 36 degrees is quite a lot!
Shwedagon Paya
Betel nut leaves
The Golden Swedagon Pagoda
For more photos of Rangoon please click below:
You’re so lucky to be in Burma. It has been closed for so long. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us and just beautiful photos. I especially like the nut leaves in the basket. Very unusual.
I am perpetually humbled by what I see in the blogging world. I thought I lived an interesting life, I thought I was a good photographer, I thought I was an accomplished human being. I thought all these things until I started seeing blogs like yours, photos like yours, and realizing that people all over the world are making amazing things happen. Kudos to you on the marvelous photos of Burma they are amazing. That said, I must confess that besides enjoying your blog I do have ulterior motives for contacting you. I need your help – more specifically I need the help of expats around the world and I’m contacting them/you all one at a time.
Here’s the deal … I’ve traveled around the world and been an expat in various cities (Beijing, Hong Kong, Oaxaca, Quito) and I’ve always missed specific things from home (Tollhouse cookies, Hanes undershirts that actually fit me, Guess jeans). Sure I got a care package now and again but I always felt sheepish asking people to send stuff. This was the genesis of my small community start up Wanderinggenie. We are trying to bring some of the comforts of home to expats abroad. We can’t bring friends, family, or roads without potholes but we can bring creature comforts that make your experience more comfortable.
If there is something you want (be it hard to find, too expensive where you are, or you’re just tired of substituting) please let us know and we’ll see if we can help. We also need your advice insofar as what an expat needs, wants, and what services we can offer (if it’s something we can’t offer we may be able to refer you to someone who can).
PLEASE provide us your feedback regarding in what ways we can make your time abroad better by emailing us at wanderinggenie@hotmail.com or commenting on our blog at wanderinggenie.wordpress.com.
Thanks for your time, it’s greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Arthur
Thank you so much for all these great photos! This is the city I grew up and your photos show such a beautiful and interesting Rangoon. I’m so proud of my city. I’m so glad to know that you both had a great time in Burma.
This makes me really, really want to go to Burma! Great photos.