Yangon, Myanmar - Land Of Smiles:)

[ by Stian ]

The famous Schwedagon Pagoda!!!

Myanmar, better known as Burma, a country shut off from the rest of the world for many many years, but which is now welcoming the tourists – and WOW what an experience Myanmar has become. It has by far become my favorite country, and that already after the first night. The obvious reason for this is of course the lack of foreign impact. Everything really really do feel very genuine and real. And people smile. They smile all the time, and it does feel genuine. It's incredible how much difference a simple smile can add to a day. Welcome to the country of the most beautiful people you'll ever meet. Welcome to Yangon, Myanmar:)

Total change of personality

The change from Thailand to Myanmar is immense. Thailand is a pretty much constant horrible experience with pushy and rude salesmen who're trying to rip you for everything you have. Having to constantly argue on the price, which is way over the normal level, is getting very tiring after a while, and when they never take no for a no then it really drags your mood down. As a person you end up ignoring the people, avoiding their eyes and if they approach you in the shop, you run. Thailand turns you into a rude and ignorant person against your will. The ironic part is that the slogan of Thailand is «the land of smiles» though I cannot say that most of the smiles we saw in Thailand were of the genuine ones. There's always a catch. So coming to Myanmar has been such a wonderful experience, cause the people here are everything, literally EVERYTHING Thai people are not.

YANGON

Yangon is the largest city in Myanmar and was until 2005 the capital of Myanmar, until the military junta decided to relocate the capital to the newly and secretly constructed city of Naypyidaw. All government offices and ministeries were relocated from Yangon to Naypyidaw, but since health-- and education infrastructure is not in place yet, most governmental representatives still have their families located in Yangon. Yangon has about .......... inhabitants.

Arriving Yangon

We arrived Yangon international airport just after 5pm Tuesday evening. Everything went smoothly at the airport. We had been advised to change money at the airport since that's were we would get the best rate. I withdrew about $US 1000 and chose to exchange about 700 of these into the local currency, which is kyats. I ended up with 609 000 kyats. It turned out that the biggest nomination in kyats is the 5000 kyats bill so I ended up with a 2 cm thick pile of money, literally one hundred 5000-bills, and one hundred and nine 1000-bills. Having this much money between my hands made me scared to death and I did not know at all were to hide it. I was desperately trying to cover up the pile so that no one would see how much money I was carrying, but it was too late – cause when we left for the taxi we did understand that some of the drives were talking about the amount of dollars we were carrying. Thankfully we had been able to arrange a taxi through a very nice lady at the airport with preagreed price so we would not have to argue on the price at all.

Nicest taxi driver ever part 1

The taxi driver turned out to be a very nice driver and spoke very well English as well. He told us a lot about Yangon and what we could see while we were there. He gave us his card as well and if there was anything we needed we should give him a call. He found the hotel easily. The ride took about 30 minutes, and it all cost only 7000 kyats, divided between the 4 of us that would be about 10 Norwegian kroners each. VERY cheap for such a long ride:)

Clover Hotel City Central

We had booked rooms at the Clover Hotel City Central, a new and «modern» budget style hotel, and upon arrival we were met by at least seven amazingly helpful and friendly staff members. The first evening there were only young guys working as well, cute guys, so this was a very nice surprise, haha;) Of course this was just a coincidence 'cause the very next day there were women working behind the reception as well. The hotel is classified as a budget hotel, but since we had expected way worse, it was very nice. We only paid 99 dollars each for 2 nights stay – which is way more than what we have spent at hostels earlier, but dorm rooms are very hard to find in Yangon so we just had to go for the more expensive (but still overall cheap) option;) At least we had breakfast and WiFi included – and with such a positive and helpful staff it was definitely worth the cost. Since we have no idea how culture works in this country we of course gave tip to the piccolos – and they seemed very happy for what they got, so I guess we gave them a decent amount of money compared to what they are used to.

Exploring Yangon City Center @Night

Kenneth was so tired when we arrived so he chose to go to bed early. I, Sissel and Marion decided we wanted to check out some of the area the hotel was located in. The hotel was located just in the center of the city, where most of the most crowded and traffic streets are – and at first it seemed like a very unsafe area, which it probably would have been if this had been a city in any other country. Yangon is known for being one of the safest cities in Asia, so we tried not to worry, especially since we were all carrying our advanced DSLR cameras as well – haha;) The nightmare of any tourist is to get their passports stolen, and next the cameras stolen ;)

Sule Pagoda

We found our way to the Sule Pagoda, which is a holy place located just in the center of a Yangon. It makes up a massive roundabout. This pagoda is said to have been built even before the Schwedagon Pagoda, which is more than 2 600 years ago. According to Burmese legend the site where the Sule pagoda now stands was once the home of a powerful nat (spirit) named Sularata (the Sule Nat). Inside the area of the pagoda there are plenty of Buddha statues located and many locals spend time of their days here praying. As foreigners we had to pay an entrance fee of 2000 kyats, and we were allowed to take photos so we were happy. Sissel and Marion was though immediately put off by some women just outside that wanted to «sell» us sparrows which we could release inside the pagoda. The girls didn't get the purpose of this at first and believed that the women was about to squeeze the sparrows to death in front of us when they took them out of the basket, so they jumped aside and shouted «no no no, don't do that». The impression the sparrow-women got was pretty much a mixture of shock and astonishment. In a way it was pretty much funny – haha, especially after I told them afterwards what the original plan for the sparrows was. After having walked around inside the Pagoda and gotten our photos we ran into the women again and this time they just forced a sparrow on Marion and even this happen so fast that Marion didn't get that the woman said it cost 1000 kyats (about 6,6 NOK) to «buy and release» the birds, so Marion wasn't very happy when she had to pay for releasing an animal in capture forced upon here, realizing that the bird was flying straight back into the pagoda and that it would probably be caught right away again afterwards. I found it a bit funny though, but Marion's mood was a bit off for the next half an hour – haha;)

Hail The FujiTaki team:)

We walked through the dirty streets this late evening wanting to eat something, but could not find anything that looked decent enough. The streets are full of street food stands, but compared to Thailand they seemed way more unhygienic, and we did get to know later that the pollution-level is high in the city center so the food might be affected by that, as well as that all dishes are cleaned without soap and clean water, in buckets alongside the street. I guess the locals can handle the bacterias that exist here pretty well, but I doubt we would have, so it was very smart of us not to eat at the streetfood-stands. We did find a very cute street-cafê that was sidewalk «furnished» with tiny pink plastic tables and chairs – originally designed for children, so cute. They did not serve food though, so when we asked about food they directed us in another direction. On our way to the suggested place we passed another street-restaurant called FujiTaki and the staff there immediately approached us with a menu and an available table. Since we were hungry and they had a menu with English writing we were sold, so we decided to stop here. This would turn out to be an amazingly wise decision, because we ended up having a blast of an evening.

Great food and great beer make a great evening for sure. I had Myanmar Style Chicken Curry which tasted amazing, though it was a bit too spicy. The girls ordered French fries and chicken sausage, but the sausage was graded and deep fried and tasted funnily sweetish. All in all we were not very impressed with the sausages, so we did not touch them. We also got to taste the local beer which is called Myanmar, and we loved it. This pale beer tasted great. The waiter we had was probably one of the cutest guys ever as well, and the owner of the restaurant was just amazingly cute and wonderful as well. The waiter, named Sham Thay, was so attentive and took very well care of us. He was at our table asking us if all was OK and to pour beer into our glasses when almost empty at all times. The owner, which was a girl named Thin Thin May, was also very attentive and we felt very welcome and well taken care of all over.

I have not been drinking a lot on this trip so far so I got tipsy almost right away. The same happen with Sissel and Marion, so we blame the heat as well for this reaction. As we got more tipsy we as well became louder of course. We had so much fun in each others company and also when trying to communicate with Sham Thay, who almost did not speak any English at all, even though he tried sooooooooo hard, poor guy. We were really impressed how well he managed to handle us, because we bet everyone was staring at us strangely, thinking who the hell we were. At one point we did realize that we probably acted like the rude charter-Norwegians, the kind we all hate. At least we managed to keep the conversation on a very very positive and friendly level with all of the staff, so we had much fun. Marion really fell in love with Sham Thay so when it was about to pay she begged on her knees to be allowed to give him 20 000 kyats as tip for being the best waiter ever, and how could we possibly argue on that, so we gave her our blessing. Of course we left some regular tip for the «rest» as well:) By the time we were about to leave we exchanged hugs with both Sham Thay and Thin Thin May and we promised to return the next day, because we had had such a wonderful experience this night.

Impressive first impressions:)

The first impression of Myanmar this first evening was great. The taxi driver was really nice, the hotel was really good and the staff was amazing. Even though the streets looked a bit scary at first, we quickly adapted and suddenly we felt safe. People did of course stare a lot at us, since we really do stick out, but we didn't feel unsafe at any time. We were probably the only white people outside at this time of the day as well haha. The Pagoda was amazingly beautiful as well – and the food I had at the street restaurant tasted fantastic, and the staff there was sooooooo cute and so friendly. So no doubt this was the best first impression ever (though I think Marion could have been without the sparrow-incident though, haha).

Exploring Scott's Market

The next day we all got up at decent time for going to the Scott Market, which is a famous market in the city center, located only a 10 minutes walk from hour hotel. Though first we asked the reception at our hotel were to book bus-tickets for Bagan the next day. We were then told that they could take care of that for us so that we did not have to worry at all, and after a few minutes we had booked and paid our tickets, and the best thing of all – they cost only 15 000 kyats, that is 100 NOK one way:) We had expected way more expensive tickets so this was a very nice surprise:)

We then left for Scott's Market which is a large market that consists of all kinds of small shop selling souvenirs, clothes, food, art, other traditional decorations and so on and so on.

LONGYI LOVE: When in Rome, do as the Romans» I have been told, and in Myanmar modern fashion has not found it's way yet, and all males seem to be wearing traditional skirts, called longyis. So the first thing on my list to buy was of course a pair of longyi, and in just a short time both I and Kenneth had found each our longyi. I do want to emphasize that I did not buy it just have the excuse to wear a skirt, haha – but because we were told it is very comfortable. The taxi driver from the day before was wearing one of these as well and he's the one who told us about it's comfort, and we believed him of course. And yes, I can assure you that he was very much right! I do LOVE my longyi now, its amazing (as long as I don't trip in it, haha).

LACQUERWARE: Sissel and Marion found a lot of traditional lacquerware, plates and bowls made of bamboo wood and lacque, which they just had to have of course. It was even pretty cheap, but it would turn out later that they probably purchased the «fake» type, the copy of the original lacquerware. Afterwards we found a place to eat inside the market complex. The food was very cheap here, though the eating area was very basic, like a food court, but the lovely ladies working here were standing right next to us waving with hand fans to cool us down, even though we did have a real fan right next to us. Talk about service. AMAZING!

BURMESE ART: Later we passed an art-gallery which I of course was immediately attracted to – and WOW – this gallery was filled with amazing art and I could feel my whole body aching in the longing for art. I really really wanted to purchase something here, but it was impossible to decide what I wanted to have. All paintings were of local artists from the Yangon area so it was just the perfect thing to have as memories from Myanmar. One of the artist, called Min Min, a young handsome lad, was actually working in the gallery himself and his paintings were among the ones that immediately caught my attention. Well, I had to think about it cause the price-range was between 220-1000 US$ for the paintings... which is way cheaper than the paintings I fell in love with while in Australia, but still a pretty big amount of money anyways, and my initial plan WAS to save in money while in Asia – though that seems to be a lost case already... haha;)

SHWE LA ANTIQUE SHOP: The last place we ended up at the market was an antique shop that sold wood-carving and Buddha-statues that were between 200 and 400 years old. I was the one attracted to this shop as well because of a painting on the wall of Buddhist monk-children, which was wonderful. Sissel, Kenneth and Marion though immediately fell in love with two 6-week old puppies located inside the shop, while I was really admiring the antiques. I have to say that a lot of what the store had to offer was amazing and beautiful. If only I had been filthy rich. Everything in this store cost more than 1000 US dollars so I really could not afford anything here, it would have been to difficult to bring home anyways. Marion though really fell in love with a 400 year old Buddha statue, made of some kind of rock, standing at least a meter tall. The cost of it was 2500 US Dollars, which is a lot of money but still really cheap for something that is 400 years old. Marion considered it for a long time but decided she had to think about it. She even got to speak with the store owner on the phone and he said that he would pay for the shipping if she decided to purchase the statue. All together, including the import taxes, the cost of it would have ended up around 20 000 NOKs though, which is NOT expensive for something that old and beautiful:)

The Karaweik

Next on our agenda for the day was to go to the Karaweik, or Karaweik Hall which it's also called. This palace is built on the shore of Kandawgyi Lake in Yangon. The Palace is very much reminiscent of a boat rather than a building, though more like a floating palace than a regular boat of course;) It was completed in 1974 after two and a half year of construction and it houses a concept restaurant which offers a full course buffet of traditional Asian and Myanmar-food alongside with entertainment. The word karaweik comes from Pali karavika, which is a mythical bird with a melodious cry.

The plan was to catch the sunset from this area, as we were told that the famous Schwedagon Padoga, which is the huge famous one, would look stunning from this are during sunset. We were amazed by the sight of the Karaweik. There really are no words able to describe how beautiful this fantastic piece of artwork is. We got our photos taken, and then headed for the nice viewing spot for the sunset. We did though have almost an hour to kill before sunset so we decided to enjoy ourselves with a bottle of Myanmar beer meanwhile. The sunset passed and we got out photos, so we were happy, though we kind of had expected it to be even better – haha. I guess we are spoiled on beautiful sunsets by now;)

Next we headed back to the Karaweik to explore it as well from the inside. At the entrance we were told about the buffet and the entertainment show which we could purchase for 20 000 kyats, which is abut 150 NOK, and of course we wanted to experience this. On our way into the Karaweik we were greeted by Myanmar women dressed in traditional costumes, and also by the entrance there were two really cute «soldier»-dressed guys – so we had to have our photos with all of them. Just inside the entrance the girls got the chance to wear traditional facial cream, which all women seem to wear here in Myanmar. We also got the chance to have our Myanmar name figured out. Based on our date of birth and what day we were born on we could have a Myanmar name, and my name turned out to be Aung Aung since I am born on a Sunday. We got a table right in the very front of the hall – and there were only two other taken dining tables in the huge hall we were located inside. It turned out that there was another hall as well which was full of customers – and both halls got to see the same show during the course. The show was very nice and the buffet was very very impressive. There were so much GREAT food that I ended up overeating again, like I always do.

Nicest taxi driver ever part 2

On our way back to the hotel we found ourselves a taxi right outside the Karaweik with the nicest taxi driver ever. The taxi driver was very very very nice and friendly and worked as a guide for us on the way back to the hotel. He even stopped the taxi 2 times so that we could get photos. The first time so that we could get a photo of the Karaweik from a distance, and the second time photos of the Schwegoda Pagoda, which unfortunately already had closed for the evening. Our plan was initially to go there next but now we had to postpone this to the next day. The taxi driver was such a cool guy so of course he was paid more than what he asked for in the end.

Meeting up with Kjetil and fullfilling a promise ;)

Back at the hotel we met up with Kjetil, Marion's friend from back home, which had just arrived to Yangon this evening. He is going to travel together with us for at least 2-3 weeks so it will be very exciting getting to know him better as well.

Since it was late and Yangon is known for closing everything at 9 pm we went back to the same restaurant as the previous evening for beers. We had given our promise to return and promises are not to be broken remember. Thin Thin Wah, the owner, immediately recognized us and gave us a warm welcome. Though there were no available tables at the moment so she forced this one guy sitting by himself to find a seat at the table next to his. At first we were a bit surprised about this, but it turned out that it was all OK for the guy and we even got into chatting with him as well during the evening. Sham Thay had though been relocated to serve inside the restaurant today, but when he got to know that we had arrived he was quickly outside to say hello. We ended up having beers only, while Kjetil got to try the Myanmar Style Chicken Curry which I had the previous night;) Once again it was a very good evening – and all the staff was so friendly. We do suspect that they all had gotten to know about our generosity the previous evening so everyone wanted to be a part of the group now, haha. We even got to take a lot of photos with all the waiters as well, which was fun. I don't know of any of them are gay – cause it is really hard to know if they are smiling because they are flirting or are just being friendly. In Norway many at least would perceive this kind of smiling as a hint of flirting, but then again – how many people genuinely smile for real in Norway? Not many. It's mostly fake smiles around unfortunately. We realized that we probably exaggerated the tipping the evening before so we didn't give as much this night, but probably more than what they usually get anyways so it was all good;) I got Thin Thin Wah's e-mail address so that we can send her the photos when we get a decent WiFi connection again;) haha.

Last day in Yangon

The last day in Yangon we had two things to do. We had to decide on whether to purchase our collectibles or not; Me about which two paintings I wanted the most. I had already decided that I wanted two in the same series if I were to purchase any at all. Kenneth also had a painting do decide on, while Marion had to make a decision whether she wanted the antique Buddha or not. We would also be heading for the famous Schwedagon Pagoda, before catching the bus to Bagan.

The Beginning of A Big Art Collection:)

I AM NOW OFFICIALLY AN ART COLLECTOR!!! I chose to purchase TWO original and very colorful paintings by the local artist named Tun Tun. Both paintings are in the same series reflecting the rich vs the poor, which is very symbolic for Myanmar today. You could say that they are almost cartoonish, in a style similar to The Katzenjammer Kids (Knoll & Tott in Norwegian). Since Tun Tun is not that famous yet each painting cost only 220 US dollars. Since I chose to buy two pieces of art they gave me a 20% discount. So I ended up paying just about 1000 NOK for each painting, which really is nothing for something that great:-) I am so happy at the moment:) While I was waiting for the rest at the gallery I had a very nice chat with the staff about the future of Myanmar, and they were also sharing the same worry as myself about the friendly culture and atmosphere in Yangon to change when the hordes of tourists will be coming to Myanmar. I am not religious of nature, but in this case I will pray to higher powers in hope for Myanmar to stay wonderful and not turning into a new Thailand.

Kenneth though decided not to go for the painting he wanted cause it was made by an famous artist from Myanmar and therefore cost 1000 US dollars, which is a bit too much, but he did purchase another painting by the same artist as my paintings, Tun Tun – though this was a different, more abstract series of his. Even Sissel and Marion ended up purchasing art at the gallery, even though they originally did not plan to – so they did good business because of us this day;) haha. Marion decided not to purchase the Buddha at this moment, but she got the contact information to the antique-shop so that she could get in touch later if she changes her mind.

Schwedogan Pagoda

Schwedogan Pagoda is the most famous construction and the most famous tourist attraction in Myanmar. Myanmar's pride of gold is world known even by those that don't know at all what it is – but everyone has seen the photo of it at one point or another. It is also known in English as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda. It is 99 meters tall and is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda for the Burmese with relics of the past four Buddhas enshrined within: the staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Koṇāgamana, a piece of the robe of Kassapa and eight strands of hair from Gautama, the historical Buddha. According to legend it's supposed to be more than 2 600 old as well, though archeologies and historians suggest that it could have been built sometime between the 6^th and 10^th century. The pagoda is covered in gold leafs and the very top crown is made completely of gold and is covered with more than 2000 diamonds, the biggest of which is of 76 carat.

So after finishing up at the market we then headed back to the hotel and got a taxi from there to the amazing Schwedogan Pagoda. And WOW what an amazing structure. We were pretty much speechless to start with. Since it's a holy place we had to remove our shoes and socks of course before entering the temple, which did give us a challenge since it was burning hot outside today and the sun had been heating up the ceramic and marble tiles to an unbearable temperature at times, but we did manage to get around in the end. The whole complex is filled with many statues of the Buddha's, glas murals, gold decorations and even golden plates on the floor. There are so many impressive impressions here to take in, and its definitely one of the most amazing constructions in the world.

Loving My Longyis:)

First time I got my longyis on was just before we left for the Karaweik the second day – and wow since then I have gotten a lot of attention by the locals. The locals smile widely when I pass them and some even laugh. At first I thought that I had put it on completely wrong, which I also had – but I was told that it was more that they probably found it very fun to see a foreigner wearing traditional clothes rather than his own clothes. Many people made a comment on that I looked very good in my longyis and one old guy even hit my butt when he passed me at the same time as he complimented my choice of longyis. At the Schwedagon Pagoda I had to hurry up at one point and I had to do a slow run (running in longyis are not the easiest to say). When I passed a group of about 20 women and children they all burst into laughter. So wearing my longyis have been a very interesting experience, but I do love them :) During the break of the bus ride to Bagan later, a guy even stopped in front of me and made a dress-on-gesture (they way they tie the knot) saying "very cool" and giving me two thumbs up. What I noticed later is that I do tie the knot very differently from the others. The males have their way of putting the longyis on, and the women have their way – and I have my own way – so maybe that's why they all laugh at me as well, haha;) After realizing this and showing both ways, the regular male way and then my way, to Sissel and Marion, we all agreed that my way actually looked the best. I just LOVED it – and for the whole time we spent in Myanmar I did not take my longyis off:) Longyis are very comfortable – especially since one is not supposed to wear anything else but underwear under it:)

Busing to Bagan

We then had to find our way to the bus station, which is located far outside of the city. We got a taxi ride lasting for one hour for only 8000 kyats, which is about the same as a starting price on taxi-meters in Norway. The bus station is probably one of the most unorganized and simply the most basic I have ever experienced though. It was really shabby, but we were not complaining at all – we were actually loving it, because this was exactly what we had expected before arriving to Myanmar, At this moment we were really experiencing the REAL Asia. Life IS great:) Though the bus ride to Bagan was a long one, 10 hours, and it was not a fancy recliner bus with spacious seats – so the hours were long – haha;)

Yangon was an amazing experience! It's a shabby city, but the few things to see and to do REALLY are great! Most important part and also the best part is the people of Yangon whom are among the friendliest and most genuine people I have ever met. It's incredible how much a simple thing like a genuine smile can do in your every day life. If there is any country in the world deserving of a slogan like «The land of smiles» then it is by far Myanmar.

Sule Pagoda

Impressions of Yangon By Night

At FujiTaki "Restaurant"

Enjoying our MYANMAR Beer, its GOOD:)

Chicken Curry Myanmar Style, AWESOME!!! <3

Thin Thin May and Sissel:)

Me, Sham Thay and Marion:-)

DOWNTOWN Yangon

I was allowed to take a photo with her, but WOW shewasn't interested at

all to make an effort of smiling;) haha

At Scott's Market

The Burmese Art!!!!! LOVE!!!!

The one above and the one below are the pieces of art i purchased!

All of the above is by the same artist as the paintings I got:)

These 2 were also two options I was considering. The painter of these
worked in the gallery and I got to talk to him as well:)

Colorful and very nice:)

This was another that I was considering... very nice:)

Really nice one, but the most expensive one as well,
by a famous Burmese artist.

At the antique shop the girls fell in love with the youngest inventory of all, only 6 weeks old:)

The really expensive antique Buddha!

Seriously, they were smiling and laughing and agreed to take the photo. But Burmese people just DO NOT smile in photos. Afterwards they laughed and smiled and were amazing...strange people;)