Mysterious Myanmar: Yangon, Inle Lake, Bagan and Mandalay
Apr 4, 2015, 4:26 am
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
KAL Lounge Review – Tokyo Nartia-NRT Terminal 1
Korean Airlines Business Class Lounge
Tokyo Narita International Airport
Terminal 1, Gate 26
7:45am – 8:50pm
For our 1 night layover in Japan following our flight from Chicago to Tokyo on ANA, we stayed at the Radisson Narita that I booked using Orbucks that I earned from booking other flights and hotels over the past few months. The hotel was fine, but the shuttle service ran every 60-70 mins. For us, this meant we’d need to err on the side of caution and take the earlier shuttle the morning of our flight to Yangon, which resulted in a decent chunk of time at Narita.
I checked my Priority Pass app to see which of the Tokyo lounges participate and found that, of the 6 lounges available in the program, 4 were land-side and the 5th was a United Club and thus ineligible, leaving the KAL Business Class Lounge the only viable option.
This lounge appears to serve all SkyTeam airlines for Terminal 1 and Priority Pass and Airport Angel so that us non-alliance elites and non-premium cabin travelers can get in.
Fortunately, entering with a guest (usually a $25 charge) was free at this particular lounge.
KAL Lounge Tokyo-Nartia
Plenty of seating
KAL Lounge Tokyo-Nartia
The best part of the lounge was probably the location with a great view of a main runway and plenty of seats right up at the window:
Vietnam Airlines taxiing to runway
ANA taking off
Garuda Indonesia pushing from the gate
The food options when we arrived–a little too late for breakfast and a little too early for lunch–left a bit to be desired, so don’t count on full meal when stopping by.
Food choices: a little sparse, maybe a virtue of the time of day?
There were a few ramen noodle choices, a sticky rice ball with sauce in the middle, a sticky rice triangle wrapped in seaweed paper and a few choices like croissants and crackers.
Sticky rice balls! Not necessarily my idea of a hearty snack but it’ll have to do….
As far as alcohol, Kirin Ichiban and another beer were on draft in addition to wine and liquor. They, of course, had a soda fountain with Coke, Coke Zero, green tea etc… and canned fruit juices.
The best part was the espresso machine, which turned out a perfect cappuccino.
BOTTOM LINE: Stop by if it’s free for you (i.e. Priority Pass holders or SkyTeam premium passengers) but don’t count on much in the way of food; you’ll want to grab something heartier elsewhere.
-----------------------------------
Full post with proper formatting and photo gallery can be found here: Weekend Blitz - KAL Lounge Review – Tokyo Nartia-NRT Terminal 1
Korean Airlines Business Class Lounge
Tokyo Narita International Airport
Terminal 1, Gate 26
7:45am – 8:50pm
For our 1 night layover in Japan following our flight from Chicago to Tokyo on ANA, we stayed at the Radisson Narita that I booked using Orbucks that I earned from booking other flights and hotels over the past few months. The hotel was fine, but the shuttle service ran every 60-70 mins. For us, this meant we’d need to err on the side of caution and take the earlier shuttle the morning of our flight to Yangon, which resulted in a decent chunk of time at Narita.
I checked my Priority Pass app to see which of the Tokyo lounges participate and found that, of the 6 lounges available in the program, 4 were land-side and the 5th was a United Club and thus ineligible, leaving the KAL Business Class Lounge the only viable option.
This lounge appears to serve all SkyTeam airlines for Terminal 1 and Priority Pass and Airport Angel so that us non-alliance elites and non-premium cabin travelers can get in.
Fortunately, entering with a guest (usually a $25 charge) was free at this particular lounge.
KAL Lounge Tokyo-Nartia
Plenty of seating
KAL Lounge Tokyo-Nartia
The best part of the lounge was probably the location with a great view of a main runway and plenty of seats right up at the window:
Vietnam Airlines taxiing to runway
ANA taking off
Garuda Indonesia pushing from the gate
The food options when we arrived–a little too late for breakfast and a little too early for lunch–left a bit to be desired, so don’t count on full meal when stopping by.
Food choices: a little sparse, maybe a virtue of the time of day?
There were a few ramen noodle choices, a sticky rice ball with sauce in the middle, a sticky rice triangle wrapped in seaweed paper and a few choices like croissants and crackers.
Sticky rice balls! Not necessarily my idea of a hearty snack but it’ll have to do….
As far as alcohol, Kirin Ichiban and another beer were on draft in addition to wine and liquor. They, of course, had a soda fountain with Coke, Coke Zero, green tea etc… and canned fruit juices.
The best part was the espresso machine, which turned out a perfect cappuccino.
BOTTOM LINE: Stop by if it’s free for you (i.e. Priority Pass holders or SkyTeam premium passengers) but don’t count on much in the way of food; you’ll want to grab something heartier elsewhere.
-----------------------------------
Full post with proper formatting and photo gallery can be found here: Weekend Blitz - KAL Lounge Review – Tokyo Nartia-NRT Terminal 1
Apr 6, 2015, 11:12 am
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
Let's Go: Yangon, Myanmar
Yangon is a city in the throes of growing, busting at the seams with young locals eager to learn more about the world outside its borders and more tourists than ever before.
City streets are filled with street eats, smiling faces and bright colors.
Myanmar welcomes about 1 million tourists each year and, compared to its neighbor Thailand’s many millions of annual visitors, that’s a drop in the bucket – but, only a hand full of Burmese cities and towns are set up for tourists and Western hotel chains have barely scratched the surface of the country (we think that’s a good thing). So, while Thailand’s many visitors are spread out among hundreds of secluded resorts, Myanmar’s eager travelers are swarming Mandalay’s U Bein Bridge – all together – while it bends at the weight of its newfound fame. Construction is ubiquitous everywhere in Yangon, though, so more hotels and tourist infrastructure are fast approaching. It’s been said many times before, but Myanmar is changing rapidly, and we tourists are tripping over ourselves to be the first to see its evolution.
Karaweik Hall is a palace barge built in the 1970’s which now houses a dinner theater.
Because Yangon is the country’s largest city, it is the most natural springboard for entering the country and one of the only cities capable of landing international flights. While most people land in Yangon one afternoon and are gone by the next morning, we spent four nights there (4.5 full days) and were able to see the main attractions as well as get to know city life in a little more detail than most.
This street cart specializes in making betel quids — small parcels that typically contain areca nuts wrapped in a betel leaf and coated with lime.
Burmese puppets line street markets and are intricately designed and decorated.
Our visit to Htwe Oo Myanmar, a puppet show housed in the house of a Burmese family, ended in my learning how to be a puppeteer, too!
Myanmar’s largest city is a good bit different than most other large Asian cities because the Western tourists are few and far between (they’ve all taken off for Inle Lake and Bagan ASAP) and Western culture has not taken its toll on the city’s locals just yet. Although we did see a few T-shirts and jeans, the vast majority of Burmese (men, women + children) are still wearing traditional thanaka on their faces and sporting longyis.The thanaka ubiquitously worn on women and children’s cheeks and foreheads is a yellow-white paste made from tree bark mixed with water. This paste is then rubbed into a circle or square on each cheek – or just hurriedly whisked on in no pattern at all – and both protects the wearer from the hot sun as a sort of natural sunscreen and is seen as a sign of beauty. Longyis — maxi skirts to us Americans — are traditional Burmese clothing that keep you cool (and conservative) and, thankfully, Western trends haven’t taken over just yet, so almost everyone you see is donning a longyi. It’s a bit perplexing for a Westerner (given the 103 degree highs on most days) to see everyone wearing long, heavy-looking “skirts”, but the Burmese are much more conservative and men, women and children all wear longyis or pants to their ankles. And, it turns out they are surprisingly cool with great air flow, so no wonder they continue to wear these beautiful garments instead of a much blander & duller jeans option.
Speaking of longyis, having grown tired of my own maxi skirts, I thought I’d wear a longyi one day to mix it up a bit (and I’d read that the Burmese appreciated travelers wearing longyis). Jeffrey had purchased a longyi when we visited the Shwedagon Pagoda, so I thought I’d just wear his instead of buying another one. I asked the front desk staff at our hotel to help me tie it (I’d noticed that men tie their longyis in a big knot in the front and women seem to drape theirs more elegantly). We barely made it a block down the street before just about everyone was laughing as I walked by. Finally, an older woman grabbed my arm and, in her best English, half-scolds, half-mocks me, telling me that my longyi was for men, not for woman. Yikes. Apparently, I had failed to notice that men’s longyis were all plaid patterns of more masculine colors, while women’s longyis were predominantly floral patterned and always brightly colored. I was committing a humongous faux pas and didn’t even realized it until the muted giggles couldn’t go unnoticed any longer. We dashed into the next shopping center and I was embarrassingly looking around for the stash of longyis. Before I could find them, the store employees (giggling, of course), called me over to tell me I was wearing a man’s longyi, not a woman’s. Double yikes. Finally, I purchased a women’s longyi in a beautiful royal blue color and had help tying it on. However, after it inevitably loosened by lunchtime, the women at our restaurant giggled that I had it tied incorrectly. I just couldn’t win with the longyis so, for the rest of our trip, only wore my longyi when visiting the pagodas.
Good thing Jeffrey snapped a quick picture…
The people, especially the little ones, are overwhelmingly friendly – they shout “hello!” as soon as they see you coming and flash the brightest, most genuine smiles of any city I’ve ever visited.
They are unabashedly so pleased to see you, making you feel very welcome. They’re so eager to see you that many of them stop and ask to take photos with you – or some others just whip out their cell phones to catch you on video as you pass by.
Although Jeffrey and I usually rent a car no matter which country we’re visiting, I’ve never been so thankful to depend solely on walking and public transportation than in Yangon. In plenty of places, we’ve been astounded by the crazy drivers and the gridlocked traffic, but Yangon takes the cake.
The city seems to be growing faster than the roads can keep up and, coupled with the change from driving on the left (US style) to driving on the left (British style) in the early 2000s (with road infrastructure staying the same…), every time I got into a taxi I thought it may be my last few minutes on Earth. In fact, we were even in a wreck with a taxi driver!! Since we’ve been here, we’ve also seen a motorbike wreck and a very, very close call between a motorbike and a pickup truck. There are hardly any traffic lights and no stop signs, so 4-way intersections are just an anything-goes game of chicken.
Take a look at the guide below for where to eat, drink and sleep while in Yangon, then be on the lookout for more detailed posts about Yangon’s most popular attractions: the stunning Shwedagon Pagoda and the Circle Train.
Eat
It seems that, at every turn you take, there’s another street food vendor cooking up a hot meal along the city streets of Yangon. I know some travelers are wary of street food, but we’ve found it to be the best introduction to a city and its people. We’ve tried street food in every city we’ve visited and almost always preferred the street food to the fancy #1-rated restaurant on Trip Advisor – and, the best part, never once gotten sick from something we’ve tried (knock on LOTS of wood).
BBQ is king on the streets of Yangon and each street peddler has a cart filled with all sorts of meats and vegetables on a stick. Once you pick out your choice, they’ll grill it up for you right on the spot so its phenomenal smoky flavor is just as fresh as can be.
A BBQ cart on 19th Street – you pick your skewers!
Our favorite street food, though, was found on 19th Street and was surprisingly a vegetarian dish, but filled with more flavor than even the smoky meat could offer. A woman was cooking up a dish of corn kernels, kidney beans and some mysterious spicy green topping that tasted a bit like an olive tapenade with a kick. Whatever it was, it added a glorious spice to an otherwise bland dish and we went back to her cart again and again for quick snacks each day.
Our favorite street food cart in Yangon
While Yangon offers many restaurants and eateries in every corner of its city, we recommend getting your fill of street food while you’re here. And, for the price of about 500 k – 1,500 k (less than $1.50!), you can fill up on local flavor.
If you’re just not so into street food, no problem. 999 Shan Noodle House comes highly recommended so we had to give it a shot. Their noodles were the best we’ve tasted in Myanmar and, while it’s very popular with tourists, the prices are shockingly low.
Lunch at 999 Shan Noodle House
Drink
19th Street, again, is the best place to grab a Myanmar Beer and people watch. Every tourist in the city makes it here, but so do the locals so it’s not a tourist trap but rather a place to see busy city life after sunset.
The street markets set up selling everything under the sun from umbrellas (although we didn’t see a single drop of rain in the dry season) to fish heads to flip flops of all colors. If you’re lucky, a man with a guitar will come past your table to serenade you, but he won’t be as pushy as the table musicians you’ve met in the past.
Sleep
We really loved our hotel: Hotel Grand United 21st Downtown.
It’s definitely not the nicest hotel in the city, but it was just what we needed to get a full night’s rest before heading out on foot for another day of exploring. The location was fantastic– just steps away from the bustling 19th Street (the only “night life” in the city) and very close to the river which had scores of activity no matter what time of day you visited. Hotel Grand United has three hotels in Yangon and its original one (Hotel Grand United Ahlone) is a nicer hotel with a bigger gym and even a sauna but the location is not great at all. The hotel’s rooftop, where breakfast, lunch and dinner were served, but guests were welcomed to spend the morning or afternoon there, too, was the best part of the hotel, with a fantastic view of the pagoda at nighttime and a bird’s eye view of the bustling city streets and nearby port.
Hotel Grand United’s rooftop
Hotel Grand United’s rooftop view
Hotel Grand United’s rooftop view
Another important factor was that our hotel’s wifi, although by no means up to Western standards, worked just fine for us to be able to do the work we needed to complete.
If your idea of vacation is more relaxing-by-the-pool than hoofing-it-on-the-street, then… first of all, why are you in Yangon? There’s plenty of better options for resort life in Myanmar (with a beach nearby!). Even so, the Belmond Governor’s Residence was formerly home to the ruler of Myanmar’s southern states.
Belmond Governor’s Residence
Relaxing at the Belmond Governor’s Residence
The two-story, colonial-style mansion was built in the 1920s but today is a 5 Star hotel. The lush greenery, whirling fans, Dutch architecture and dark mahogany staircase add to its old-time charm while providing much-needed respite from the blazing afternoon sun, and hotel guests were lounging care-free by the pool. Prices there are 5 Star prices, too, a far cry from the street food prices just a few steps away.
Additional images:
-----------------------------------
Full post with proper formatting and photo gallery can be found here: Weekend Blitz - Let's Go: Yangon, Myanmar
Yangon is a city in the throes of growing, busting at the seams with young locals eager to learn more about the world outside its borders and more tourists than ever before.
City streets are filled with street eats, smiling faces and bright colors.
Myanmar welcomes about 1 million tourists each year and, compared to its neighbor Thailand’s many millions of annual visitors, that’s a drop in the bucket – but, only a hand full of Burmese cities and towns are set up for tourists and Western hotel chains have barely scratched the surface of the country (we think that’s a good thing). So, while Thailand’s many visitors are spread out among hundreds of secluded resorts, Myanmar’s eager travelers are swarming Mandalay’s U Bein Bridge – all together – while it bends at the weight of its newfound fame. Construction is ubiquitous everywhere in Yangon, though, so more hotels and tourist infrastructure are fast approaching. It’s been said many times before, but Myanmar is changing rapidly, and we tourists are tripping over ourselves to be the first to see its evolution.
Karaweik Hall is a palace barge built in the 1970’s which now houses a dinner theater.
Because Yangon is the country’s largest city, it is the most natural springboard for entering the country and one of the only cities capable of landing international flights. While most people land in Yangon one afternoon and are gone by the next morning, we spent four nights there (4.5 full days) and were able to see the main attractions as well as get to know city life in a little more detail than most.
This street cart specializes in making betel quids — small parcels that typically contain areca nuts wrapped in a betel leaf and coated with lime.
Burmese puppets line street markets and are intricately designed and decorated.
Our visit to Htwe Oo Myanmar, a puppet show housed in the house of a Burmese family, ended in my learning how to be a puppeteer, too!
Myanmar’s largest city is a good bit different than most other large Asian cities because the Western tourists are few and far between (they’ve all taken off for Inle Lake and Bagan ASAP) and Western culture has not taken its toll on the city’s locals just yet. Although we did see a few T-shirts and jeans, the vast majority of Burmese (men, women + children) are still wearing traditional thanaka on their faces and sporting longyis.The thanaka ubiquitously worn on women and children’s cheeks and foreheads is a yellow-white paste made from tree bark mixed with water. This paste is then rubbed into a circle or square on each cheek – or just hurriedly whisked on in no pattern at all – and both protects the wearer from the hot sun as a sort of natural sunscreen and is seen as a sign of beauty. Longyis — maxi skirts to us Americans — are traditional Burmese clothing that keep you cool (and conservative) and, thankfully, Western trends haven’t taken over just yet, so almost everyone you see is donning a longyi. It’s a bit perplexing for a Westerner (given the 103 degree highs on most days) to see everyone wearing long, heavy-looking “skirts”, but the Burmese are much more conservative and men, women and children all wear longyis or pants to their ankles. And, it turns out they are surprisingly cool with great air flow, so no wonder they continue to wear these beautiful garments instead of a much blander & duller jeans option.
Speaking of longyis, having grown tired of my own maxi skirts, I thought I’d wear a longyi one day to mix it up a bit (and I’d read that the Burmese appreciated travelers wearing longyis). Jeffrey had purchased a longyi when we visited the Shwedagon Pagoda, so I thought I’d just wear his instead of buying another one. I asked the front desk staff at our hotel to help me tie it (I’d noticed that men tie their longyis in a big knot in the front and women seem to drape theirs more elegantly). We barely made it a block down the street before just about everyone was laughing as I walked by. Finally, an older woman grabbed my arm and, in her best English, half-scolds, half-mocks me, telling me that my longyi was for men, not for woman. Yikes. Apparently, I had failed to notice that men’s longyis were all plaid patterns of more masculine colors, while women’s longyis were predominantly floral patterned and always brightly colored. I was committing a humongous faux pas and didn’t even realized it until the muted giggles couldn’t go unnoticed any longer. We dashed into the next shopping center and I was embarrassingly looking around for the stash of longyis. Before I could find them, the store employees (giggling, of course), called me over to tell me I was wearing a man’s longyi, not a woman’s. Double yikes. Finally, I purchased a women’s longyi in a beautiful royal blue color and had help tying it on. However, after it inevitably loosened by lunchtime, the women at our restaurant giggled that I had it tied incorrectly. I just couldn’t win with the longyis so, for the rest of our trip, only wore my longyi when visiting the pagodas.
Good thing Jeffrey snapped a quick picture…
The people, especially the little ones, are overwhelmingly friendly – they shout “hello!” as soon as they see you coming and flash the brightest, most genuine smiles of any city I’ve ever visited.
They are unabashedly so pleased to see you, making you feel very welcome. They’re so eager to see you that many of them stop and ask to take photos with you – or some others just whip out their cell phones to catch you on video as you pass by.
Although Jeffrey and I usually rent a car no matter which country we’re visiting, I’ve never been so thankful to depend solely on walking and public transportation than in Yangon. In plenty of places, we’ve been astounded by the crazy drivers and the gridlocked traffic, but Yangon takes the cake.
The city seems to be growing faster than the roads can keep up and, coupled with the change from driving on the left (US style) to driving on the left (British style) in the early 2000s (with road infrastructure staying the same…), every time I got into a taxi I thought it may be my last few minutes on Earth. In fact, we were even in a wreck with a taxi driver!! Since we’ve been here, we’ve also seen a motorbike wreck and a very, very close call between a motorbike and a pickup truck. There are hardly any traffic lights and no stop signs, so 4-way intersections are just an anything-goes game of chicken.
Take a look at the guide below for where to eat, drink and sleep while in Yangon, then be on the lookout for more detailed posts about Yangon’s most popular attractions: the stunning Shwedagon Pagoda and the Circle Train.
Eat
It seems that, at every turn you take, there’s another street food vendor cooking up a hot meal along the city streets of Yangon. I know some travelers are wary of street food, but we’ve found it to be the best introduction to a city and its people. We’ve tried street food in every city we’ve visited and almost always preferred the street food to the fancy #1-rated restaurant on Trip Advisor – and, the best part, never once gotten sick from something we’ve tried (knock on LOTS of wood).
BBQ is king on the streets of Yangon and each street peddler has a cart filled with all sorts of meats and vegetables on a stick. Once you pick out your choice, they’ll grill it up for you right on the spot so its phenomenal smoky flavor is just as fresh as can be.
A BBQ cart on 19th Street – you pick your skewers!
Our favorite street food, though, was found on 19th Street and was surprisingly a vegetarian dish, but filled with more flavor than even the smoky meat could offer. A woman was cooking up a dish of corn kernels, kidney beans and some mysterious spicy green topping that tasted a bit like an olive tapenade with a kick. Whatever it was, it added a glorious spice to an otherwise bland dish and we went back to her cart again and again for quick snacks each day.
Our favorite street food cart in Yangon
While Yangon offers many restaurants and eateries in every corner of its city, we recommend getting your fill of street food while you’re here. And, for the price of about 500 k – 1,500 k (less than $1.50!), you can fill up on local flavor.
If you’re just not so into street food, no problem. 999 Shan Noodle House comes highly recommended so we had to give it a shot. Their noodles were the best we’ve tasted in Myanmar and, while it’s very popular with tourists, the prices are shockingly low.
Lunch at 999 Shan Noodle House
Drink
19th Street, again, is the best place to grab a Myanmar Beer and people watch. Every tourist in the city makes it here, but so do the locals so it’s not a tourist trap but rather a place to see busy city life after sunset.
The street markets set up selling everything under the sun from umbrellas (although we didn’t see a single drop of rain in the dry season) to fish heads to flip flops of all colors. If you’re lucky, a man with a guitar will come past your table to serenade you, but he won’t be as pushy as the table musicians you’ve met in the past.
Sleep
We really loved our hotel: Hotel Grand United 21st Downtown.
It’s definitely not the nicest hotel in the city, but it was just what we needed to get a full night’s rest before heading out on foot for another day of exploring. The location was fantastic– just steps away from the bustling 19th Street (the only “night life” in the city) and very close to the river which had scores of activity no matter what time of day you visited. Hotel Grand United has three hotels in Yangon and its original one (Hotel Grand United Ahlone) is a nicer hotel with a bigger gym and even a sauna but the location is not great at all. The hotel’s rooftop, where breakfast, lunch and dinner were served, but guests were welcomed to spend the morning or afternoon there, too, was the best part of the hotel, with a fantastic view of the pagoda at nighttime and a bird’s eye view of the bustling city streets and nearby port.
Hotel Grand United’s rooftop
Hotel Grand United’s rooftop view
Hotel Grand United’s rooftop view
Another important factor was that our hotel’s wifi, although by no means up to Western standards, worked just fine for us to be able to do the work we needed to complete.
If your idea of vacation is more relaxing-by-the-pool than hoofing-it-on-the-street, then… first of all, why are you in Yangon? There’s plenty of better options for resort life in Myanmar (with a beach nearby!). Even so, the Belmond Governor’s Residence was formerly home to the ruler of Myanmar’s southern states.
Belmond Governor’s Residence
Relaxing at the Belmond Governor’s Residence
The two-story, colonial-style mansion was built in the 1920s but today is a 5 Star hotel. The lush greenery, whirling fans, Dutch architecture and dark mahogany staircase add to its old-time charm while providing much-needed respite from the blazing afternoon sun, and hotel guests were lounging care-free by the pool. Prices there are 5 Star prices, too, a far cry from the street food prices just a few steps away.
Additional images:
-----------------------------------
Full post with proper formatting and photo gallery can be found here: Weekend Blitz - Let's Go: Yangon, Myanmar
Apr 8, 2015, 8:00 am
#23
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
Haha, thanks! ^^
Thank you! It really is an amazing place to visit, so different from our home in the U.S.
Apr 12, 2015, 7:34 am
#25
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
Thanks, you should make a trip soon! We didn't really need any extra vaccinations above what would be required normal for places like Thailand, Indonesia or the Maldives etc... We chose to take malaria pills for the duration of the trip but I don't think it was a huge risk to not take it, we might have just been overly cautious. We also took a 3 day supply of azithromycin (just a pretty low dose antibiotic) to fight any type of food related stomach illness but didn't need it. Always safe to have just in case....
Apr 23, 2015, 10:43 am
#26
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
Shwedagon Pagoda + Surrounding Area
The gleaming, gilded pagoda is your first spectacular view of Yangon on arrival, dominating the city’s skyline and commanding your instant attention (especially at night time!). Up on a hill, this 2,600 year old Buddhist temple is a sight to behold, towering over Myanmar’s largest city and reminding you of ancient times while connecting you to a very real, present-day Yangon. The number one site in Yangon (and probably all of Myanmar) is known as the Crown of Burma and is the country’s most revered shrine, a sprawling temple that boasts eight hairs plucked from Buddha.
Although legend holds that the stupa is more than 2,600 years old, some historians believe it was actually built by the Mon people between the 6th and 10th Centuries. During the 14th and 15th Centuries, King Binnya U and Queen Binnya Thau (respectively) rebuilt and added to the pagoda. Queen Binnya Thau donated her weight in gold (88 lbs.!) to the temple, starting the tradition that continues to this day of people donating gold to maintain the temple.
Now, the temple still stands, beckoning visitors and locals alike to its grand and golden stature. Although visitors pay an 8,000 kyat entrance fee (~$8 USD), Burmese do not, so the temple grounds are a meeting place for friends, with families congregating in the shady spots, letting their babies crawl around the cool marble slabs while they exchange stories. It’s very much a part of current-day, every-day Yangon and not an abandoned site like many temples and churches in other cities and countries.
All of the guides I found online suggested either visiting at dawn (to avoid the crowds) or at sunset, but we decided to go around 10am. When we arrived, we were told to take off our shoes – no one said it in the guides, but surely the reason to go pre- or post-sun is because your feet will get scorched! No socks, stockings or shoes are allowed and the hot tile floors around the temple quickly bake in the 104 degree heat. I think Jeffrey and I both lost several layers of skin on our feet from visiting this pagoda mid-day.
These temple grounds have more than 27 metric tons of gold and thousands of precious gems (including diamonds). The temple dates back to more than 2,600 years ago, making it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world, and it is truly a must-see in Yangon, in Myanmar and in Southeast Asia as a whole. It reminded me most of the Grand Palace in Bangkok with shimmering gold details on everything, my first foray into golden temples with gems dotting every column (an experience that’s stuck with me!).
After spending several hours in the pagoda, we descended the steps to the outside world.
“Gangnam Style” then the Black Eyed Peas blared through a brightly colored blue metal contraction next to the street vendors offering ice cream. We’d stumbled straight into Happy World, a children’s amusement park just across the street from Shwedagon Pagoda. Bright lights and swings excited the children as they posed next to plastic monsters and super heroes. Then, we entered the dimly lit arcade and immediately were transported to Chuckie Cheese (just without the hassle of collecting tickets to win “awesome” prizes). We stepped into the outdoor café and ordered a lunch of fried cauliflower, som tam salad and kim chi rice with chicken – all for less that $5 USD total.
The Shwedagon Pagoda is truly awe-inspiring, a perfect introduction to Yangon, Myanmar and the Burmese people. Like in Yangon as a whole, inside the pagoda grounds, you’ll find a collection of tranquil monks resting on the cooled stone steps in the shadows mingled with energetic little ones dancing in the doorways and couples (us included!) taking selfies on our iPhones. This glimpse into Burmese life – both its future and its shimmering, golden past – was the perfect welcome to our first stop in Myanmar.
Check out more of our photos from our visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda and its surrounding area below!
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Full post with proper formatting and photo gallery can be found here: Weekend Blitz - Shwedagon Pagoda + Surrounding Area
The gleaming, gilded pagoda is your first spectacular view of Yangon on arrival, dominating the city’s skyline and commanding your instant attention (especially at night time!). Up on a hill, this 2,600 year old Buddhist temple is a sight to behold, towering over Myanmar’s largest city and reminding you of ancient times while connecting you to a very real, present-day Yangon. The number one site in Yangon (and probably all of Myanmar) is known as the Crown of Burma and is the country’s most revered shrine, a sprawling temple that boasts eight hairs plucked from Buddha.
Although legend holds that the stupa is more than 2,600 years old, some historians believe it was actually built by the Mon people between the 6th and 10th Centuries. During the 14th and 15th Centuries, King Binnya U and Queen Binnya Thau (respectively) rebuilt and added to the pagoda. Queen Binnya Thau donated her weight in gold (88 lbs.!) to the temple, starting the tradition that continues to this day of people donating gold to maintain the temple.
Now, the temple still stands, beckoning visitors and locals alike to its grand and golden stature. Although visitors pay an 8,000 kyat entrance fee (~$8 USD), Burmese do not, so the temple grounds are a meeting place for friends, with families congregating in the shady spots, letting their babies crawl around the cool marble slabs while they exchange stories. It’s very much a part of current-day, every-day Yangon and not an abandoned site like many temples and churches in other cities and countries.
All of the guides I found online suggested either visiting at dawn (to avoid the crowds) or at sunset, but we decided to go around 10am. When we arrived, we were told to take off our shoes – no one said it in the guides, but surely the reason to go pre- or post-sun is because your feet will get scorched! No socks, stockings or shoes are allowed and the hot tile floors around the temple quickly bake in the 104 degree heat. I think Jeffrey and I both lost several layers of skin on our feet from visiting this pagoda mid-day.
These temple grounds have more than 27 metric tons of gold and thousands of precious gems (including diamonds). The temple dates back to more than 2,600 years ago, making it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world, and it is truly a must-see in Yangon, in Myanmar and in Southeast Asia as a whole. It reminded me most of the Grand Palace in Bangkok with shimmering gold details on everything, my first foray into golden temples with gems dotting every column (an experience that’s stuck with me!).
After spending several hours in the pagoda, we descended the steps to the outside world.
“Gangnam Style” then the Black Eyed Peas blared through a brightly colored blue metal contraction next to the street vendors offering ice cream. We’d stumbled straight into Happy World, a children’s amusement park just across the street from Shwedagon Pagoda. Bright lights and swings excited the children as they posed next to plastic monsters and super heroes. Then, we entered the dimly lit arcade and immediately were transported to Chuckie Cheese (just without the hassle of collecting tickets to win “awesome” prizes). We stepped into the outdoor café and ordered a lunch of fried cauliflower, som tam salad and kim chi rice with chicken – all for less that $5 USD total.
The Shwedagon Pagoda is truly awe-inspiring, a perfect introduction to Yangon, Myanmar and the Burmese people. Like in Yangon as a whole, inside the pagoda grounds, you’ll find a collection of tranquil monks resting on the cooled stone steps in the shadows mingled with energetic little ones dancing in the doorways and couples (us included!) taking selfies on our iPhones. This glimpse into Burmese life – both its future and its shimmering, golden past – was the perfect welcome to our first stop in Myanmar.
Check out more of our photos from our visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda and its surrounding area below!
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Full post with proper formatting and photo gallery can be found here: Weekend Blitz - Shwedagon Pagoda + Surrounding Area
Apr 24, 2015, 1:58 am
#27
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 336
Great report so far. Looking forward to the rest. In the planning post on your blog how have you created the alliance based overlays on Google maps along with the list? That seemed pretty cool and it'd be nice to know how to do it.
Apr 29, 2015, 5:06 am
#28
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
Thanks! I do all of the maps using Google Maps, it might technically be called Google Maps Engine. In Google Maps there should be a button for "My Maps" --> "Create" and you can add layers, lines, points etc... pretty powerful tool!
May 17, 2015, 8:22 pm
#29
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
Programs: DL Diamond, WN A-List, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 685
A Ride on the Circle Train - Yangon, Myanmar
On yet another hazy day in Yangon, we headed up the road to the main train station (the same one that would carry us off days later on the overnight Yangon-Mandalay train) to board the Circle Train, taking us in a circle around Yangon’s “suburbs” and then back into the city.
Because most locals can’t afford apartments in the city proper, the vast majority lives in the suburbs but finds work inside the city. This Circle Train is the preferred method of transportation in and out of the city as traffic can get pretty brutal (and, of course, you have to own a car or motorbike). So, riding this Circle Train provides an unspoiled glimpse into local life away from the gleaming, golden shadow of the Shwedagon Pagoda (save for the handful of fellow tourists that received the same tip as us).
The Circle Train is anything but glitz and glamor. We arrived to the ticket booth at 10:07am, just in time to purchase tickets for 500 kyat each (around 50 cents each) and quickly board the train for its 10:10am departure. The run-down, open-windowed train was mostly empty when we left from the main station; a few Western tourists were on board, but, for the most part, the train cars had locals of every age riding (presumably) back to their homes. Luckily, there are plenty of cars and we found that one pair of camera-slinging sightseers is more than enough for one train car. For the next 3.5 – 4 hours, the commuter train served as the “subway” of Yangon, picking up and dropping off passengers at each stop. Sometimes, people would be waiting to throw live chickens, fresh crops and vegetables and more through the open windows, seemingly to their friends on board to take back into the city.
Ticket Booth at Yangon’s main station
For the first 20 – 30 minutes, the train is somewhat underground (or at least surrounded by tall walls on each side of the track), but you can still see the tops of buildings as we traveled farther out from the city. It’s not boring, though, because the train’s passengers concoct a story that’s different each day, and different in each train car. A family with three little girls boarded at our very first stop and the giggling little ones chose to sit next to me (despite the almost empty cabin). It was fun to smile and wave with them and see the city and its countryside light up through their eyes. I think they thought it was fun to see me react excitedly to mundane, everyday scenes in their world (like an ox being pulled on a rope next to the train tracks!).
At each stop, vendors were waiting on the train tracks and, before the train had even crawled to a stop, they’d board with their wares (cold drinks, hard boiled eggs, flowers and newspapers seemed to be the most popular items), then they’d jump off before the train started rolling again.
As we churned along, we passed farms of watercress plants, with people literally neck-deep in the water, farming. Monks waited to cross the train tracks, smoldering fires blazed outside of houses, goats chomped on weeds by the side of the tracks and women expertly balanced big bags of textiles, fruit, etc. on their heads.
A couple hours into the trip (and about an hour until our return to Yangon), we met a friend who was on his daily commute into the city to work security at a hotel (shout out to Nay!).
Nay works six shifts/week for about 8 – 8.5 hours and lives out of the city on the circle line with his uncle – his family lives in Mandalay. He was eager to practice his English with us and learn about our lives – who we were, where we came from, which cities we were visiting in Myanmar and where we’d go after Myanmar. Once we arrived at Yangon’s main station, he led us to one of his favorite lunch spots (the mall food court, no less) and helped us order lunch before heading off to work. Nay was a prime example of the friendliness and kindness that we encountered in all of the Burmese people, a refreshing change from traveling in places where the locals only want to talk to you to see how much money they can scam from you.
Because many travelers give Yangon a bit of the short stick and only linger for a few hours in the city, they miss out on the intricacies of local life in the big city– not catching the minutiae of a local’s 3 hour daily ride on the Circle Train. If you’re looking for a place to really brush shoulders with the local Burmese, take the time to travel on this Circle Train. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, as we were, at the candid friendliness of the Burmese who sit next to you on your journey.
And now, here’s Jeffrey with the nerdy train stats:
Here’s the full route map:
Here are the stats:
Check out more photos of our ride on the Circle Train below:
-----------------------------------
Full post with proper formatting and photo gallery can be found here: Weekend Blitz - A Ride on the Circle Train - Yangon, Myanmar
On yet another hazy day in Yangon, we headed up the road to the main train station (the same one that would carry us off days later on the overnight Yangon-Mandalay train) to board the Circle Train, taking us in a circle around Yangon’s “suburbs” and then back into the city.
Because most locals can’t afford apartments in the city proper, the vast majority lives in the suburbs but finds work inside the city. This Circle Train is the preferred method of transportation in and out of the city as traffic can get pretty brutal (and, of course, you have to own a car or motorbike). So, riding this Circle Train provides an unspoiled glimpse into local life away from the gleaming, golden shadow of the Shwedagon Pagoda (save for the handful of fellow tourists that received the same tip as us).
The Circle Train is anything but glitz and glamor. We arrived to the ticket booth at 10:07am, just in time to purchase tickets for 500 kyat each (around 50 cents each) and quickly board the train for its 10:10am departure. The run-down, open-windowed train was mostly empty when we left from the main station; a few Western tourists were on board, but, for the most part, the train cars had locals of every age riding (presumably) back to their homes. Luckily, there are plenty of cars and we found that one pair of camera-slinging sightseers is more than enough for one train car. For the next 3.5 – 4 hours, the commuter train served as the “subway” of Yangon, picking up and dropping off passengers at each stop. Sometimes, people would be waiting to throw live chickens, fresh crops and vegetables and more through the open windows, seemingly to their friends on board to take back into the city.
Ticket Booth at Yangon’s main station
For the first 20 – 30 minutes, the train is somewhat underground (or at least surrounded by tall walls on each side of the track), but you can still see the tops of buildings as we traveled farther out from the city. It’s not boring, though, because the train’s passengers concoct a story that’s different each day, and different in each train car. A family with three little girls boarded at our very first stop and the giggling little ones chose to sit next to me (despite the almost empty cabin). It was fun to smile and wave with them and see the city and its countryside light up through their eyes. I think they thought it was fun to see me react excitedly to mundane, everyday scenes in their world (like an ox being pulled on a rope next to the train tracks!).
At each stop, vendors were waiting on the train tracks and, before the train had even crawled to a stop, they’d board with their wares (cold drinks, hard boiled eggs, flowers and newspapers seemed to be the most popular items), then they’d jump off before the train started rolling again.
As we churned along, we passed farms of watercress plants, with people literally neck-deep in the water, farming. Monks waited to cross the train tracks, smoldering fires blazed outside of houses, goats chomped on weeds by the side of the tracks and women expertly balanced big bags of textiles, fruit, etc. on their heads.
A couple hours into the trip (and about an hour until our return to Yangon), we met a friend who was on his daily commute into the city to work security at a hotel (shout out to Nay!).
Nay works six shifts/week for about 8 – 8.5 hours and lives out of the city on the circle line with his uncle – his family lives in Mandalay. He was eager to practice his English with us and learn about our lives – who we were, where we came from, which cities we were visiting in Myanmar and where we’d go after Myanmar. Once we arrived at Yangon’s main station, he led us to one of his favorite lunch spots (the mall food court, no less) and helped us order lunch before heading off to work. Nay was a prime example of the friendliness and kindness that we encountered in all of the Burmese people, a refreshing change from traveling in places where the locals only want to talk to you to see how much money they can scam from you.
Because many travelers give Yangon a bit of the short stick and only linger for a few hours in the city, they miss out on the intricacies of local life in the big city– not catching the minutiae of a local’s 3 hour daily ride on the Circle Train. If you’re looking for a place to really brush shoulders with the local Burmese, take the time to travel on this Circle Train. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, as we were, at the candid friendliness of the Burmese who sit next to you on your journey.
And now, here’s Jeffrey with the nerdy train stats:
Here’s the full route map:
Here are the stats:
Check out more photos of our ride on the Circle Train below:
-----------------------------------
Full post with proper formatting and photo gallery can be found here: Weekend Blitz - A Ride on the Circle Train - Yangon, Myanmar