1 February 2017
We had heard about the circle train, which takes a three hour circular route around Yangon as a great way to explore the city. We only lasted about 15 minutes before jumping off at the station to head towards Shwedagon Pagoda.
But first we wandered through a park with a roller coaster - of course we had to give the quality engineering a go - we were the only two on it, right up the front, and by the double corkscrew stage of the ride it was going slower in a way that made you really grateful you were strapped into the cars.
After that shot of adrenaline we headed to the more sedate Shwedagon Pagoda. Its 2500 years old and the shining gold stupa can be seen from many parts of Yangon.
We completely underestimated how hot it would be in the pagoda complex in the middle of the day and ended up doing as the locals do and found a quiet shady spot for a nap.A bit more wandering and then the heat and lack of food got the better of us. We sought out the air conditioning and comfort food of the only KFC [indeed, the only western chain restaurant, and it's only a year or two old - Mark] in Myanmar.
Later on once we our energy levels were restored we went out for dinner on 19th street at a delicious local BBQ place.
2 February 2017
We had had enough of the big city and decided it was time to move on. We made arrangements to leave Yangon later that day by overnight bus.
In the afternoon we took the ferry across the river to Dalah. Although Yangon had been no trouble as far as touts, that message hadn't made it's way across to this side of the river. Even before we got on the ferry at Yangon people were offering to guide us. Once we arrived to Dalah we were offered taxis and motorcycle taxis as "where you go is too far to walk" - impressive as we had no idea where we were going. We headed away on foot and came across a mosque that looked like it had been designed by Walt Disney and then we became the attraction when we wandered past a primary school at 3.00pm. Mark discovered the boat wreckers yard complete with welding and no safety gear [apparently people are cheaper than clamps, the poor buggers holding bits in place while the guy was using a stick welder to cut the boat up had to keep shaking bits of flying slag off themselves :s -Mark].
Later we got to the bus station on the outskirts of town. This isn't a bus station as we know it but rather a massive area of land where 100's of bus companies all have little shelters for their respective companies - with the names all in Burmese. Our taxi driver found the correct shelter for us with only a few stops for directions. We then boarded our bus named "Enchanted" decorated with many animals - I was just grateful we weren't on the bus next door - Stunt Mania!
The overnight bus to Bagan is about 8 hours - We were welcomed on board to the sound of loudly playing Burmese pop music and when that was done we were then subjected to Burmese soap operas at top volume. Eventually they got the message that no one was interested and peace (other than the regular tooting of horns) reigned.
We had heard about the circle train, which takes a three hour circular route around Yangon as a great way to explore the city. We only lasted about 15 minutes before jumping off at the station to head towards Shwedagon Pagoda.
But first we wandered through a park with a roller coaster - of course we had to give the quality engineering a go - we were the only two on it, right up the front, and by the double corkscrew stage of the ride it was going slower in a way that made you really grateful you were strapped into the cars.
 |
| Pre-roller coaster grimace |
After that shot of adrenaline we headed to the more sedate Shwedagon Pagoda. Its 2500 years old and the shining gold stupa can be seen from many parts of Yangon.
 |
| Shwedagon Pagoda. Not pictured: unbearable heat. |
Later on once we our energy levels were restored we went out for dinner on 19th street at a delicious local BBQ place.
 |
| 90 cent mojitos! |
2 February 2017
We had had enough of the big city and decided it was time to move on. We made arrangements to leave Yangon later that day by overnight bus.
In the afternoon we took the ferry across the river to Dalah. Although Yangon had been no trouble as far as touts, that message hadn't made it's way across to this side of the river. Even before we got on the ferry at Yangon people were offering to guide us. Once we arrived to Dalah we were offered taxis and motorcycle taxis as "where you go is too far to walk" - impressive as we had no idea where we were going. We headed away on foot and came across a mosque that looked like it had been designed by Walt Disney and then we became the attraction when we wandered past a primary school at 3.00pm. Mark discovered the boat wreckers yard complete with welding and no safety gear [apparently people are cheaper than clamps, the poor buggers holding bits in place while the guy was using a stick welder to cut the boat up had to keep shaking bits of flying slag off themselves :s -Mark].
 |
| Artistic boat photo looking back at the city |
The overnight bus to Bagan is about 8 hours - We were welcomed on board to the sound of loudly playing Burmese pop music and when that was done we were then subjected to Burmese soap operas at top volume. Eventually they got the message that no one was interested and peace (other than the regular tooting of horns) reigned.
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