Yangon

Yangon (established as a city in 1563) would be our last stop in Mandalay so we decided to book a car for a full dayto give us a tour of the city so we could get our bearings.  We drove out into the countryside and then returned to see some of the old colonial buildings, they look worn out, but I am sure in their heyday they were very imposing with their manicured lawns and trees.

The buildings are looking tired, the biggest problem for buildings in Yangon is the mould.  It is everywhere, even if the building is brand new you can start to see it creeping along where there is tiny bit of water.  You would think the sun would be able to kill it off but no.  I don’t think I have seen a more blatant display of mould on buildings.

We only had a cursory look inside the St. Mary’s  Cathedral as there was a service going on in either Chinese or Malay, very difficult to tell when they are talking with a mike.

We hit a time on the street when there was absolutely no traffic, as it does get very congested in Yangon, you have to plan to leave earlier if you want to arrive on time.

We asked our driver to let us off at Kan Daw Gyi Lake, we thought it would be a nice place to eat dinner.  We arrived just as the crows were starting to settle into the trees, they were so loud – how loud were they… they were drowning the noise of old car engines and they are loud as well as the major speakers in the cars.

There are hundreds of these guys, they ruined some of my photos of the Pagoda, there were so many they produced long blurs across the sky and the pagoda.

We wandered around the lake and it was interesting to see the names of the restaurants.

There was a palace boat, very ornate, we went into the entrance and found out they had a dinner and show on board, unfortunately they were booked for the two days we were going to be in Yangon.  Pretty boat though.

After dinner we went back to the boardwalk as I wanted to get some sunset photos of the lake and Shwedagon Pagoda.  There was a band setting up so we watched them get ready and finally they started to play and they had a number of singers.  We were very impressed with their music and the singers, as we sat watching them they came over to ask us where we were from, etc. etc. They started to include us in their conversations via a translator and offered us tea, coffee, fried rice, cookies.  They were so friendly and generous, as we got to know the individuals, their stories were even better than their singing. 

Both these guys have their Masters in music and play professionally.  They were very very good.  The pianist could play any kind of music, both John and I would have loved to be able to play the piano.

The girls unfortunately do not have more than high school diplomas and they will sing with the group for as long as they can.  The group has been around for about eight years.  We went back the next night after we ate at our favourite restaurant and it was like old home week the way they greeted us and again offered us food and drink.  The found out this was our last night so we exchanged cards, I will send off some photos of the group to them and hopefully we will hear from them.  They were so very nice to two strangers from Canada.

The kids were having a great time.  We also met a singer, he was part time as he had his Masters in Micro Biology and he was very excited as he had just learned that the government had offered him a job on a new experimental stem cell exploration.

In the distance is the Shwedagon Pagoda. 

All that glitters is gold…at around $1256 per ounce!  Shwedagon Pagoda is made up of gold plates and gold leaves.

Sunset and time for us to get back to our hotel, we are going to visit the Shwedagon and a couple more Pagodas tomorrow.