Yangon (Rangoon)

January 7-10 - Yangon (I really prefer "Rangoon" because it is so much more romantic) is a city of 6 million people.  And after languishing under 22 years of closed borders and harsh military rule, Yangon is booming economically.  New buildings sprout everywhere--banks (strange because the locals don't trusts them), hotels, malls, restaurants, and gas stations.

We stayed 3 nights at the Hotel WarDan, built within the last year or so.  We took a short walk in the evening to familiarize ourselves with the area.  The hotel was located among many old apartment buildings and street-side restaurants.  The streets bustled with vendors, people buying stuff, monks walking by--a very busy place after the relative quiet of our river cruise.  We returned to the hotel, showered and walked to a nearby restaurant for local Shen noodles and fried rice.

The next day, we walked about 1-1/2 miles to Scott's Market, a large traditional (as opposed to a mall) downtown market square filled with permanent stalls and tile floors.  Women sold vegetables and fruits, fish (fresh and dried), chicken...basically every foodstuff imaginable.  Also there were goldsmith, textile, souvenir, household goods in other stalls.  Then we walked to the only Jewish synagogue in Myanmar.  There are only 20 practicing Jews in the country.  I can't remember if we gave you the religious breakdown of the country in a previous post, but it is 85% Buddhist, 5% Protestant, 4% Muslim, 2% Hindu and 2% Catholic.  There were about 3,000 Jews in Myanmar prior to WWII, but most fled when the country was invaded by the Japanese.

The second night, we took a taxi to Swedagon Pagoda, probably the largest and most famous in Myanmar.  We were trying to see the gold spires at sunset, but the weather didn't cooperate.  There is a large central stupa surrounded by hundreds of smaller temples and stupas.  Many Buddhists were there bowing to their favorite Buddha image.  There were many tourists as well.  We left the Pagoda on foot in search of the Feel Restaurant, highly recommended in the guides.  We go lost in the dark and ended up taking a taxi.  To order, we had to crowd up to a buffet of dishes and point to the ones we wanted while the waittress wrote down our choices.  This sounds easy, but none of the food was recognizeable.  Considering the chaos of the ordering process. we ate well.

Our last day in Yangon, we walked around one of the city's beautiful lakes, strolling over the water on a boardwalk.  Next we returned to Scott's Market for a few souvenirs.  Next, we did a "colonial building" walking tour near the Yangon River.  This was followed by a great lunch-dinner at Monsoon (Thai food) and an afternoon of packing for our early morning departure to Inle Lake.

Roger and I have decided that we are not city-people.  We really prefer smaller communities and natural places.  We were not sad to leave Yangon behind.