Following
my not-so-great few days in Singapore, we had three days at sea before arriving
in Yangon, Myanmar. Of all the countries I will visit this spring, Myanmar was
the one I was most looking forward to. Why might you ask? Well, Myanmar is a
country I know absolutely nothing about so I was excited at the opportunity to
learn more. In addition, Myanmar has only been open to foreigners for a few years
and has therefore been claimed to be a “real Asia,” a glimpse back in time
before tourism and Westernization raged throughout the continent. Semester at
Sea visited at a unique point in the country’s history and I was excited to be
part of this ever-changing place.
I’m
pleased to report that Myanmar did not disappoint. I absolutely LOVED my time
in Myanmar! So much so that I’ve prepared more than one blog post for this
country. So sit back, relax and get ready to read all about my Myanmar
excursions.
We
arrived in Myanmar in the late morning and I was off immediately to lead a
Semester at Sea tour of Yangon, the city nearest to our port-of-call and the
country’s largest city and most important commercial center. The hour-long bus
ride into the city proved this country is still developing. Trash lines the
streets, traffic is chaotic, buildings built during the 19th century British
rule are decaying and typical houses feature little more than a roof with walls
seemingly optional. This was a stark contrast to the cosmopolitan metropolis of
Singapore which we’d left a few days prior.
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| Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. |
In the midst of Myanmar’s chaos and lacking infrastructure you’ll find gold. And by gold I mean many shiny gold temples, pagodas and stupas. The whole country seems to radiate a heavenly glow from the Buddhist temples, pagodas and stupas throughout.
On our city tour, we visited the Shwedagon Pagoda at sunset which is the country’s most sacred pagoda because relics of four Buddhas are enshrined within. The Shwedagon Pagoda grounds were much larger than I expected and feature the primary, large pagoda as well as many smaller pagodas and shrines. There were small pagodas dedicated to different birthdays and washing the Buddha brings good luck. I gave it a shot but I’m hoping the guy wasn’t pulling my leg about the day of the week I was born (Was it a Wednesday afternoon , Mom and Dad?!).
After a lovely dinner, my city tour group returned to the ship late in the evening. I went straight to bed because the next day, I flew to Bagan for a four-day, three-night adventure. More about this in the next blog post!
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| "Washing" the Wednesday afternoon Buddha at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. |
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| Shwedagon Pagoda at night. |
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| Sparkling gold at Shwedagon Pagoda. |
