Well hello from Yangon, Myanmar. From Macau to Yangon = culture shock. Travelling from Macau, an easy-going modern casino paradise to Yangon, a conservative, religious and hot city. Myanmar is the biggest South-East Asian country with a population of 60 million. For the readers who don’t know where Myanmar
is, its bordering countries are Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. As I observed in Yangon, you can start to see how new buildings are coming up, shopping malls and even taxis with air-condition, which will lead to increase of prices. This makes you think. How will the 79% of the population who lives in rural areas and the one third of the population who lies under the poverty line keep up?
We arrived to Yangon International Airport at 07:30pm. The most convenient way to reach downtown Yangon is by taxi. We paid 10,000 kyat (7,30€) to reach our hostel, 20th Street Hostel, located nearby Chinatown (perfect!). Before we got comfortable, we had a quick dinner at a local diner.
Our first day in Yangon and Myanmar got its kickstart by taking a taxi to the main religious site and tourist attraction of the city, and probably of the whole country - Shwedagon Pagoda. I guess that the locals can enter free of charge, but international visitors will pay 8000 kyat (5,8€) to enter. This religious site is just remarkable. The temples, stupas and statues took my breath away. The locals welcomed us with big smiles, curiosity and were very interested in talking to us and take pictures.
After spending a few hours at the pagoda, we took a taxi to the central railway station and decided to walk all the way to our hostel. We walked along Maha Bandula street. The street was full of stands selling everything from smartphones, food, clothes etc. In the evening this street and the Chinatown area becomes transforms into a restaurant street/area. A quick break at the hostel gave us energy again to have some lunch in Chinatown. It´s so convenient since our hostel is located one block away. Here are some pictures from today!
After spending a few hours at the pagoda, we took a taxi to the central railway station and decided to walk all the way to our hostel. We walked along Maha Bandula street. The street was full of stands selling everything from smartphones, food, clothes etc. In the evening this street and the Chinatown area becomes transforms into a restaurant street/area. A quick break at the hostel gave us energy again to have some lunch in Chinatown. It´s so convenient since our hostel is located one block away. Here are some pictures from today!
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