Myanmar (Burma)

#travel #vacation

Myanmar to me was the most unique country in Southeast Asia in both the countryside and the people. We were fortunate to be able to travel there as it had recently opened to US travelers but was still questionable politically. It was so unique and mystical and friendly to us that we wished we could have stayed longer. We flew into Yangon and spent a couple days there walking the downtown area visiting the street vendors, seeing hotels and businesses, and learning about the culture and people. We stopped near the Dragon Boat Pagoda, saw the Monument for Independence from England, the High Court Building, an old Baptist Church, and the Botataung Pagoda, and the 200 foot reclining Buddha at Chank Htat Gyi. In the late afternoon we visited an indoor market to purchase traditional clothing (Longyis) that I wore while travelling the county. Then we visited the large Shwedagen "Golden" Pagoda and observed Buddhist services and religious traditions.
We travelled to Bagan which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and rich in history over 1500 years. It is a sea of temples ( stupas, temples and pagodas) with more than 2000 along the Ayeyarwady River. Bagan is an active community with wonderful small markets and street vendors, farms, and homes. We visited unique temples including Shwezigon Pagoda, Ananda Temple with its four different Buddhas, and Ohamna Ya Zika Pagoda where we climbed a construction structure to view the restoration work and the area of a thousand pagodas. After riding in a horse drawn cart through the fields of stupas, we climbed a stupa to view the most beautiful sunset, going down amongst the surrounding stupas. The next day, we were welcomed by the locals of a smaller village to experience life in the rural area seeing how they live, work, cook, and prepare for their livelihood.
We flew to Mandalay and visited very unique small industries such as pounding gold into gold leaf for presentation to Buddha and statue carving. We visited more pagodas here, each unique including Mahamuni Pagoda, Shwenandaw (Teak) Monastery, and on to Mandalay Hill With Kathodaw Pagoda and it many white and gold stupas and Sutaungpyai Temple at the top where we watched the sunset overlooking the large city of Mandalay. in the morning as we headed to the airport we observed the Buddhist monks receiving their alms from the people as they walked the highway. We watched the sunrise near the Gates of Mandalay.