evap
Myanmar has been in the news lately and I have been thinking about a trip I took there in 2016. My spouse and I got married in January, 1987, in Hawaii, where we were living at the time. We discovered the joys of Thai food in Hawaii — in those days it was hardly a blip on the radar in most of the U.S. — and decided to go to Thailand for our honeymoon. While there, we were chatting with a fellow traveler who had just returned from a week in Burma, and we decided we would take a side trip and see it for ourselves. Alas, in those days it was very difficult to visit Burma and we were unable to set up a trip.
Fast forward 30 years and we decided to return to SE Asia for our 30th anniversary, and this time we were determined to visit Burma/Myanmar. Thanks to the country opening up, and the existence of the internet, we easily booked a one-week package tour Myanmar. It was a glorious trip, the people, the sites, and the food were wonderful.
Our trip started in Yangon (formally known as Rangoon). On our first full day there we visited several famous pagodas (temples). As an aside, “temple” is a general term, “pagoda” refers to Buddhist or Hindu temples, and in Myanmar, a “stupa” is a spire-like part of a pagoda that usually cannot be entered. Someone correct me if I’m wrong!
The most spectacular site we saw in Yangon was Shwedagon Pagoda, which we visited in the late afternoon; our guide told us it is best viewed as sunset. The site is huge, with an enormous golden stupa surrounded by many mini-temples. The setting sun lighting up the stupa was spectacular.
On The Road – evap – Myanmar, December 2016, Part 1Post + Comments (13)