I just got back from my 5days 4nights trip to Myanmar, covering both Yangon and Bagan. The sun rise at Bagan was the most enjoyable part of the entire trip. The cool air and surreal surroundings coupled by the rise of the hot air balloons. ahhhh... Besides that, the afternoons were too hot to bear if one were to be out in the sun all day. We did not manage to take the hot air balloons. We only looked at them from afar because they were fully booked till Jan 2015. Despite the high cost (we got a quote from a travel agent in Yangon for USD270 per pax for a 1 hr ride), it was high in demand.
Technically speaking, we only spent 1 day in Yangon. Our plane touched down at Yangon at 9.25am and it took us about 45mins on our chartered taxi to reach my friend's place. We also stopped by his work place (Sedona Hotel) to get a bird eye's view of Inya Lake, the largest lake in Yangon.
Once we put down our luggage in the apartment, we headed right out to explore the city. Our first stop was to have lunch at YKKO, a restaurant chain in Myanmar that specializes in noodles.
I ordered the seafood noodles and my fav.. avocado juice. There are no prices stated on the menu. Thus I'm under the impression that as a tourist, I am paying more than the locals! The bowl of noodles came with a generous portion of noodles and ingredients. There were prawns, bits of squid, crab meat and even a small crab claw. I think this bowl cost about USD5 which is cheap for Singapore standards but definitely not cheap (at least to me) for Myanmar standard. But taste wise, it was good!
It was a good lunch :)
Once our stomach was filled, our host in Yangon - Bryan, brought us to visit the Bogyoke Aung San Market. There were lots of stalls selling jade, a section selling diamonds and a section selling cloth. It was a quick walk around the area as we were not interested in getting any jewellery.
The streets of Yangon.
From the market, we walked down the street to visit our first pagoda - Sule Pagoda. It is located at the heart of Yangon.
Entrance is USD3 + USD1 for leaving your footwear with them. However we realized we could have just held on to our shoes instead of paying which is what all the locals do. In fact, we just left the shoes in the car for all the other subsequent visit to the pagodas.
Maha Ganda Bell - Banging the bell for good luck!
We ended the day with Shan noodles for dinner. It is derived from the Shan State which is the eastern part of Myanmar. I had the sticky noodles with chicken. The noodles were delicious but the chicken were all bones and skin hah
We were totally exhausted after dinner and headed straight home to rest for another morning flight the next day to Bagan...
Technically speaking, we only spent 1 day in Yangon. Our plane touched down at Yangon at 9.25am and it took us about 45mins on our chartered taxi to reach my friend's place. We also stopped by his work place (Sedona Hotel) to get a bird eye's view of Inya Lake, the largest lake in Yangon.
We also visited Botataung Pagoda (USD 3 for entrance)
And the most well known one, the Shwedagon Palace. This is also the largest Pagoda out of the 3. (USD8 for entrance fee)
The Pagoda gets lit up with spot lights when the sun sets, making it extra shiny and glittery.
We sat around to wait for the sun to set. This place seems like a common hang out for the locals too. I saw families strolling around, young and old ppl just hanging around, sitting on the floor, looking all relaxed. I think there were also couples out on a date. I cant imagine myself coming here on a date.
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