Myanmar (Burma)

We arrived in Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar, on February 3rd at about 6:30pm and we were greeted by our guide Saan. Saan will be with us for the entire eight days that we are in Myanmar. We were so fortunate that we had such an incredibly knowledgeable, thoughtful and soulful person for a guide and oh yeah he got his masters degree in English and German.





The military government moved the capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw in 2006. Evidently the reason being is that they felt the new buildings and infrastructure would make for a safer location. The country has been relatively untouched by tourists, especially Americans, up until recently because of US sanctions against Myanmar.


We arrived at our hotel in the "golden valley" section of Yangon as it was starting to get dark. Our driver and guide had not been to this particular hotel and had trouble finding it. Needless to say it made us a bit uncomfortable and it was not the location we had expected. We were picturing a cool center city location so we could walk to a funky bar and restaurant that night and a trendy coffee place in the morning. We were in the middle of a neighborhood that looked like Palm Beach. As it turned out the city center is no place one wants to stay and the few hotels nearer town had been booked for a long time and were incredibly pricey. The country had not been prepared for the amount of people wanting to come. Too many visitors and not enough hotels. We ended up appreciating our eight room guest house and the quiet location.


It turns out to be good luck to see a snake and we saw one right after Saan picked us up the next morning.


They say this snake just ate something fairly large and was in the process do digesting. Good thing it wasn't interested in this guy's hand.


There are approximately 60 million people in the county and 80 percent are Buddhist. The Myanmar Buddhist are primarily Theravada Buddhists and take their religion very seriously. There are stupas, temples, pagodas and images and sculptures of Buddha everywhere.


This was one of monasteries that we visited.


The Shwedagon Pagoda was built 2,600 years ago and is considered the holiest of the country's Buddhist shrines. Our guide tells us there is estimated three tons of gold & gold leaf on this temple and the surrounding buildings and


Here is a young couple putting prayer cards on the penis of this sculpture because they say that it will help with conceiving a son. Why not...


We went in the late afternoon because you have to be barefoot when entering any of the Buddhist temples and the pavers are unbearably hot during the midday and early afternoon.





Traveling in Myanmar is challenging. Saan said that trains were pretty crowded, bumpy and slow. We didn't have to go on any luckily.


This reclining Buddha is 240 meters long. It is hard to appreciate the size of this but just look at the foot compared to the guy in front.


Lunch at one of Saan's favorite restaurants enabled us to try our first taste of goat.


My 61st birthday dinner was indeed memorable. Sonny, the owner of this great 350 seat restaurant made me feel like a long lost friend. Just a month earlier he had John McCain as one of his patrons.


I was Mr. Bob at the hotel in Phenom Penh now I became Mr. Robert.

Location:Yangon (Rangoon)