Okay welcome to the busy streets of Yangon, this is the typical street market, just tucked down one of the streets in the old town, and the old quarter, not sure what it’s called. It’s where you will find all sorts of things for sale, hey how are you doing? mingalaba? mingalaba. The people are really friendly, and there’s everything for sale here, fruit, veg, fish, meat, this is where everybody goes to buy, their supplies, and this is where daily life happens.
Yangon in Myanmar Burma Shwedagon Pagoda Kandawgyi Lake park street markets and Myanmar food Photo Gallery
And today, I’m gonna try and cover as many of the highlights of the Yangon as possible, let’s go and wander around, mingalaba. And then, I’m not sure what this mans selling, looks like dumplings, I think, mobile dumpling, it is indeed, dumplings from the back of a truck. Quite a bustling city, there’s quite a few bits going on, so today I’m going to take a tour of the city, because tomorrow I’m leaving to go and see some of the oldest sites around Myanmar.
And one of the things, that is great to do in, Yangon, is wander around the local street markets, as you can see, these markets are, bustling. They’re still open roads, so you have to be careful when you cross the road, and good place to pick up fruit, veg snacks for the journeys, you know if you’re going on bus trips and I’ll show you, night buses are very common here, but it’s where all the locals shop, so far I’ve been wandering through, there’s no tourists here, so it’s, quite nice. Hello, people are nice and friendly, no hassle here, and yeah there is, lots going on to see.
We’re enjoying a beautiful sunny day in Yangon, and we’re in the park whose name I can’t pronounce, so I’ll put it down below, Boki Yoki Park by the lake, it’s really beautiful here, walked over that side, seen the royal barge, where there’s restaurants and cafes and over here, I’ve spotted an elephant, really, you don’t believe me? look, there’s an elephant. Well thankfully, I think as I’m getting this close, it’s not a real one, there we go, I’m just gonna wander, over around here a little bit, here we go, so it’s a beautiful place to relax in the middle of the city, that, I’ve been wandering around a little bit, the sun’s at it’s midday height so, lights not good, you know what it is? it’s time to find somewhere and have a drink. Now, I walked past a cafe somewhere, now where is it? Yangon has beautiful open green areas and parks, which is so nice to chill out and escape the traffic, around the edge of this lake, there’s lots of cafes and restaurants and in fact that a big barge thing there, those golden, I think it’s the royal barge, that is actually, you can go in there and eat, and have a meal and a drink, but there’s lots of little cafes and restaurants dotted around the lakes edge as well.
So, it’s nice to come here sit in the shade, enjoy the breeze off the lake, soak in the beauty and escape a bit of the heat and madness, of the city. Having a look around, it’s beautiful so far, lovely time of year, early part of the year, gets great weather as you can see, I’ve escaped the heat, in the capital of Yangon, sorry I’m just looking, there’s a big up in the bridge over the water here, don’t wanna fall in it, but, at the moment I’m taking a break, because I’ve ordered a drink, because I’m super hot. Just strolling around the park, pick up some snacks, drinks, now, I’ve just ordered a strawberry juice from here, which I’m gonna looking forward to, so let’s, oh, it doesn’t say how much, well I’ll find out how much.
It’s here, and then I’ll find a spot in the sun, probably over the bridge there, to drink my juice. Looking nice hey, here we go, oops, moving down, okay over there, I’ll find a quiet spot, with my strawberry juice. Yangon, Myanmar, and it’s another beautiful day, strawberry smoothie, delicious smoothies, they make, they’ve got a lot of strawberries in Myanmar, and they make really nice strawberries, so cheers, strawberries to make really nice smoothies, out of the strawberries, it’s the heat, and all the walking around.
Roast beef, of some kind, rice, cucumber and strange sauce. That is really tasty, I have no idea what the sauce is or anything, but it tastes lovely, hey, buzz off fly. My first I think, proper meal in Yangon, Myanmar, if the rest of the food in Myanmar is like this it’s absolutely delicious, a little bit spicy, cooked beautifully, really, really tasty, I don’t think I’ll risk dipping it in the sauce, it’s something like, deadly floating chicken there, some, suspicious looking powder, I think I need a bit more practice with chopsticks.
Now no visit to Yangon is really complete unless you come to this temple, the Shwedagon Pagoda, it’s the big landmark right in the middle of, of Yangon, it’s an amazing, it is the most sacred site, for, Buddhists in, in, in Myanmar. And amongst other things contained inside, is a strand of Buddha’s hair, it’s over two thousand, five hundred years old, and it’s the most amazing thing, the, that gold that, thing is gold plates. It’s, it’s a hundred and ten metres tall, and there’s hundreds of gold plates, but that’s not the best of it, if I can say that, what’s amazing is those gold plates, are on top of a stupa, that is encrusted with over four thousand, five hundred and thirty diamonds.
The largest of which is a seventy two carat diamond, it really is an amazing site, and it is still, as you can see an active place of worship, so if you do go and visit, make sure you do because it’s an amazing sight, not only, is you’ve got the main pagoda in the middle, but you’ve got all these amazing temples all around, but most of the people, at least half the people you see that come here, all apart from the tourists, come here to actually worship. So do be a little bit respectful as you go around, please try and keep the noise down, again as with all temples, cover your shoulders, cover your legs, but go in and enjoy, it’s an amazing place, it is particularly fantastic at sunset, I’ll show you in a minute, what happens at the sunset time. Oh, today lunch was at the, Love Boat, and it was delicious.
