The taxi driver took me elsewhere. This involved another long drive to where the town zone is located, a further ten minutes away on a freeway also lined with trees and with open green bush-covered land in between. The town wasn’t much, only a few shops, some empty, a collection of new-looking houses and a small market. The money changer was located in a private house and we did the deal in the street, which reminded me of the old days of my black market career in Burma.
There were not many attractions on my Need to Visit list for Nay Pyi Taw. I had come here mainly to see what a new town built on the recommendation of a sooth-sayer looked like. I had heard it was weird. It was.
So I went to the museum, the waterfall park and the stupa at all of which the government did its utmost to extract as much money as possible from me. At the waterfall park I had to pay a fee just to get in the gate. It covers a large area and has many trees but it was really nothing special. The stupa looked the same as they all do except this one was new and much decorated. It was also extremely high, but this time, fortunately, I found the lift. Before I was allowed to go up in it I had to pay two thousand kyats for the use of a longii over the trousers that I was wearing. I had forgotten I would be visiting a holy place. This longii, which they thought I might not be able to resist taking home with me if I was not charged a deposit fee, was a dreadful old rag. I should have charged them to put it on me!
Burma Railway Map Photo Gallery
And my handbag was searched! This is not a job for the unwary. I wondered what they thought I was hiding in there. Did they expect terrorists in a quiet paya in this isolated part of Burma?
Up on the forecourt of the stupa, many people walked, circling it, but it was very windy so I hastened inside. The interior was magnificent, with large expanses of glittering floor tiles and shining gold statues abounded.
Continuing on in the taxi, another long drive brought me to the City Hall. More a series of extended palaces, I could only admire it from a distance as it is forbidden to foreigners, as are many other areas of the city. I wasn’t even supposed to photograph it, but I did.
