Yangon (Rangoon): the capital of Myanmar since
1885. The city, with a population of over five million people, gives a
different impression from other Asian cities of similar size, being lush
and green and full of trees. The
downtown area still features a lot of old and large colonial buildings
left over from British times.
Shwedagon Paya
Yangon is home to the gold-plated Shwedagon Paya,
which dominates the city from its hilltop site. Today's mighty
monument was built in the 18th century and is surrounded by an
incredible assortment of statues, temples, shrines, images and
pavilions.
Shwedagon Paya er Burmas berømteste pagode. Ordet pagode er
egentlig en fejl. Der er tale om en såkaldt stupa hvis
glitrende spir er dækket af 8000 tykke guldplader og kronet med
diamanter, rubiner, safirer og andre ædelstene.
Pagoden er næsten 100 meter høj og
en stor smaragd midt i stupaen fanger solens sidste stråler.
Omkring det gyldne spir står mere end 100 mindre stupaer,
pavillioner og haller. Statuer af sfinkser, mytiske løver, og
knælende elefanter findes overalt i komplekset.
Her er en ophøjet, fredfyldt atmosfære hvor burmeserne vandrer
rundt om stupaen, finder skytsfiguren for deres fødselsdag og så
hælder vand syv gange over skytsdyret og tolv gange over
buddhafiguren. Eller de beder og mediterer i et af de mange
sidetempler.
NB: Klik på billedet for forstørrelse / Click on photos to enlarge
Jeg kommer i snak med en mediterende, 30-årig munk,
Ashin Nanda, som
har et afklaret udtryk i sit brede, kronragede ansigt med store
milde øjne. Jeg tilbringer et par timer i hans selskab, hvilket
han afviser at modtage en donation for. Han viser mig de to-tre
punkter på tempelområdet hvorfra man i halvmørket kan se
kæmpesmaragden på stupaens top glimte i gule, grønne, røde og
blå farver. Bevæger man sig et skridt til siden forsvinder lyset
fra diamanten. Disse punkter er tilsyneladende en hemmelighed
for de fleste besøgende i templet. (I øvrigt flyttede punkterne
sig omkring en meter efter tsunamikatastrofen, fortæller Ashin
Nanda).
Ashin Nanda lægger også mit horoskop og bebuder at jeg vil få adgang
til det kongelige slot (i Danmark).
NB: Klik på billedet for forstørrelse / Click on photos to enlarge
Downtown
Yangon is widely known for having the most
extensive assortment of urban colonial architecture in Southeast
Asia.
Following the annexation of the country's central and southern
regions by the British as the result of the Second Anglo-Burma
War in 1852, plans were drafted by the conquerors to turn the
village they seized near the mouth of the Ayeyarwaddy River into
a major port. This port would eventually grow into the city of
Yangon. The scheme called for the streets of the expanded town
to be laid out in a grid pattern with the ancient Sule Pagoda as
its central reference point.
Major building construction began in the 1870s, with most of the
well-known structures still standing in the downtown area
erected in the early years of the 20th century. Following
independence in 1948 and the departure of the British, many of
the buildings constructed in the colonial period fell into
disrepair.
http://airmandalay.com/goldenflight/pdf/GF0205_03.pdf
Kolonial
arkitektur
Sule Paya, som udgør
centrum i Yangon
Medens andre sydøstasiatiske byer lider under en brutal
modernisering, der fjerner alle spor af fortiden og af naturen,
så har tiden langt hen ad vejen stået stille i Yangon. Gaderne
har smukke rækker af prægtige grønne træer, og det er let at
finde flotte eksempler på emperietidens administrations-,
kontor-, og boligbyggeri. Vedligeholdelse har der dog ikke været
penge til, så bygningerne har en atmosfære af romantisk forfald.
Fugtigheden driver ned ad murværket og giver fine vækstforhold
for mos og alle mulige grønne plantevækster fra gesimser,
balkoner og sprækker i muren. Samtidig hænger tøjet til tørre på
facaderne, hvilket giver ekstra kolorit til det lidt
undervandsagtige tropisk-grønne miljø.
De gamle busser stammer også fra emperietiden
NB: Klik på billedet for forstørrelse / Click on photos to enlarge
Customs House,
1902
Yangon Division
Court House, 1912
I
Myanmar Tourism Services Co. havde jeg hjemmefra bestilt
flybillet til Heho. Kontoret holdt åbent søndag alene for at
sælge billetten til mig. Direktøren, Thaung Myo Latt, er en ung
mand på 30, som jeg havde haft fin kontakt med hjemmefra via
e-mail, og han virker dygtig og effektiv.
Foto:
Thaung Myo Latt i midten og Lin Htein til højre, rejsebureauets
ejer
Exchange rate: US $ 1 = 1010
kyat (July 05). The rate seems to go up quickly.
No
credit cards or travellers cheques are accepted in Burma.
Visitors should bring enough US Dollars cash to fund their stay.
No automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) in Burma.
Exchange
counters at the airport offer the government approved rate which is
significantly less than the market rate. Instead, change your money in
your guesthouse or at Sule Pagoda. (Your hotel will usually pick you up
at the airport for free).
Hotel and
airline tickets are paid in US dollars.
Airport, Yangon:
Departure
tax US $
10.
E-mail: In
most places in Myanmar it is impossible
to access your hotmail, yahoo, aol accounts, etc. In this way the
military regime is trying to prevent citizens from having too much
contact with the world outside.
Yangon
Travel agency:
Myanmar Tourism
Services Co. is recommended for friendly, helpful service (good
e-mail contact). Moreover, their prices are very competitive.
Guesthouses: Motherland Inn 2,
Yangon, is a friendly and peaceful place to stay, but you need a
taxi to drive the short distance to the city centre (US $ 1).
Beautyland 2. Very
friendly and centrally located, but many rooms have no windows.
Shwedagon Paya: entrance fee US $
5.
Nyaungshwe / Inle Lake
Flight Yangon - Heho. US $ 67.
Heho to Nyaungshwe: shared taxi:
4000 kyat each for four people or 15000 kyat for the taxi.
Guesthouse: Nawng Khan,
US $ 8,
double room. Clean and peaceful, but the owners are not very talkative.
Restaurants: Mee Mee’s Choice near Nawng Khan
serves excellent homemade pasta.
Golden Kite Restaurant was the first
and is still the best Italian restaurant.
You can easily spend
three days in
Nyaungshwe: Day 1: Boat trip on Inle Lake.
Day 2:
One-day trek to hill tribe villages.
Day 3: General sightseeing in the town and along the lake, for instance
on a bike.
One-day boat trip on Inle Lake:
7000 kyat for the boat + government entrance fee: US $ 3 each. Excellent
boatman: Thar Nge, Win Quarter, near Gypsy Inn, at the end of the
street from Nawng Khan.
The evening canoe trip on the
canals around Nyaungshwe is too short and uninteresting, I found.
One-day trek to hill tribe villages
in the hills east of Inle Lake. Price: 13000
kyat for two people, including a boat trip back to Nyaungshwe. Guide: Sein Chu from the trekking/bike shop across the road from
Nawng Khan, next to Aquarius Inn. The walk is nice and we get to visit
local houses. But most importantly, Sein Chu is a limitless source of
information on everyday life in Burma. Moreover, he is a very nice
person and his English is very good.
Kalaw
Taxi Nyaungshwe - Kalaw: US $ 18.
Taxi Kalaw - Pindaya Caves US $ 18.
Guesthouse: Pineland Inn: US $ 6,
double room.
Mandalay
Taxi: Kalaw - Mandalay: US $ 45.
Time: 6-7 hours.
Guesthouses: Royal Guest House, US $
3, single room, shared shower.
Nylon Guest House, US $ 4. Single room.
- I stayed at both places. They
are both fine, but I preferred the Nylon.
Mandalay Marionettes & Culture Show
(puppet show): US $ 5.
Moustache Brothers (performance/show), entrance US
$ 2.
Trishaw
trip:
Full-day (9.00-19.30) trishaw trip around
town (driver: Lahmyo), US $ 3,50. Highly recommended.
Places visited: Mahamuni Paya (free entrance), Shwe In Bin Kyaung (free
entrance), the riverfront where women do their laundry, Atumashi Kyaung,
Shwenandaw Kyaung, Kuthodaw Paya, Sandamani Paya (free entrance),
Kyauktawgyi Paya (free entrance) and Mandalay Hill. - The trishaw
drivers usually wait outside your hotel.
Entrance fees:
There is a new zone ticket, US $ 10, valid for several days, which gets
you into Mandalay Fort and the monasteries and temples around Mandalay,
including Amarapura and Inwa.
U Bein’s Bridge:A great place to while away a
few hours. Walk across the bridge and back, enjoy a beer and the views
of the Ayeyarwady in
one of the small restaurants by the bridge, and sample whole fried fish
in the twilight.
Mandalay - Bagan
Ferry: From Mandalay to Bagan by ferry you can choose between an
express ferry and the slow boat. I went on the slow boat which (in the
rainy season with plenty of water in the river) was actually only about
an hour longer than the express boat. (Maybe, the slow boat is
run by the government.)
The express boat is for tourists and the slow boat is frequented by the
locals. So experience-wise, the slow boat is the better choice. You
spend the day watching how people eat, sleep and pass the time on the
river. Every time the boat moors there is lots of activity to observe:
people getting on and off with all their packages, saleswomen getting on
and trying to get off before the boat departs, etc.
Hsipaw
Hsipaw is a
very enjoyable and friendly place to stay. Don't expect anything
extraordinary, but come here to relax for a few days, visit Mr Donald in
the Shan palace, join the very pleasant, easygoing 5-hour morning walk
(free!) with Mr Charles (from Mr Charles' Guesthouse) through the
rice fields and the peaceful villages, and enjoy a beer and the company
of other travellers on the verandah of the guesthouse. I regretted
afterwards that I didn't also join Mr Charles on his boat trip up the
river.
Namhsan
Getting to Namhsan by public transport seems to depend on your luck.
Nobody knew for certain when the bus would leave. I waited only two
days, which was considered good luck. When I was ready to board the bus,
someone in authority on the bus told the driver not to let me in.
Apparently he was afraid of getting into trouble for permitting me to go
to Namhsan. Instead I had to hire a jeep, US $ 65, for
three days/two nights.
Bagan
Mount Popa: Taxi
to Mount Popa and back, US $ 25.
Night bus to Yangon: 15.00 – 04.30.
Itinerary
Rangoon/Yangon, Inle Lake, Kalaw and
Pindaya Caves, Mandalay, Pyin U Lwin,
Hsipaw,
Namhsan,
Hsipaw, Mandalay,
Bagan,
Yangon
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