16.05.18 - 20.05.18 Yangon

On the morning of May 15th, it was finally time to leave Europe. After 18 hours, 3 flights, some snacks, movies, and futile attempts to sleep, we arrived at our first destination - Myanmar. After deciding not to visit it on our last trip (complicated entry conditions for land routes), it was clear that we wanted to start here this time.

Already when we stepped out of the airport, the air almost knocked us out - it is so extremely hot and humid here. After completely exhausted, we settled into our "room" (more like a bed with walls =)) in our guesthouse, we couldn't resist eating the first eagerly awaited noodle soup before spending the afternoon in the air-conditioned bed. In the evening, our luggage was complemented by a fancy umbrella, which has already proven to be very useful during the heavy rains.

The next day, we were ready to start our program. Our first walk took us to our first rice meal before attempting to climb the Shwedagon Pagoda. It is said to be one of the largest in Southeast Asia and is completely coated in gold. Allegedly, there are 4 strands of Gautama Buddha's hair in the pagoda. Like every other pagoda in Myanmar, this one also can only be entered barefoot, which is not always pleasant on the heated stones. After a round around the pagoda, we had to escape the scorching sun and walked a few streets to a lake to "cool down" in the shade of the trees.

We spent the next day doing one of our favorite activities in Asia - exploring various markets. For this, we stayed in the city center. Lea was particularly excited to encounter her beloved rambutans again at the markets. After looking at a few buildings in the city center, it started raining again, or rather monsooning. So we ended our day after a short escape into the tea house.

On our last day in Yangon, we wanted to ride the train a little bit. There is the circular railway ... it takes 3 hours for the 40-kilometer loop. However, since our destination was only 6 stops away, we only had to endure about half an hour of bumpy ride. From here, we visited the larger of the two lakes in Yangon. However, since a large part of the shore is owned by various hotels and restaurants, the public part is neither large nor spectacular and exposed to the scorching sun. On the way back, we used our favorite means of transportation again - our feet.

We spent our last day in Yangon strolling around a bit, including seeking refuge from the heat in a modern shopping center among thousands of other people. But at least it was cool.

Overall, we noticed that the number of tourists and travelers is very limited. After all, Myanmar has not been open to the outside world for very long, and it is also the rainy season. So we only encountered about ten "obvious" tourists in Yangon.

In the evening, we were supposed to continue to Nyaung U by night bus to visit the temples of Bagan. More on that later.