Yangon and Ngwe Saung Beach

From Bagan, we took the night bus back to Yangon. This was the longest journey, taking 10 hours. Unfortunately, there was no food break this time, which was unexpected. We had purposely only eaten a small snack for lunch because the food at the restaurants where the buses stop is usually very good and affordable. We arrived at our hotel the next morning at around 7 o'clock and were able to check in directly to our room. Then it was time to sleep again.

Bogyoke Market and Junction City

In the afternoon, we went to the city for the first time. The downtown area of Yangon is quite a contrast to the other places we have seen in Myanmar. With over 7 million inhabitants, it is by far the largest city in the country and the former capital. The city is made up of skyscrapers and many modern and huge shopping centers. And just like how scooters are in Mandalay, taxis are everywhere in Yangon. Especially during rush hour, traffic is a disaster. The streets are completely congested and horns are honking everywhere. Cars and buses can only move at a snail's pace.

Our first stop was the Bogyoke Market. This is the oldest and most famous market in the city. Here you can get souvenirs and jewelry. There is also a small food court where we had delicious street food at a very low price.

To escape the hustle and bustle of the market, we took a stroll through the nearby Junction City Shopping Center. Here, there was everything you could imagine on 4 floors. Even cars. The best part was that there was a bakery with real bread rolls and a supermarket with cheese, so we had a familiar dinner for the first time in over 2 weeks :-)

Circular Train, reclining Buddha, and Shwedagon Pagoda

The next morning, we went to the train station and took the Circular Train. This train circles around the entire city over 20 times a day. The journey covers a distance of about 45 km and takes 3 hours. Here, we saw the other side of Yangon. In the outskirts of the city, there is extreme poverty. People live in wooden huts and it is very dirty. The train was bustling with activity. Countless vendors tried to sell their goods during the journey. You could buy fruits, eggs, and even noodles, which were very tasty.

The next stop was the reclining Buddha pagoda. The statue is 71 meters long and makes an impressive impression.

The last station on the itinerary was the Shwedagon Pagoda. This is the landmark of Myanmar and the largest pagoda in the country. It is located on a 60,000 square meter platform and is surrounded by many small temples and pagodas. The pagoda is 105 meters high and completely covered in gold leaf.

In the evening, we planned to go to Chinatown for dinner. But either we were in the wrong street or there is no real Chinatown in Yangon. We definitely didn't find it, but instead, we found this delicacy ;-) Crispy grasshoppers. However, we decided to go for something else in the end.

Unfortunately, it rained almost continuously the next day, so we spent most of the time in our hotel. In between, we took a short walk through the city park, but it wasn't much fun in the weather.

Hlawga National Park

Our last destination in Yangon was Hlawga National Park. After sitting in the right bus after some communication problems, the excursion started. The park consists of a mini zoo, where there are a few bears, crocodiles, turtles, and many free-roaming monkeys. However, this part of the park didn't take long. Then we went on a buggy ride through the national park. There are several picnic areas where you can get off and on as you wish. First, we saw some water buffalo and unfortunately, some elephants were chained up. We then got off at a small enclosure where we saw a hippopotamus. Unfortunately, it didn't look very happy. But the main attraction of the park is the monkeys. There were hundreds of them. At one point, we had to walk through a whole bunch of monkeys on foot. We felt a bit uneasy as some of the monkeys seemed slightly aggressive. The park is really beautiful, but you don't need more than half a day to visit.

Ngwe Saung Beach

Before leaving Myanmar, we took a detour to the beach. We stayed in a nice little bungalow and tried to spend as much time as possible on the beach. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great at first, but for the last two days, we had almost continuous sunshine. The beach was really beautiful and since we were there during the off-season, it was also very empty. After these four days, we returned to Yangon for one more night before flying to Laos the next day.