Category: Myanmar

It was another hot day, but I took to the streets to walk down to the Yangon River. I didn’t know what was down there, and I wanted to find out. Was it an industrial wasteland? Was the shoreline dotted with fishing villages and fishing boats? Could I even reach…

Heat stroke might be overstating things a bit, but perhaps not. The heat was intense on my trip to the beautiful Shwedagon Pagoda, and the sunlight bouncing off the white stone tiles was so bright that it was difficult to even keep my eyes open at times. The stone was…

On Day 3 of the Water Festival, I knew a bit more what to expect. Thinking back, I probably should have gone to a different part of Yangon, but I didn’t know where else to go. So I stayed in my own neighborhood near City Hall and Sule Pagoda. I…

Once again, I had no idea what to expect on Day 2 of the Thingyan water festival in Yangon. Would things change? Would they just pick up the festive air and the music and the water wars from where they left off on Day 1? If anything, things got more…

I knew about Thingyan. I knew it was Myanmar’s biggest annual festival. I knew it celebrated the arrival of the new year. AND I knew it was a water festival. (That’s one of the reasons I bought a waterproof GoPro and brought it with me.) But, honestly, I had no…

The Sule Pagoda is over two and a half thousand years old, and it marks the center of Yangon. Right from when I arrived at the airport, its name came up because the final stop of the airport bus was Sule Plaza, and my hostel was located just a couple…

It was a pleasant surprise to learn that the Lil Yangon Hostel provided breakfast in the morning for its guests. I started my first day in Yangon enjoying that breakfast, and then I settled in for a very long wait as my single room was prepared. I wasn’t able to…