Yangon: Schwedagon - The Most Amazing Sight In Asia?
February 8, 2007
Once again back in Myanmar! We have a love affair with this amazing country, and now here for the fifth time, it’s obvious that Yangon continues to rapidly develop. But the primary attraction in town, Schwedagon Pagoda, is of course still here in all it’s incredible splendor.
Our path to get here was long but relatively painless. After a 13-hour flight from San Francisco I was just about to lose my moorings when we arrived at Taipei, where I was saved by the opportunity to get a full night sleep in the comfort of the blissfully-placed Evergreen Transit Lounge. I can’t sleep on a plane, so being able to breakup long flights to Southeast Asia with an in-terminal overnight stay in a real bed almost brought tears of joy. I woke up a little early, walked out of my room, and about 100 feet from our door was a Starbucks and a Subway Sandwich shop! Other than everyone being a foot shorter than me, having black hair and speaking in broken English, it kinda felt like home.
Then it was 3 ½ hours from Taipei to the new, huge, ultra-deluxe, super-modern airport in Bangkok. I didn’t think there was much wrong with the old airport, but a showcase airport seems to be a requirement for the developing Asian economies, so now Bangkok has their entry. To me it seemed like a gigantic shopping mall, where planes also happened to come and go.
As I recall, the old Bangkok airport had essentially one place to eat, that I’ll loosely call a coffee shop. Well, the new one has several food courts, plus a few dozen nice eateries, and approximately four zillion upscale shops. Thinking it might be our last nice meal for a while, we had lunch at a foofy pasta bar. At Bangkok airport! Hernandez (my wife Michelle) saw all this as a great sign of progress, but it was a little too civilized for my adventure-travel-preferences, so I hung my head and ate my pasta pesto.
Upon arrival at Yangon Airport I was expecting a chaotic scene at immigration, in a charmingly rustic and dysfunctional airport, with various folks inviting payoffs before I got out of the terminal. But for better or worse, that wasn’t the case! Even Myanmar has spruced up their airport. There’s a new arrival hall; actual lines at immigration instead of just a heaving scrum; we got through customs and immigration with a surprising degree of efficiency; and in general it all felt like at least the 1980s, if not the 21st century.
First day, and in fact every day in Yangon, we went out to Schwedagon Pagoda, which to me is one of the most stupendous sights and experiences in Asia. The huge golden stupa is the most visible element of Schwedagon. It’s mostly covered with gold leaf, though towards the top it’s gold plated, and at the very top are a few thousand diamonds, including one which is said to be a single 76-carat stone.
The time to visit Schwedagon is late afternoon, when the temperatures cool and the locals come out. The stupa is surrounded by a circular marble walkway, and the locals walk a few laps around the stupa, and pray at any of the dozens of smaller temples in the Schwedagon complex. Schwedagon can only be described as a magical place. When the sun goes down, a few dozen women line-up with brooms and begin sweeping the marble walkway. In the peace all you hear is the gentle “shooshing” of a hundred brooms.
On one of our visits there we happened to catch a big celebration. Schwedagon is a Buddhist temple, and a couple of the most important monks in Myanmar were visiting. The monks, and hundreds of others, paraded around the stupa, and were showered with adulation as well as donations. Gongs were going, incense was in the air, chanting here and there – it was quite a spectacle. See our short video on youtube if you’re interested (unfortunately the quality isn’t great, but you’ll get the idea).
It wasn’t so long ago that Myanmar was a mystical, remote location where only intrepid backpackers came. No more. I’d say it’s now a mystical location where mainstream tourists come. Many of the arrivals are package tourists, and an increasingly nice tourist infrastructure is developing to meet their needs. Though the sight of many more Westerners at Schwedagon and elsewhere makes me a little wistful for “the old days,” it certainly does have some benefits. For example, we stayed at a hotel (Parkview Summit) that largely catered to businessmen, with nice modern rooms, air-conditioning, a nice pool, a great breakfast buffet, etc., for only about $40 a night. That same room would go for $125 in Bangkok and $300 in San Francisco.
As is the case everywhere in Asia, there’s always a general-purpose fixer who “has a friend” that can take care of all your needs. When we arrived we spent the first night at another hotel…which I won’t name in order to protect the innocent. In this case, the lady at the front desk was the general purpose fixer. Need a car? A travel agent? A place to stay upcountry? Airport transport? Change money? No problem – “I have a friend.” And indeed she did.
The hotel rate for changing money was 1000 Kyat (pronounced “chat”) to the dollar, but with “her friend” she got me a rate of 1200. The biggest bill in the country is 1000 Kyat, i.e., a little less than a dollar, so when I changed $200 I was handed a big plastic bag full of Kyat. Though it’s officially considered the black market, it’s how absolutely everyone changes money here, so it’s no big deal. Anyway, somewhat like in the movies, I survey the big bag of money, pull out a random wad and count it as a spot-check to see if all the money’s there, and the deal was done. In reality, we could probably make our way around the country using nothing but dollars, which is the currency everyone wants. Understandable, since the whacky government has twice de-monitized the currency (i.e., “sorry Sir, but the bills you’re holding are now worthless!” Can you imagine?) in the last 20 years or so, so there’s not much confidence in the Kyat.
We took a look around Yangon, and it’s increasingly becoming another busy Asian capital. Downtown the traffic and pollution were a little bit of a problem, and in some areas of town I’d put on a dust mask or breathe through a handkerchief to filter out some of the junk. However, it’s still worth a look. We had a drink at the upscale Strand hotel, and enjoyed a trip or two to Bogyoke Market, the main market in town. Hundreds of stalls are inside, selling gems, fabrics, garments, and increasingly, tourist items. It’s a great place to wander around for a few hours. Haggling is of course the order of the day, though in Myanmar the haggling is relaxed and fun, not the cut-throat exercise it can be in places like India.
One thing that we're relieved to see hasn't seemed to have changed is the fascinating, friendly people. The people of Myanmar are an absolute joy in every way. Myanmar is a photographer's dream, and the colorful people make for wonderful subjects. The women and girls generally wear thanka paste on their faces as a sunblock, and also as a decoration.
One day we took a ferry across the river to Dalah, and from there hired a jeep and driver to go down to Twante, a town known for it’s pottery. Twante was no big deal, but the 10-minute ferry ride across the river to Dalah was good fun. Michelle blended right in with the crowd.
We left Yangon by plane, catching a flight to Heho, the jumping-off point for Inle Lake. The departure area for domestic flights is more along the lines of what you’d expect in Myanmar: No audible flight announcements, and nobody really knows what’s going on. Every once in a while a guy appears in a doorway holding a sign for a flight, at which point everyone scrambles to see if it’s their plane, and if so, they then get into a scrum to get through the door and out onto the tarmac.
The departure lounge had a TV, and I was taken aback to see videos featuring Burmese rappers! They were singing and flapping and jerking around just like the gang-bangers at home; wearing headbands and with pants draped around their knees. Certainly not the best of our American exports…
While we were sitting there, over the course of 20 minutes or so about eight fighter jets of the Myanmar Air Force went screaming off the runway. We hoped it was just practice. In trying to sooth Hernandez, I suggested that it was a good sign that they could get a plane in the air without crashing it. She did not see the humor….
It’s worth mentioning a few things about the political situation, which is a long, complex and controversial topic. Bottom line is that there’s a military government in place that rules with an iron fist, and which is fairly bizarre. In November 2005 they suddenly moved the capital from Yangon to a place called Pyinmana, apparently because they feared the US might attack them. The logic was that moving the capital further inland would make an attack more difficult. I don’t know if anyone mentioned to them that (a) the US has no interest in attacking them, and (b) the US has an Air Force and could probably cover another 200 miles inland to get to the new capital.
Anyway, the net of all this is that when jets from the Myanmar Air Force keep roaring down the runway, it tends to get your attention….
Bob’s Ratings (1=terrible, 5=ok; 10=fantastic):
- Yangon overall: 6
- Schwedagon Pagoda: 10
- Bogyoke Market: 7
- Summit Parkview Hotel: 8 (as midrange hotels go)
- Twante: 4
Next: Inle Lake - Bolshoi On The Water