Yangon - market and cycle rickshaws - v.g. photo
Yangon – Burma
Likes
- The beautiful golden pagoda of Shwedagon, which is so bright you can hardly look at it in the sunlight. Spectacular.
- Sule Pagoda: a beautiful pagoda you could spend hours looking at.
- Chaukhtatgyi Buddha Temple. There is a beautiful, reclining Buddha inside. Entry is free.
- Chinatown: walking around and people-watching.
- Bogyoke market: there are a lot of interesting things to buy, and we spent several enjoyable hours in the market.
- Local people are very pleasant, and always smile.
- Both the child and the adult monks are charming. Men in Myanmar go to a monastery twice in their lifetime.
During the day, local people help the monks with food and money.
- There was no dust on the street, and motorcyclists drove sensibly.
- Taxis are cheaper and easier to find than elsewhere in Asia.
- Taxi drivers don't want to pull you over, you can bargain.
- The 999 Shan Noodle place, where we always ate delicious food and had no stomach problems. And it's very reasonably priced. Not expensive for travelers.
Dislikes
- At first, we couldn't find a regular, good-quality place to eat. We found it the next day.
-bugs
- locals mostly don't speak English, so communication is very difficult.
- hotels can't provide normal information either. This happened, for example, when we went to Silver Beach. Also known as Ngwesaung. We received incorrect information from the locals, who said that you can go directly from the beach to Bagan by bus.
When we were there, unfortunately, it rained all the time and we couldn't enjoy the place. It turned out that there is no direct bus from here to Bagan, so we had to go back to Yangon again, and that was a big disappointment. I'm only writing this so that others don't end up in the same situation. (Bernadett, 2019)
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“I liked the city, despite how crowded it is. We expected much more backwardness and poverty. Many blogs say that they are 40 years behind other Asian countries, but I don't think that's true. We often had the feeling that it was very similar to Cuba, but I think it is more developed than Sri Lanka.” (2017)
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“From the airport, the only kind of taxi worth taking into the city is an ‘official taxi’, which costs a maximum of 8-12 thousand Kyat, depending on whether the destination is around the Shwedagon Pagoda or the lower part of the city. Of course, the official taxi driver is also a private entrepreneur. In the arrivals area, a sign shows where the taxis are, and it’s best to go straight there, without dealing with the few cowboy taxi drivers who offer to take you for 15 USD (about 22.5 thousand Kyat).
In any case, there are plenty of taxis in Yangon (in fact, there is a taxi sign on every 4th-5th car), but there is no taxi clock, you have to ask the driver about the price before leaving. Most will take you anywhere in the city for 2-4 thousand Kyat.
The entrance fee to Shwedagon Pagoda was 10,000 Kyat, Botahtaung Pagoda was 6,000 Kyat, and Sule Pagoda cost 3 US dollars.
There are local guides in the pagodas who speak English (and other major languages.). You can get a lot of interesting information from them, but you need to clarify the price in advance. A realistic price is between 5-10 thousand Kyat.
If you don't want (or dare) to buy food from a street vendor, you will find several high-quality malls with restaurants and cafes in the city.
The people were nice and helpful, we didn't experience any inconveniences or other unpleasantness.” (2019)