Since 2013 I'm traveling and living in Southeast Asia but somehow I never made it to Myanmar. This month Tobi and me finally booked a ticket to Yangon and explored some parts of the beautiful country. Yay!
Shwedagon Pagoda
THE highlight of the city was definitely the huge, golden Shwedagon Pagoda. It's one of the most beautiful pagodas and Buddhist temples I've ever seen in Southeast Asia!
The Shwedagon is the most important sacred building and landmark of Myanmar. Can you believe it's already more than 2500 years old? According to a legend, it was already built before the death of Gautama Buddha 486 B.C.
Not only the pagoda itself is imposing, also the whole area around it with countless statues of Buddhas, a Bodhi tree and many other shrines. You can see dozens of locals walking around the pagoda and cleaning the floor. Also, there's a Buddha for every day of the week so you can watch the locals holding a special cleaning ceremony for this very Buddha. By the way, don't forget to dress properly when you visit this holy place.
In my opinion the best time to visit is in the afternoon, so you can explore the place during daytime and then just find a nice spot to enjoy the sun going down behind the large pagoda. During the sunset I even had a very nice chat with a lovely Buddhist monk who also loves traveling.
Blue hour at the Shwedagon Pagoda
What else we have visited in Yangon
There's not only the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon that you can visit. Another beautiful place is the Sule Pagoda. It's not as huge as the Shwedagon but still impressive. You can walk around the big golden Stupa and discover many shrines and Buddha statues around. It's a popular place of worship for locals as well. Next to it, there is the
If you're tired of temples and pagodas, you can visit the catholic St. Mary's Cathedral. Not very often you will find a big cathedral like this in Asia. It reminded me very much of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Saigon, which was also very impressive. Definitely worth a quick visit when in Yangon.
Another highlight was the Yangon Yangon sky bar. The view at Yangon with its 2 huge golden pagodas is breathtaking and the prices for drinks are moderate. Also, there's not too many tourists so you can surely find a place to enjoy the view. Make sure to go up there in the late afternoon so you can enjoy the view before sunset and night.
View at the Shwedagon Pagoda from the Yangon Yangon bar
View at the Sule Pagoda and St. Mary's Cathedral
More articles about Myanmar are soon to come. Have you ever been to Yangon? What was your personal highlight?
