Mandalay - Myanmar

Mandalay – Myanmar

Post published:2 April 2016
Post category:Asia Myanmar Southeast Asia

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Yadanabon: The City of Gems

Our third and last destination while in Myanmar, continuing farther to the north on this rather large country even if you did not realize; and after a very short 30 minutes flight we arrived in Mandalay. The second largest city in the country and one of the most historical and important, packed with temples everywhere and with three former Imperial Capitals on the outskirts. And yet even that we knew our time was meant to be very limited altogether, we managed to definitely be able to say we’ve really been there and visited almost everything!. Rushing at times, but well worth invested time. This was also our last place while in Myanmar before departing back to Bangkok; and for sure it is out of question we can clearly say how much we loved this country!

On a similar way Beijing in China with its Forbidden City, here in Mandalay there is also a huge Royal Palace in the middle of the city, completely surrounded by kilometres of walls and a water canal through its entire perimeter. This is the sight number one, but not the only one. We did not expect so many historical places in the city to be honest. Temple after temple, from large to an even larger! Thankfully most of them located towards the northeastern quarter of the city. Our trip could have not ended any better, but on this occasion, I must confess I was truly unhappy for having to return back to London after such a great time. Gladly I would have stayed for weeks discovering this fascinating country.

Now we also know there is an extra reason why to return to Southeast Asia. Not only that we are already so much in Love with Thailand, Laos and Cambodia ever since the first step we did in those; now, we have also to add Myanmar onto this list. I only hope this beautiful country, its people, culture and everything does not change too much since their long awaited opening to the world. It will be “too sad” to see in the near future McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and the likes of the Western World which you can find on every corner on at the neighboring countries, especially Thailand. (more…)

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Bagan - Myanmar

Bagan and Mount Popa – Myanmar

Post published:30 March 2016
Post category:Asia Myanmar Southeast Asia

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Arimaddana-pura: City that Tramples on Enemies

Reaching the highlight of this journey, Bagan. The most memorable place and world renown image of Myanmar to the outside world; and for us, the reason number 1 on why to come to visit this fascinating country. The immense place will leave you speechless with the more than 2200 temples scattered in the plateau. And now imagine how its heyday might have looked like with over 10000 temples during the 9th and 13th centuries when the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan. It is by all means the place with the largest and densest concentration of Buddhist temples, stupas, pagodas and monuments in the world.

From the 13th century and until the 15th when the city declined no longer being the capital. And only the most important and famous temples were kept up to date, refurbished and upgraded through the centuries, meaning that many other thousands fell into disrepair and lost. Nowadays only thousands of piles of rocks are their solely remnant of their location. Earthquakes have done their part too, damaging and destroying many structures. Fortunately many hundreds have been questionably restored. And I use the word “questionably” because their restoration did not follow the original design nor features and fittings, hence why the entire place has not made it yet to be inscribed as a World Heritage Site. UNESCO claims that the restoration vaguely follows the original, and for now it remains on the Tentative List.

Bagan, apart from the archaeological site, has nothing else to see or do. And unless you have some plans to get farther to the many great sites nearby, then do not plan any longer than 2 days. Yes it is true the site is vast and you could be spending more days to visit, in the other hand and after visiting the most important temples, the rest are all pretty much the same. New Bagan, located to the north of Old Bagan is just a simple a modern small city where majority of hotels and facilities for tourists are, and residence to the local people. Old Bagan is a deserted place on the early morning and late evening hours. (more…)

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Yangon - Myanmar

Yangon – Myanmar

Post published:29 March 2016
Post category:Asia Myanmar Southeast Asia

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Rangoon, End of Strife

Accomplishing a long time dream we finally managed to come to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma which is still a widely used name; right before the country transforms itself and loses character and uniqueness since the lifting of majority of the sanctions imposed by the Western World and overall opening to the world after many years of strict closeness for its long lasting military rule. Unfortunately from now on it is matter of time until the first Western establishments start to pop all over the country, as the likes of McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut and so on.

Myanmar is a big country within Southeast Asia when compared to the other countries neighboring countries. It is quite long too, and it is packed with history on every corner. Even though the country suffered from a long war, with the British colonizing it in three different stages; then again suffering WWII, not much was lost architecturally speaking through the country, although Yangon was the most affected. However, it is the city with the largest amount of colonial structures in the country. The British, upon colonization, developed and grew the key cities following an orthogonal grid pattern urbanism, with parks and lakes, and transformed Yangon into the commercial and political hub of the British Burma, it’s capital. While no longer the capital of the country, it is still the largest and most important in the country.

There’s a lot to do and visit in Yangon. We planned 3 days, which unfortunately changed to just 2 since our outbound flight was cancelled and lost an entire day trying to get there. We managed in any case to see the majority of the city and really enjoyed our first contact with Myanmar, before continuing the rest of the planned tour in the country. (more…)

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