Myanmar-velous 1: Going, going, Yangon

Flew in to Yangon on Saturday morning, met up with someone from our tour company and went over the itinerary, then got in the car and headed through the winding streets to our hotel on the other side of the city, stopping occasionally for traffic. Went out for a walk, through sweaty, run-down streets, dodging cars [which have the steering wheel on the right, but also drive on the right-weird Myanmar fact for you] and betel-nut spit, until we got into the downtown section, with big old decaying colonial buildings, vegetable sellers on the sidewalk, one street filled with book-sellers selling stacks of decaying paperbacks, tons of street-food including steamed pork-guts and other strangeness. Found a little restaurant that smelled good and got some delicious curry and a paratha, went back to the hotel for a nap [and to watch the soccer game in the street outside]. 

After dark took a taxi in to Chinatown, walking through the market selling all kinds of food and other nonsense, and had a bbq dinner at some incomprehensible alley “restaurant” where we walked half a block (through other restaurants) to look at the selection of food, picked what we wanted, and somehow got it relatively soon thereafter. Back to the hotel to pass out.

Next morning, started the guided tour with our tour guide Myo, 

Rani and Myo walkin' through Yangon

down to our first [BUT NOT LAST!!] temple, with some of the Buddha’s hair in it, 

One of the golden corridors in the Buddha hair temple, really called Botahtaung Pagoda

hearing lots of interesting history about the place and Buddhism. Then a long, sweaty walk through the colonial district, 

Old courthouse. Outside on the street were stalls where kids who couldn't get their parents' permission could sign contracts to get married.

through the Strand Hotel [very, very white], past a nice park in the center of town, and FINALLY [guide wouldn’t give us a break] to a tourist-trap restaurant for some pretty good lunch. 

Big old reclining Buddha, 

Chauk Htatt Ghyee

dodging old French tourists to get a good picture, 

This tool was the first of a herd of French seniors who rushed the platform; I'm giving him the stink-eye.

through an indoor gem market we really didn’t want to go to, to a park by the big lake, and finally to the biggest show in town, Shwe Dagon. 

This time it's serious.

Huge pagoda with tons of history, fancy “umbrella” on top made of donated jewelry, learned about our day-of –the-week corners, animals, attributes (mine’s a bird with a Groucho nose (Garuda?), Rani’s is a Guinea pig), washed our respective idols with water, 

Rani washing her Buddha, you can see Friday's Guinea pig at the bottom.

and sat down to listen to a woman sing/chant some Buddhist scripture. After a long, hot day of walking and sitting in traffic, I actually really appreciated this, got into the rhythm, and just watched all the people from everywhere flocking by, getting lost in it all for a moment.  A good end to our first full day (which felt like about 3) in Myanmar.

One additional anecdote I thought was cool:

This bell was stolen by the British during the colonial period, but they dropped it in a river! HA! Later fished out by the locals, as illustrated below.