Then a $2:00 taxi to the Shwedagon Paya (pagoda), Yangon's most revered, visited, and photogenic.
Shoes are a no-no, but your bare feet quickly take to the beautiful marble floors, worn smooth (even soft) by millions of pilgrims.
The complex is gigantic, completely covering an enormous hill. There are four entrances (from the four directions), with several tiers of stairs in each. We got lucky in entering on the west, where there are escalators.
There also are elevators (in the tower at the end of the skyway)...
and with the hundreds of vendors...
food service, retail photographers, ATMs/money changers..
and even a Wifi hotspot or two...
the place can feel quite commercial; however, that is tempered by the reverence and serenity of the worshippers...
monks actually praying...
and the equanimity of the many young nuns.
One probably could spend most of the day here, but we got a bit overwhelmed, and in any case we will return in early March for its huge festival.
We did move on to another choice site, Kandawgyi Lake and National Garden, which has some nice views...
and an orchid shed...
The elephants are cement.
The last pic includes a view of the Karaweik, a gigantic stone boat portraying the winged creature, the Garuda, on which Buddha is believed to have ridden.
We had lunch in a nice restaurant on the lake, and then taxied to another pagoda, but we hit a jet lag slump and found a tea shop instead (they all look alike), and then headed back to the hotel, where D napped and I caught up on the blog.
We plan to do a walking tour of some colonial buildings tomorrow, and to take in a few other sites as well.
In the "first impressions" realm, the folks here seem polite and kind and readily break into sincere smiles, but they also appear to be quite industrious and self-disciplined. Could it be that as with Cuba their politics is the culprit that has been keeping them from progressing more?
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Interesting note on the name Garuda, winged creature on which Buddha rode. That's the name of the airline we used to/from Bali so many decades ago. Now I appreciate the significance.
ReplyDeleteLove a good skyway! And I definitely agree with your Cuba analogy in terms of positive cultural forces held back by authoritarianism. Burma's development lag is tragic, as such, but there seems to be a lot of resilience there too, which I imagine you're seeing spring into action if things are really opening up as fast as one reads?
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