Yangon
Myanmar

Yangon (previously Rangoon) city centre, golden but relatively uninteresting Sule Paya roundabout and the Yangon River, Myanmar, (Burma).

Myanmar Travel | Politics | Myanmar Map | Burma Weather

You can't really avoid this busy city, but street life is moderately interesting and Myanmar's #1 pagoda complex, the great gold Shwedagon is fantastic and well worth a few hours. Yangon is good for souvenir shopping too.

A typical Yangon street, approaching the magnificent Yangon Pagoda complex, the most important religious site in Myanmar.

Yangon Pagoda (Paya), encircled by buddha shrines. Pay to enter but it's well worth the ticket. No shorts (short pants) or short skirts are permitted in so cover those thighs!

The Shwedagon Pagoda is Myanmar's most valuable cultural treasure. An entire day can easily be spent at this dazzling hilltop complex, where a mass of elaborate temples encircle the 326-foot pagoda in which eight of Buddha's hairs are embedded. All that glitters here is gold, more than 60 tons of pressed gold leaf, while the top of the spire is encrusted with more than 5,000 diamonds, rubies and sapphires.

Praying to real and digital buddhas.

Thousands of pilgrims come daily to pray at one of the eight buddha shrines that match their day of birth (Wednesday has two).

Bare feet are obligatory in Burma's temples so a good dusk clean up is essential.

From the Shwedagon it is downhill all the way to the National Museum which houses two thousand year's worth of treasures and artifacts. Apart from the Shwedagon complex and the museum the last item of tourist interest in Yangon is shopping.

But there's a lot to see elsewhere in Burma and not much time so hit the road to Bago (Pega) and Golden Rock for more spectacular sights.

Myanmar Travel | Politics | Myanmar Map

Burma Pictures: Bagan | Lake Inle | People | Yangon | Mandalay