romantic myanmar, not

When i thought of Myanmar, I thought of burma, the romantic colonials, breezy cloisters with arches, wooden shutters, slender women wearing exquisite pencil like longhis, smell of jasmine and tamarind, merchants trading on the busy narrow streets. The colonial buildings in Yangon were either hidden behind scaffolding or left dilapidated and some ridden with bullet holes. Broken sidewalks, litter on the streets, human and vehicle congestion, street vendors selling unsavory meats, steamy noodles, pancakes and deep fried food, the mixture of different smells, the dust, the noise, a typical Asiatic city. We sampled some street fried pancakes in peanuts and almond flavor and they were indeed quite good. In Shwedagon pagoda, I've learned of the buddha stations, one for each day of the week. I was born on Monday and the station animal was tiger, exactly coincided with my chinese zodiac animal. I've watered the Monday buddha statue every chance I saw these buddha stations. The golden stupa in the Shwedagon pagoda was stunning. The buildings had the burmese version of buddhist design that were distinguished from the Thai and Cambodian. However, not to the grandeur of either. or maybe because I've seen the ones in Thailand and Cambodia first, so I wasnt too impressed here. The 66 meters long reclining buddha in Chaukhtatgyi Temple was huge and very feminine looking. The statue was white with red feet. it had big glass eyes with long curved lashes and red lipsticked lips. 108 lakshanas or auspicious characteristics of the buddha were carved on the soles of the feet. Fairly impressed. In the afternoon we flew yangon airways to Heho in the shan state to spend the next few days exploring Inle Lake.

Yangon photos: