This city deserves more than a layover at its airport
Yangon is almost always the gateway to the country for most travelers visiting Myanmar and, for many, exclusively that. Mistake. Because this ramshackle town, and apparently with little substance, deserves more than a layover at your airport.
Beyond that it is there one of the most important pilgrimage centers in the country, the impressive Shwedagon Pagoda , also preserves the largest British colonial complex in Asia. In total, 187 buildings cataloged between old power plants that gave energy to the financial district, administrative buildings, banks... that are concentrated above all in Pansodan and Strand streets. Many are dilapidated, others start a second life.
From shopping in a local market to a refined cocktail in a hotel, We go through them jumping from one to another.
Shwedagon Pagoda, one of the most important pilgrimage centers in the country
SHOPPING
If filling the bag is one of the favorite activities of the traveler in Myanmar, Yangon will be the last opportunity (better at the end of the trip) to get hold of many of the handicrafts that are produced throughout the country **(fabrics, lacquer, mother-of-pearl, antiques...) ** in a single point: the Bogyoke Market.
Built at the time of the British Empire, in 1926, this market has more than 2,000 positions where everything is reliable except jewelry, which is preferable to buy in specialized establishments.
As a curiosity, you will be surprised to see that people buy birds and then release them. It is a ritual by means of which merits are 'earned'.
IN THE MUSEUM
The Bogyoke Aung San Museum is a small museum in a house with a garden from the 1920s, where lived aung-san , considered the founder of the country and the person responsible for the independence of Burma , until a couple of years before he was assassinated, in 1947.
In it are preserved the original furniture and decoration of the bedroom, the bookcase, the living room... in addition to his official car and even the manuscripts of some of his speeches.
Bogyoke Market, THE PLACE to shop
TO EAT
Rangoon Teahouse , behind a beautiful black and white facade on Pansodan Road, is a tea house like those in British times but in contemporary version.
Here is served typical country street food, but without testing the visitor's stomach. You have to try the mone hnin khar (noodle soup), pork dip and samosas.
A ROMANTIC DINNER
For something sophisticated, you have to book in the beautiful restaurant Le Planteur , located in a building next to a lake with a garden and several halls with period decoration. French food, Swiss service, encyclopedic wine list and sophisticated atmosphere (for a fee).
A 'tea house' from the British era, but in a colonial version
TO FINISH, A COCKTAIL
there isn't a cocktail bar more special in the whole country than the The Sarkies Bar in The Strand Yangon , named after the hotel's founders, the famous Sarkies brothers.
Is found in a late 19th century building facing the Irrawaddy River and it is a verdaera return to the colonial era. Although both the bar and the hotel have been refurbished, much of the furniture that was seen passing through politicians, actors, writers or musicians continue here: the solid teak bar with the circular mirror, the photos of history, the carved wooden British coat of arms and, the jewel in the crown, its wonderful pool table.
The drinks go in line with the scenario: classic cocktails and some signature, even some that are macerated directly in barrels made with local rum.