The Shwedagon Pagoda, or the Shwedagon Zedi Daw, is considered one of Myanmar’s top places to visit, and the magnificent golden stupa towering over the city can be seen most places in Yangon. Known as the "crown of Burma" it is considered to hold the world's oldest Buddhist stupa believed to be dating back 2600 years.

When Yuma and I arrived at our hotel we got our first Wow experience of the trip as we stepped out on the hotel’s rooftop balcony and saw the fantastic view of the pagoda. The big stupa gilded with gold foils, so you can imagine how it shines up in the night when the spotlights are on. The word “shwe” means gold, and “dagon" is the old name for Yangon, so Shwedagon literarily means something like “Gold Yangon”. In the night the golden shine of Shwedagon can be spotted from far, far away.

You can enter the pagoda area from four different entrances named after the different orientations; east, west, north and south. As our hotel was located right by the east entrance we ended up approaching the pagoda from the east.

Everyone visiting the temple has to take their shoes off before ascending up the long staircase towards the main temple area. By the entrance to the staircase there are women (during daytime) and children (in the evening) who want to sell you plastic bags to put your shoes in, but at the end of the staircase you'll also find a place where you can pay a small fee to leave your shoes as you go visiting the pagoda grounds.

We made our way up the long staircase to the temple, beautifully decorated with ornaments and pictures. The contrast was stark to the many vendors with their small stands all the way up the stairs selling all sorts of bling-bling plastic souvenirs. 

We had to go through a small security check before entering the temple area, and after the check there were only a couple of stairs left until we could reach the temple. 

At the temple we payed a 8000 Kyat entrance fee (foreigners only). They must have had a lot of experience with foreigners not bringing enough cash, because by the entrance to the holy grounds you could find a ATM machine ready at your service. After we had payed the fee and entered the pagoda we were soon approached by a local guide who asked to show us around the pagoda for a small fee. We agreed to his offer, and he took us around the great pagoda.

Day of Week: Sunday
Zodiac animal:Garuda (mythical bird)
Attributes: Kind, generous, challenge seeker, energetic, motivational

Day of Week: Monday
Zodiac animal: Tiger
Attributes: Intelligent, intuitive, detail & goal oriented, strong, patient, respectful of laws and responsible.

Day of Week: Tuesday
Zodiac animal: Lion
Attributes: Natural leader, dignified, honorable, strong-willed, opinionated, decision-maker, challenge seeker

Day of Week: Wednesday Morning
Zodiac animal: Elephant (with tusks)
Attributes: Unpredictable, enthusiastic, spontaneous, passionate, independent

Day of Week: Wednesday Afternoon
Zodiac animal: Elephant (without tusks)
Attributes: Contradictory nature, doesn't like interference, excellent at promoting own works, avoids risks, is successful in business, able to accomplish achievements

Day of Week: Thursday
Zodiac anima: Rat
Attributes: Clever, witty, intelligent, good at spotting opportunities, can be introverted and quiet, but also focused and driven

Day of Week: Friday
Zodiac animal: Guinea Pig
Attributes: Artistic, creative, easily bored, loving, kind, sympathetic, sensitive to others, a wonderful friend

Day of Week: Saturday
Zodiac animal: Dragon
Attributes of the Dragon: Philosophical, understanding, confident, great sense of humour, independent 

(You can find more detailed information about the Burmese Zodiac here)

The best part of our stay in Yangon was without doubt our visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda. For the rest of the city we wrapped up our sightseeing in one day with a couple of places of interest. We started out by taking a taxi from our hotel situated next to the Shwedagon Pagoda to the Central Railway Station, and soon discovered that the taxi-drivers we stopped weren’t particularly good with reading maps and/or roman characters. Finally we found a guy who, after having repeated the name of the destination back and forth at least five times, agreed to take us along a no more than five-minutes drive to the station.

Yangon's Central Railway Station is beautiful, but one can argue that a renovation would be in place

We didn't stay in this area for a long time, but the short visit to the station was good for finally convincing us to opt for taking the night bus rather than train when leaving for Kalaw after having seen the somewhat aged trains. From the station we walked towards the downtown area of the city, and passed by a wide variety of old buildings and landscapes.

Although we didn’t pass any particular sightseeing spots on the way it was still interesting to feel the atmosphere of the city and watch the people and the architecture on our way. People did’t seem to pay too much notice to foreigners, and we could go undisturbed through the streets of Yangon. Despite being crowded and rather unorganized we never felt unsafe as we strolled down the downtown area.

We were heading for the heart of Yangon, which among other things is home to the famous Sule Pagoda. In the end we decided not to go into the pagoda as we had planned to spend more time visiting the Shwedagon Pagoda instead, but we still got a nice view of the pagoda from the surrounding areas, including the Maha Bandoola park.

A lot of locals seemed to be enjoying the park in the cloudy but warm weather. This was a nice place to chill out for a little while for us as well, and Yuma took the opportunity to try some of the exercise machines.

The iconic High Court Building right to the east of the park

After our relaxing time in the park we continued towards the local Chinatown, and in the area we soon discovered some smaller market streets where they were selling vegetables and meat. Although it was quite a lot of people in the market it was interesting to get a closer look at how people were living their daily life here in the city. Below are some of my photos from the local market.