Monk with Mobile

We feel a bit more normal today after a night's rest, but we had to get up at 6.15 as we had an early start for a morning's sight-seeing around Yangon. It wasn't too hot when we got to Shwendagon pagoda complex about 7.45. It's an enormous place with a giant gold leaf stupa in the middle of loads of temples. Each day of the week had a special offering place, so according to which day you were born, that's where you'd pour some water over the Buddha images in order to cleanse your mind. So early in the day there were many more locals around than tourists like us.

We then moved to the "downtown area" where there were still many old colonial buildings. Street traders have had more freedom in the last few years, with the consequence that we were pestered by postcard sellers. Also on the street were vendors frying fresh samosas and other interesting-looking delights. Further along was the street was the area for second-hand books - Ang Su San Che's "Letters from Burma" was among George Orwell and medical text books. We visited the post office for stamps. It had a high ceiling with fans, and notices about sending telegrams. It looked from another era. No doubt it will not escape the heavy redevelopment that's going on, mainly by the Chinese.

Next we visited a reclining Buddha in a vast corrugated iron shed. It had to be vast as the Buddha, which looked like a Thai ladyboy, was 327ft long. The original,had been destroyed in WW2, so the present one was erected in 1957.
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