Day 14, Yangon: Pagoda-palooza.

(Posted by Andrew about the events of Dec 25; Yangon, Myanmar.)

Today we started with our fourth 5AM wake-up in a row so I could somewhat follow in my grandfather's footsteps and head north to Myanmar. He served there during WW2 for the British Army, but I'm guessing a tour guide didn't meet him at the airport.

We weren't sure what to expect from Myanmar but so far have found Yangon to be relatively clean and up-to-date, especially compared to the rubble of India and Nepal. Mostly it consists of old colonial buildings left over from British rule that are only just being restored as the country slowly opens its doors to the rest of the world.

We were only taken to our hotel long enough to drop off our bags before being whisked off for a half-day tour of the city. We started at Shwedagon Pagoda, which is really just the largest of about two bazillion other pagodas around it. Myanmar is about 85% Buddhist and they really like their pagodas.

After that we were off to the Reclining Buddha of Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda. He was big; really big.

Now I keep saying in every post that this'll be the last post for a while but then we keep running into unexpectedly good internet connections. However, tomorrow we head further north to Mandalay and our river cruise, and the tour operator has warned that internet is virtually non-existent there so this time I mean it when I say you won't hear from us for a week.

Unless, of course, you do.