{"id":987,"date":"2019-01-22T16:15:44","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T16:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=987"},"modified":"2026-08-19T19:53:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T19:53:49","slug":"myanmar-oz-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=987","title":{"rendered":"MYANMAR & OZ. 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jet-lagged (as planned!) we arrived for breakfast ten minutes before closing time (not as planned)!\u00a0 But everyone here is so friendly and helpful.\u00a0 They just told us to take our time.\u00a0 The omelette man made us omelettes, the pancake girl made us waffles and pancakes, the cheese waller produced a huge array of – well cheeses, of course (which he had just packed away for the day) – and so on.\u00a0 The manager even brought us a bag to take out croissants and buns and satsumas for a snack later.\u00a0 Like I say – so helpful.<\/p>\n

Next stop, the bank.\u00a0 You can’t buy “chats” outside the country.\u00a0 We changed $US 20 and got 17 million of the things in exchange.\u00a0 They are actually kyats – just pronounced “chats” – and you get about 1,500 to the dollar and nearly 2,000 to the pound sterling I think.<\/p>\n

Glenda had a list of “three things we must do in Yangon”.\u00a0 I’ve seen the list and there are seven things on it!\u00a0 Anyway, first up are the old colonial buildings down Pansodan Street.\u00a0 But on the way we passed a train of six bullocks pulling a parade float through the city centre. As they do!<\/p>\n

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The old colonial buildings must have been magnificent in their day.\u00a0 Some still were – like the City Hall…<\/p>\n

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… while others have been a bit neglected…<\/p>\n

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And while some places are good to eat at…<\/p>\n

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….others are a lot less so!<\/p>\n

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Time for number two on the list.\u00a0 The Shwedagon Pagoda.\u00a0 Clearly visible from our bedroom window, it rises to a height of over 180 m.\u00a0 We went via attraction number three, the Kan Daw Gyi Lake and the Karaweik Palace.\u00a0 As it was quite a way, we decided on a taxi ride.\u00a0 Several minutes haggling got the price down (or possibly up, I’m not sure!) to 4000 kyat.\u00a0 The walk round the lake started well on a boardwalk. But soon this degenerated so badly that we were relegated to the road (AKA the traffic jam).\u00a0 The Palace… I can now use our photo … looked beautiful in the sun …<\/p>\n

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But access to the park which was controlled by half a dozen guards cost us 300 kyat each – maybe 15p.\u00a0 The path round the north side was at least off the road and ended up in the Botanic Centre which turned out to be where everyone bought their garden plants<\/p>\n

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The road leading up to the Shwedagon Pagoda from the East is a cluttered tangle of shops selling all manner of Buddhist paraphanalia, flower sellers and young kids selling plastic bags.\u00a0 There were taxis everywhere – mostly not going anywhere fast.\u00a0 Shoes off – and now we know what the kids were selling bags for!\u00a0 The pagoda looks quite impressive from a distance but the tacky shops either side of the zillion steps up to the terrace were anything but.\u00a0 When we got to the top we had to sign in and pay 10,000 k each.\u00a0 All foreigners are charged\u00a0 – and the East entrance had signed in about 15 guests that day.\u00a0 OK, there are four gates and it was still only 5 pm – but 60 foreigners a day is not a lot!<\/p>\n

… But, boy, was the place impressive.\u00a0 By FAR the most elaborate, extensive and bejewelled man-made structure we have EVER had the privilege to visit.\u00a0 The main dome was covered in gold-coloured scaffolding but apparently the top 15 metres section has over half a ton of gold and more than 83,000 jewels!\u00a0 The top 56 cms alone is adorned with 4,351 gemstones and is capped by a 76 carat diamond.\u00a0 Allegedly!<\/p>\n

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But that wasn’t everything – not by a long chalk (another expression for Hetty).\u00a0 There were some 153 Stupas with their spiky domes; Dozens of buddhas; Eight hairs of the last Buddha himself (preserved for over 2,600 years); and relics of three earlier buddhas.\u00a0 These last things are enshrined in various locations in the 14 acres (6 hectares) of terrace.\u00a0 Of these relics we only saw the shrine containing a Buddha’s tooth – not the actual tooth, you understand!\u00a0 But I’m confident that the Myanmar authorities wouldn’t exaggerate these things.\u00a0 I guess Buddha’s teeth are a bit like hen’s teeth!<\/p>\n

A few images of the structures on the terrace …<\/p>\n

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… and we have hundreds more… But enough for now.<\/p>\n

We need to move on – tomorrow I’ll tell you about today after we meet our cruise ship. A day behind already!\u00a0 But can’t finish without one …<\/p>\n

Baby’s First Doctor Visit<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A woman and a baby were in the doctor’s examining room, waiting for the doctor to come in for the baby’s first exam. The doctor arrived, and examined the baby, checked his weight, and being a little concerned, asked if the baby was breast-fed or bottle-fed. ‘Breast-fed,’ she replied. ‘Well, strip down to your waist,’ the doctor ordered. She did. He pinched her nipples, pressed, kneaded, and rubbed both breasts for a while in a very professional and detailed examination. Motioning to her to get dressed, the doctor said, ‘No wonder this baby is underweight. You don’t have any milk.’ I know,’ she said, ‘I’m his Grandma, but I’m glad I came”.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jet-lagged (as planned!) we arrived for breakfast ten minutes before closing time (not as planned)!\u00a0 But everyone here is so friendly and helpful.\u00a0 They just told us to take our time.\u00a0 The omelette man made us omelettes, the pancake girl… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-myanmar-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8132,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions\/8132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}