Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon

We had a couple of hours in the pool, perfect. We have had pools in some of the other places we have stayed to, but the last two has been borderline to warm – or for me just over :). The pool at Wyndham Grand is perfect, and feels freezibg when getting in. Thats pretty refreshing ater hours of sweating and walking dusty streets.

Because of this newyears/waterfest setup, most places are closed. Only a few resturants are open and its hard to tell which ones they are. We, or I say ‘we’, I, had found a microbrewery – supposedly the only on in the country. I tried giving them a call, no one picked up – google told me they where open, but I know from experience that this is not allways correct info. Anyways, we took a taxi to the place… closed! , time for backup plan – Shwedagon !

We entered from the south gate – important info that we would forget later on. This is a picture of the main enterance area. If you look around a bit there is an elevator someplace.. the west gate has escalators. We did the stairs.. barefoot offcourse!

You can leave your shoes n socks at the entrance level – you get a ticket for picking them up again, costs nothing. But! There is also an option to just get a bag to put your shoes in, so you can bring them along… might be smart? lets say, if you would happen to forget what gate you left you shoes at? see where this is going! – we left our shoes at south.. south gate! And we did the stairs, not to many of em, and there is lots of small shops along the way.

Nice with a few shops, Maren was dressed a bit mor for microbrew tasting thant pagoda watching – so she was able to pick up a wrap around skirt so that her knees did not show ! (very important)

At 99 meters, covered in gold, it is an impressive sight. And this is also why this is the nr1 sight in Yangon.

It is belived that this pagoda, which is the holiest of al holy in Myanmar, contains … are you ready? 8 hairs from Gautama.. Gautama is Buddha, the main guy budhism comes out of. I visited his birthplace a few years back, its in Lumbini, Nepal.. I have probably soon visited all the most important budhism sites in asia – go me! 🙂

Anyways, this pagoda is supposed to have 8 strains of hair from the main guy. A piece of the robe said to be used by Kassapa… Kinagamabas.. water filter (!!), and the staff of Kakushanda. Right – well, as you understand its pretty important place.

There is a bit back n forth about when this was built. But some time in year 500 something. And after that it has been made larger, destroyed by earthquakes and remodeled by different kings. But the site has been there for ages in some form.

It is huge, and after walking around for a couple of hours you still stop up and rake afew pucs and jyst srare..wow.

We decided to leave trough the WEST exit, since that we xame up – and thus our shoes was at the bottom of all the stairs…

But oh no, climbing down the 600 steps we where at a new place. So we had to climb halfway upp again, and then wander barefoot over parkinglots and houseing walkways – completley out of the matrix.

But we got there in the end – snd walked directley to the nearest resturant for beer n food.. well allmost. Its the waterfest, and during this fest – they drive around and spray water at people.

We were standing just outside the pegoda, waiting to cross the street.. a car, pickup, with some girls drove by.. i saw them looking my way.. ‘here you are, baby!” – and i just had time to take a strategic step back when one of them threw a bucket of water our way. Haha, bet she was annoyed with herself now – missing me with a shitload of water.. just by a meter.. Maren, on the other hand, had not had time for the strategic move. She got soaked 🙂

The picture does not show it that well, but yeah 🙂

Luckily, just cross the street we found some beer n food

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