February 13, 2014
After breakfast I stop at the hotel's Business Center for them to confirm our flight for tomorrow heading to Bagan. I provide all the details. It's after 10:00 am so we get a taxi to BOGYOKE MARKET. We were there too early the other day! Taxi 2500k. Before entering the market are we stop to admire a beautiful church-HOLY TRINITY CATHEDRAL. I walk on the pedestrian overpass for some good pictures. Then it's shopping time. A beautiful lined dressy longyi for me $20. Maybe I paid too much but I fell in love with it, wore it several times going out to dinner the rest of our trip in Myanmar. I even talk my DH into one-a bit simpler for 5000k. The guy shows him how to tie it and it was worth the 500k just to see DH putting the longyi on and off until he got it mastered! I found a cute Myanmar tee shirt for my grandson 3000k. In the market we did a lot of "window shopping"-so many places selling jewelry, fabrics, shoes, and much more. It was very busy with locals and tourists. There are places to buy food there also. We saw a group of young (around age 4/5) children maybe on a field trip. As they passed us they all said "hello". They were so cute!
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| Holy Trinity Cathedral |
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| Bogyoke Aung San Market |
From the market we take a taxi to the
NATIONAL MUSEUM. Taxi 3000k. Tickets for the museum 5000k per person. No pictures allowed inside. I do take pictures outside. The NM was established in 1952. It opened in its present location in 1996. It has 5 floors of exhibits. Much too much for us to see everything so we pick and choose. Here's the things we saw.
Ground floor-Lion Throne showroom. The Lion Throne is over 150 yrs. old and made of Yamanay wood and gilded all over. This throne was used by the King to adjudicate on law cases.
First floor-Royal Regalia showroom. Made of pure solid gold and studded with jewels. Used on ceremonial occasions by the King and Queen 3 times a year. Myanmar Historic Period showroom-tablets, copies of mural paintings, rubbings of stone inscriptions from 10th-13th century AD.
Second floor-Myanmar Traditional Folk Art showroom. Blacksmith, gold & silver smith, wood & ivory caring, stone sculpture, painting, lacquerware.
Third floor-Myanmar Ancient Ornaments showroom. From Pyu period to Yadanabon period.
Fourth floor-Showroom for the Culture of National Races. Models with traditional costumes, musical instruments and cultural artifacts.
We hail a taxi coming down the street to take us back to the hotel. 1500k and we could have walked back as it's not that far but it was hot, my feet were still hurting so........... Back at the hotel I stop by the Business Center but she was not able to get through to Air Bagan. I also tried from our room phone and had no luck either. The hotel reception desk looked at our flt. tickets and said that since the ticket status was marked "ok" there was no need to reconfirm. Hope you're right! Arranged for a taxi to pick us up tomorrow 5:00 am to the airport. It's now about 2:00 pm and pool time! What will we do tonight?? Hmmm what haven't we done yet??
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| National Museum |
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| King Anawratha |
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King Alaungmintaya
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| King Bayint Naung |
SHWEDAGON We walk and arrive there around 5:00 pm. Ticket $5 pp. Magnificent. Fabulous. Sits upon holy Singuttara Hill and is visible from miles away. Most sacred.
Enshrines relics of 3 earlier buddhas and the 8 hairs of the Gautama Buddha. Glittering gold. The very top is tipped with a 76 carat diamond. Thought to be 2500 yrs. old. I used my telephoto lens as I wanted so desperately to see that 76 carat diamond but not strong enough. I have one that I used for our African safari but didn't bring it as it weighs over 5 lbs. We stay here more than 3 hrs. Our timing is perfect as when we arrive it's still daylight but we're there as the sun sets and then the atmosphere is totally different. I guess we saved the best for last.
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Can take elevator up to the platform
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| Bodhi tree |
We slowly walk back to the hotel breathing in the night air and feeling a bit sad that our time in Yangon is coming to an end but then I think-tomorrow we will be in Bagan!! Feeling too tired to go out for
dinner we decide to dine here at the
PARKVIEW CAFE. My husband wants the minestrone soup again as he said it was the best. And it did look good so I order it too. I don't like to eat heavy late at night. Tiger beer and a cold coke hits the spot. Cost $12. In our room we find a bottle of wine from the hotel-Rosemont Roseglen Shiraz 2012. How nice!
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