Yangon round 2
Trip Start
Oct 05, 2012
1
38
48
Trip End
Ongoing
Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar
Friday, February 1, 2013
After an hour of driving round waking up hostels with an impatient taxi driver we went to a 24 hour cafe and hung out there until the morning. Luckily, as it had Internet access, the girls had emailed saying they'd booked us a place for that night where they were staying. As soon as it hit 8am we headed there and pretty much slept all day.
Despite it being the grubbiest hostel we've stayed in all trip, it was cheap and great to see the girls again! That night we went to china town and met a local man called Henry who was married to an American woman. Excited to have us in his country he insisted on taking us to Golden Rock, a place we had planned to visit the following day. Unfortunately though, Jane was sick in the night so just the three of us went along.
It's Burmese tradition that if you are invited out that the invitee pays for everything, so it turned out to be a pretty lush day! He first took us to a riverside restaurant for breakfast where we had some tasty dim sum before setting off to Golden Rock.
Golden Rock is a famous temple in Burma that balances somehow right on the edge of a cliff face. Legend has it that it is the hair of Buddha that keeps it in place. It's a three hour drive out of Yangon so was great to have Henry as our guide! Annoyingly when we arrived it was 'under rennovation' and was covered by bloody tarpaulin so we couldn't see it! Still, the views were incredible and we had to get a local truck up to the top which was an experience to say the least!
We came back to the city for another fancy meal (curtesy of Henry) and took Jane some treats, who had recovered.
The next day we rode the circle line, a three hour train that circles around Yangon. Lonely planet recommends it but we only saw one other foreigner riding it and the rest were locals who were very pleased to see us! It was an interesting ride, it's surprising how much activity is based alongside the railway lines; people's houses, people playing and markets of people selling fresh produce.
That night we went for another Chinese meal on 19th street and bumped into Henry who had been looking for us! Bless him! That night Jo was ill and after the girls left we decided to get out of grubby Yangon and see what the beach, Chaung Tha is like.
