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The first leg of my trip to Myanmar takes me to the Capital: Yangon.
The city counted, at the time of my trip, around 3 millions people, but it is a very different
city from the other Asian cities of similar size.
In Yangon traffic is not as bad as in Bangkok and the city is very quite. |
In Yangon the time seems to have stopped and everything is easy going.
A special note for the hotel where I have spent a night before departing for Bagan; the Strand.
The hotel, during British domination, was one of the most luxurious in Asia, today the
carelessness and the almost total lack of maintenance have surely faded the glory of these
times, but probably this is what make the Strand unique. The atmosphere that you can breathe in
the hotel takes you back in the past and it does not matter if comfort is certainly not 5 stars.
At the time of my trip everything was original as when the hotel was built, nothing had been
touched, not even the dust. Unfortunately restoration works had been on the way, certainly the
restoration works will make a lot of travellers looking for comfort happy, but surely they have
faded the special character of this place. |
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According to the legends Shwedagon was built 2500 years ago but the frequent
earthquakes demanded a lot of later reconstructions.
The present construction is dated 1769.
Shwedagon Pagoda >> |
Bagan is surely one of the most amazing places in the whole Asia.
Over a surface of around 40 Kmēs, on the shores of the Ayeyarwaddy River, hundreds of
Pagodas and temples built in the golden period of Bagan, from the XI to the XIII century,
are scattered in the countryside. |
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A view of Bagan seen by the airplane as we were landing. |
As we arrived in Bagan we hireed a local guide and a small gig that will take us
to visit the places of interest in Bagan.
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The Ayeyarwaddy River |
By chance my trip to Bagan occured during the annual Festival Ananda Paya, that
is held in the last 3 days of full moon of the month of Pyatho (December-January), to
collect the money necessary to the maintenance of the Temple.
The festival attracts thousand of people from all over the country. |
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King Mindon founded Mandalay in 1857 and it has been the last capital
of the country before British rule.
The city takes its name from the Mandalay Hill next to the Royal Palace.
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Myanmar 
