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The old town of Bagan is fascinating and maybe one of the top places in the world to see the sunset over the thousands of pagodas.
Front row seat for the sunset on top of Shwe San Daw Pagoda
Although there are 2,000+ pagodas still standing, the crumbling temples are each unique with different shapes, sizes and designs (some are filled with ancient paintings while others have multiple tiers to keep climbing til you reach the very tip top). Some of our friends said they’d spend a few days less in Bagan because, by this [...]
Bagan is mystical, magical + inexplicable, all in one. There is a well-known saying of the Burmese people: “If you are a real Myanmar, you must have been to Bagan.”
It’s one of those places that you just have to go to understand its beauty because, as beautiful as it is in photos, no photo can do justice to the serenity when you’re at the tip-top of a deserted pagoda or the minute detail in every inch of a pagoda built literally thousands of years ago. I don’t mean to say “just go,” but… really, JUST GO!
The old, dusty town is also (would you believe it?) an old royal capital from the 9th to the 13th centuries. Beginning in the middle of the 9th [...]
Mandalay is Myanmar’s second largest city, home to roughly 1.5 million people and steeped in Burmese history. Boasting a reputation of being Burma’s cultural + educational hub, the city is often overlooked by tourists who are more interested in relaxing at Inle Lake. This bustling city offers a look into Burma’s past – before the tourists + even before the Brits’ arrival.
View of Mandalay Palace from the Watch Tower
One of the city’s main attractions is Mandalay Palace, a walled and moated “city” that now hosts military officials and families. When you’re walking [...]
Just on the outskirts of Mandalay are not one but three former royal capitals (Sagain, Ava and Amarapura) and the typical tourist path explores all three small villages in one day. So, of course, we signed up for the tour. How can you miss seeing three royal capitals that are right under your nose?
In typical Jeffrey-and-McCown fashion, we had no idea what to expect when we first arrived (we’ve gotten into a habit of planning the cities and towns along our stop – for flying/training/busing purposes, but nothing to do in the city, so when we first arrive, it’s a bit like a deer-in-headlights syndrome). Several tour companies on TripAdvisor offer these [...]
Today marks one entire month since Jeffrey and I went wheels up in Charleston and headed off on our adventure.
We are really loving our time in Southeast Asia and are trying to pack 29 hours into each day (so far, so good). We’re currently enjoying a slower pace for a few days at the Hyatt resort in Da Nang, Vietnam, where we’re bronzing in the sunshine and digging our toes in the white sand before diving into Big City Life again.
Here’s a look back at our first month by the numbers…
In the past 31 days, we’ve traveled to…
2 [...]
Friends who had visited Myanmar before us had completely skipped Mandalay, but we wanted to take our time exploring as much of the country as we could, so we (somewhat hesitantly) added a few nights in Mandalay, Burma’s second largest city, to our itinerary.
View of Mandalay from the Hotel Yadanarbon’s rooftop
It’s only about 445 miles north of Yangon (but, in case you’re wondering, if you’re going roughly 25 mph on a train, that’ll take you about 16+ hours). When we arrived on the overnight train around 9am, completely and utterly exhausted, we found scores of people at the train station, all hounding us to [...]
You might have already seen this news, but I think it’s so incredibly awesome that I had to share: Google has recently updated its Translate app and it is everything I’ve ever needed.
The updates to this app include automatic language detection. This feature means you can text in real time with two languages and your friend’s texts immediately get translated into the language you’ve chosen. This is perfect for me because I still regularly Skype/FaceTime and email with my host family in Italy who I lived with for a semester while in college. But, because my Italian is rusty (at best), I always end up typing in English and then using a translation website [...]
On yet another hazy day in Yangon, we headed up the road to the main train station (the same one that would carry us off days later on the overnight Yangon-Mandalay train) to board the Circle Train, taking us in a circle around Yangon’s “suburbs” and then back into the city.
Because most locals can’t afford apartments in the city proper, the vast majority lives in the suburbs but finds work inside the city. This Circle Train is the preferred method of transportation in and out of the city as traffic can get pretty brutal (and, of course, you have to own a car or motorbike). So, riding this Circle Train provides an unspoiled glimpse into local life away from the [...]
The gleaming, gilded pagoda is your first spectacular view of Yangon on arrival, dominating the city’s skyline and commanding your instant attention (especially at night time!). Up on a hill, this 2,600 year old Buddhist temple is a sight to behold, towering over Myanmar’s largest city and reminding you of ancient times while connecting you to a very real, present-day Yangon. The number one site in Yangon (and probably all of Myanmar) is known as the Crown of Burma and is the country’s most revered shrine, a sprawling temple that boasts eight hairs plucked from Buddha.
Although legend holds that the stupa is more than 2,600 years old, some historians believe it [...]
