Asia
Myanmar
Yangon
No violent pun intended with the chosen song ;) It is just one of the most recognizable songs of a band I saw live (and loved) whose name includes "Burma", the name of Myanmar during the British occupation.
As a welcome, what sounded like hundreds of dogs went into cycles of synchronized howling last night. Quite eerie!
Myanmar has gone through an explosive growth and change in the last 3 years: in many roads there are more cars than the space available, they are having a scary housing bubble that made hotel rates go up between 100-400% in the last year and many people are not able to afford living in Yangon or Mandalay.
Going back to the cars, they have the driving wheel on the right side (English-style) but they drive on right side of the road (American style)
Among the peculiarities, they accept dollars as long as they don't have creases or marks… a pain in the ass! Another interesting thing is the Holidays at this end/beginning of their calendar year… 10 days this month!
We saw another couple of nice art galleries and then walked around the impressive Shwe Dagon Pagoda
Royal Garden… trapped in paradise!
Once convinced we couldn't keep walking with this heat, we took a taxi to Chinatown to eat at a 19th St restaurant/street stand as recommended by Anthony Bourdain… we got there and I wondered: Really, Monsieur Bourdain? This looks like shit! ):)
Too hot to continue; after lunch we return via taxi and recover in our A/C room!
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