From the lake we continued to the foot of Singuttara Hill and the building with the elevator, that eventually got us up to Shwedagon Pagoda.

The pagoda is the biggest in town and a dominating part of the Yangon skyline; it is the most important and sacred Buddhist place of worship in the country. There is loads more to be said about the pagoda’s history and significance … but I leave those details to others.

We obviously had made it up here at a popular time – now just after sunset. The blue hour lighting resulted in a nice atmosphere bringing out all the gold. Eventually darkness was taking over and the lighting at the pagoda brought to full power – now putting even more emphasis on the gold.

We first had a walk around the pagoda with Sai and – once more – plenty of background on the history and significance of the place, but also on Buddhist traditions followed in Myanmar and brought to action at the pagodo (and many others, we were to visit during the trip). Afterwards we had a good half hour on ourselves … for taking photos and/ or simply taking in the atmosphere.

From the pagoda it was straight to dinner and then to drinks in the Yangon Yangon rooftop bar of the Sakura Tower – a good 100m above ground – and with clear views of both Sule and Shwedagon Pagoda.