I have had Myanmar (or Burma) on my bucket list for quiet a while now. With the country having opened up gradually over the last couple of years, I was seeing this year finally as a good time for me to visit. So – as in previous years – I left gray and cold Europe in late November and made my way over to South East Asia.

I made it into Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) in the afternoon coming in via Singapore. As usual I directly ventured out to explore the area around the hotel.

I made my way through the little alleys all the way to Maha Bandula Park to catch a first glimpse of Sule Pagoda (of course followed by a visit inside). I also made it to Botahtaung Pagoda and (just to change the religion) St Mary’s Cathedral.

Note: some of the blog entries on Myanmar will use the local script to remove ambiguity around naming of places. If those do not come through for you, you may want to install Myanmar character support. You can give it a try with this one: မင်္ဂလာပါ (mɪ̀ɴɡəlàbà = hello).