This gallery contains 19 photos.
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; … Continue reading
In the afternoon we were meeting up again for more sightseeing. The main attraction on the list surely was Shwedagon Pagaoda. However before getting there, we had a stop at Chauk Htat Kyi Pagoda to see a very big Buddha – with a length of 66m one of the longest reclining Buddha images in Myanmar.
From the pagoda we made it over to Kandawgyi Lake to take in the sunset mood over the lake with the Shwedagon Pagaoda in the background.
The tour now had officially started. This morning Sai – our tour leader – was showing us around the city center, passing through some areas, I had already explored during the previous two days. This time though, additional information was available, Sai provided us with a summary of the city’s and the country’s history – all the way from pre-colonial times to the current political setup.
The tour ended in a local restaurant in the Muslim part of town for a late lunch. From here we made our own way back to the hotel – I ended up having a stop at and little wonder around Bogyoke Aung San Market.
This gallery contains 19 photos.
With the tour only starting this evening, I had a full day of further exploration in Yangon. I already had booked an excursion for the day, essentially doing the full loop on the Yangon Circular Railway with a number of … Continue reading
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).
This gallery contains 19 photos.
We were lucky enough to (successfully) close the workshop on Friday afternoon. This allowed us (i.e. the three travelers from Europe) to check out some of Tokyo’s main sites. We first made it to Meiji Jingū to have a look … Continue reading
During the week of course work was the priority; we nevertheless had some good opportunities in the evenings to get to see a bit of town and also (thanks to our hosts) had a superb introduction into the variety of Japanese food – from the well known sushi and sashimi to shabu-shabu (Japanese-style hotpot with thinly sliced beef), tempura, unagi to the diversity of Hokkaido cuisine.
Already a couple of times during this year work had brought me (back) to some interesting places – and now it was back to Tokyo.
This time – having learned my lesson from the Singapore trip – I already made it to the destination (i.e. into Tokyo Narita) on Saturday evening, essentially to allow for an additional day to adjust for the timezone difference (which in retrospect this was a good decision, as I barely slept in my first night and was tired all day on Sunday).
Saturday evening I started, where my Tokyo ventures had also started back in 2008 – Asakusa and the Senso-Ji temple.
On Sunday the weather clearly showed that a typhoon was nearing – it was raining all day with rain and wind getting heavier in the course of the day. I had a very early start, making my way by subway to the Zojo-Ji temple; from here I continued to the imperial garden. With the weather conditions deteriorating, I decided to visit the national museum of modern art. For lunch I met back with the rest of the folks at the hotel (two more colleagues from Europe plus our Japanese host). For the afternoon we were basically left with indoor options – while the others went for some relaxation, I ended up in a shopping mall for a look around.
We finished early with the meetings, so I ended up with a free Saturday (originally planned for meetings), which I used for a bit of sightseeing …
I took the metro up to the Botanic Garden, made my way through the gardens (including a stop at the National Orchid Garden). From here I continued towards the shopping district around Orchard Street … took some time here, before making it over to Little India. On my way back I had a long look around Fort Canning Park.
This gallery contains 16 photos.
My business trip around the world continued; the discussions for the Asia Pacific region were still open and now scheduled for this week in Singapore. So another week of intense meetings, but also some diversion in the evenings. We stayed … Continue reading