The first stop was the kan daw gyi park. We had thought it was a free park and it was - just not for us tourists. It turns out that the myanmarians have fees for the sightseeing that only tourists have to pay.
The park was pretty and seemed to be a lovers spot as we saw a lot of couples sitting on parkbenches. Funny thing - they shieled themselves with their umbrellas so no one would see their display of affection.
The park was really big and we didn't have a proper map so it took us a while to find our way out.
Floating golden castle!
Our next stop was the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most famous pagoda in Myanmar. Once again, the tempel had a 5 dollar fee (same as the park) for tourists and you had to leave your shoes before going inside.
There were people everywhere - walking around, praying, chilling, selling things or having a picknick in the cooling shadows - it was like a big welcoming meeting place.
When we filled our waterbottles (the temple had free purified drinking water for everyone) a guy sitting beside them asked us where we were from. We chatted with him about everything and nothing and before long he was showing us the ropes around the place. We learned about budhdism, how to make a wish to the buddha and how to properly offer our thanks.
When we were done it turned out he wasn't being friendly at all - he only wanted money. We paid him half of what he asked for before we made our way out of the temple. Guess we learned ourselves a valuable lesson :p
At the entrance there was a big prossesion leading up towards the temple with a newly aquired relic. Flags, trumpets and all.
Making a wish to the buddha. First you make a wish for something, then you pour 9 cups of water on the small buddha statue, 3 on the big buddha and finally 5 on the tiger in the front!
Exhausted after a long day, we made our way home for some well earned R&R.
// Wayu & Robert
No comments:
Post a Comment