My next destination after Sri Lanka was the lovely country of Myanmar. I actually didn’t realise how recent the first democratic elections have been held, namely this past November. I’ve got to say that the country is doing well, I barely saw any military or police presence in the place.

My first stop was the biggest city in the country, Yangon. Transportation in Myanmar is actually excellent and super easy to book, but the only downside is that you can’t always travel from city to city, so I often needed to return to either Yangon or Mandalay to get to my next destination. In the end, I was in Yangon on four separate occasions, staying in three separate hotels.

Aesthetically, Yangon is one of my favourite large cities in the world, probably second only to Hong Kong. It’s hard to describe why I love the city some much, I just have a thing for the slightly run-down low-rise buildings that have a definitely lived-in feel. I looked like a bit of an idiot walking down the streets, just bewildered by the beauty of the place, taking photos of random buildings:

 

The Boataung Paya:

 

More shots of the lovely streets:

 

A Chinese temple, the Kheng Hock Keong:

 

The only synagogue in Myanmar:

 

The Sule Pagoda–the 2000 year old pagoda is the oldest in the city, yet is strangely situated at one of the busiest roundabouts in the city:

 

Saint Mary’s Church:

 

The famous and stunning Shwedagon Pagoda:

 

The train station:

 

The lovely board walk at Inya Lake is shown below. I’ve got to say that it was the sketchiest board walk I’ve ever been on. Half of the boards were thoroughly rotten and the thing moved like crazy as you walked on it. I actually made a point of only walking where the cross-beams were situated to minimize the risk of falling through. But the locals seemed totally unconcerned as they were walking on the thing:

 

I’ll leave you with some shots of the awesome streets of Yangon (and my favourite window in the world):