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Heinrich Harrer, the famous Austrian mountaineer, spent seven years in Tibet and made quite a story of the experience. My wife Linda and I recently spent seven days in Myanmar. While our story may not be as long and exciting as that of Mr. Harrer, we still think that it is well worth telling.

Indian Airlines, flying out of Kolkata (Calcutta), landed us at Yangon International Airport at about noon on a Monday in mid February 2003. On the ride into the city centre, we were immediately impressed by the bright red flowers that overhung the garden walls, the greenness of the vegetation and the cleanliness of the streets. And then came the bright gold dome of the Shwedagon Pagoda, shining in the midday sunlight - what an awesome sight!

We were in Myanmar for a few days of business and Traders Hotel in the heart of the downtown business area was a perfect base. Not wanting to waste time, we got right down to business in the afternoon of our arrival day. After a few phone calls, we set off for our first appointment and were pleasantly surprised at the low (or reasonable) cost of taxis. For instance, the first leg of our trip only cost us the equivalent of US$ 0.75 (Rs 36/-). In fact, the most we ever paid during our stay was $1.50 and that was for quite a long haul. After our last appointment, we instructed the driver to dropped us off at the Bogyoke Aung San Market (or Scott Market), located just around the corner from the hotel. If this is not one of the great bargain centres of South Asia, I don’t know what is! The market is full of stalls, with a vast array of items sold to tourists and locals alike. Clothing, cosmetics, gems & jewellery, antiques, artwork, woodcarvings, Myanmar lacquerware and handicrafts only represent a few categories of products on offer. The market is a place where haggling is the norm, but we even considered the asking price of most items to be quite reasonable, so we weren’t too brutal in our negotiations. We purchased an intricately carved 20-inch (roughly 60 cm) tall teak lamp base, post-shaped but hollow inside, endowed with fifteen elephants (five sets of three - one layer above the other, tapering in size) and a lotus-shaped top where the light bulb would eventually sit for ten dollars. Perhaps we could have got it for less, but pretty reasonable I’d say considering the work involved in its making.

We spent Tuesday motoring around Yangon from one appointment to another and passed many interesting places along the way. So many in fact that we decided to hire a local tour operator on Wednesday and dedicate a day to casual sightseeing. Now this is an aspect where the budget-wise tourist can really get a bargain if she/he shops around. The first operator we called wanted $56 for each of us for a full day tour. Ok, the fee included monument entrance fees, but we chose a fellow that acted as driver and guide for $35 total for the day. By paying our own entrance fees for two, the total came to less than the other fellow wanted to charge for one person. I repeat, “Shop around.”

The day included visits to several main attractions of Yangon. After a short stop at the harbour front and a slow drive past the famous and elegant Strand Hotel, we stopped at Botataung Pagoda where a mirrored maze within the stupa showcases many ancient relics including silver and gold Buddha images. From there, we proceeded to Chaukhtatgyi Pagoda to see an enormous image of the reclining Buddha, housed in a metal shed. Apparently there is an even larger one in a place called Bago, but this one was indeed huge. Our next stop was Karaweik - a replica of a royal barge - situated on the shore of Kandawgyi Lake in the centre of the city, where we booked a reservation for dinner with traditional dance the next evening. Karaweik is very colourful and thus photo-worthy from many angles.

At one point during the morning we stopped for coffee at a sidewalk café near Scott Market, and noticed a woman sitting on the walkway with a cage of small birds. Passers by could purchase a bird for US$0.10 (about Rs 5/-) just to set it free. What a wonderful feel-good concept. She didn’t seem to be doing a great business, so Linda got into the act. She freed several birds in order for our great cameraman (me) to actually catch the bird in flight on film just as it left her hand.

After lunch back at the hotel, and an early afternoon snooze we carried on to the National Museum, where the most impressive exhibit (in our opinion) was the 8-metre tall throne of the last Burmese king. Besides that, there were other interesting exhibits, but we weren’t overly impressed with the layout. The museum however was worth the visit. From there we proceeded to the highlight of the day - Shwedagon Pagoda - purposely saved for the late afternoon in order to catch the proper sunlight.

Possibly the most spectacular tourist attraction in Myanmar, the Shwedagon Pagoda, is also the most sacred Buddhist site in the country. The golden dome stands 98 metres above its base, but when seen from a distance it seems much taller due to its location on a hill. After the original structure (built to enshrine eight of Buddha’s hairs) was destroyed by an earthquake the present structure was erected in the 18th century. The inner compound is surrounded by an assortment of temples, shines, statues and images. After seeing the dome glitter in the afternoon sunlight, it’s not hard to determine why Rudyard Kipling once referred to Shwedagon as ‘a beautiful winking wonder’.

Thursday and Friday were occupied with business appointments and early on Saturday morning we were off to Bagan in the heartland of Myanmar. While flying into the town we were given a preview of our forthcoming day of sightseeing, as literally hundreds of temples and/or monasteries, large and small, could be seen through the aircraft windows. In fact, the 43 square kilometres of the archaeological zone contains over 3000 architectural treasures. After checking in to our hotel our first destination was a tall pagoda in the centre of the zone, where a climb to the upper terrace was a perfect venue for our guide to give us a detailed description of the lay of the land and a brief history of Bagan.

During the day we visited the colourful local market at Nyaung U, where I purchased a nice linen shirt for an amazingly low $1.60 (Rs 76/-) - I didn’t haggle too much; I promise! The vendor was still smiling after the transaction. Hindsight being 20/20, I now wish that I had taken ten. Bagan is the lacquerware centre of Myanmar and after a guided tour of a factory where it is made, we purchased a few items - also at giveaway prices. Other than this, we visited to old gate to the town and several Buddhism sites (temples, pagodas, monasteries and ordination halls) during the course of the day including those containing huge statues of the Buddha (standing, sitting and reclining), fascinating wall paintings or ancient stone inscriptions. We ended our day high on the upper terrace of Shwe Sandaw pagoda, along with just about every other foreign tourist in town on that day, to observe the sun setting over the monuments and distant hills - a splendid sight. We spent a quite night in Bagan and hopped over to Mandalay early on Sunday morning on a thirty-minute flight.

Mandalay was founded in 1857 and is said to be the last royal capital of Myanmar. Our day was spent much the same as the previous in Bagan - visiting amazing stupas, pagodas and monasteries and searching for bargains. One pagoda that really caught our attention was called Kuthodaw, which houses the so called ‘world’s largest book.’ The book is in the form of 727 inscribed marble slabs, each housed in its own small white stupa. The slabs contain the contents of the entire Tripitaka (Buddhist Canon). We were told that if a person read the inscriptions for eight hours per day, it would take 450 days to read the lot. We didn’t have that much time, and besides, they weren’t written in English! Another dominant structure of Mandalay is the imposing fort. Its walls are 8 metres high and 3 metres thick at the base and each of the four sides is 2 kilometres in length. The Army occupies the fort, so we weren’t allowed inside. That was OK because the exterior, encompassed by a wide mote, is really the main attraction. Our last full day in Myanmar ended with a flight back to Yangon.

The next day (Monday) we flew back to Calcutta and on to Delhi, with our seven days in Myanmar completing full circle. Our week provided us the opportunity to interact with the local community and to scratch the surface of the tourism attractions of Myanmar. We do know that the country has much more to offer than the great sites of Buddhism - for instance snow capped mountains, tropical rainforests, placid lakes and sandy beaches. We however, are a couple of archaeological hounds and in this regard, Myanmar exceeded out expectations.

All Photos by Author

Travel Arrangements by Golden Rock Tours & Travel, Yangon, Myanmar.

The Author is Managing Editor of India-based
Diplomatist Online - www.diplomatist.com