Mingalaba that is the traditonal welcome in Myanmar and means "blessings to you".
The high number of temples, pagodas and stupas we can see already from the arriving plane gives us an idea what we have to expect in this country where Buddhism omnipresent.
Although we traveled to Asia several times we are not well prepared after months in the wide, endless and sometimes lonley plains and mountains of North America. The masses of people, the noise and endless traffic, the heaps of garbage and the permanent smell of food hit us hard. And all this with 35°C and 80% humidity makes it difficult for us to adjust in the first days.
The undisputed sight of Yangon and whole Myanmar is the Shwedagon Pagoda, national shrine and one of the most famous stupa in the world. In its 800 years history it has been expended and rebuilt several times so that the whole temple complex is so huge that we never got the feeling to capture it completely with all its buildings, statues and ornaments. Not to talk of all the people who come here to pray, make picnic, take pictures and bring flowers or other donations.
Especially in the evening when the sun sets the light and the atmosphere are very special.
There are many other pagodas but also a number of churches and colonial buildings in Yangon as the British chose it as capital. But luckily the British did not leave their cuisine. In many street kitchens we can find Burmese food, freshly prepared, often skewers of any kind.
On four days we ecplore the city on foot, by bus and by a train which circles the city. But traveling by train in Myanmar is really a story on its own which has to be told another time.
