Yangon day 2

Danna and I spent one full day in Yangon that was filled with pagodas, walking, post office adventures, amazing food and tons of rain. The first pagoda we visited is called Sule Paya.

It literally has a roundabout built around it. Even with the roundabout and traffic, it is still peaceful once you enter the pagoda's interior. Sule Paya is much smaller that Shwedagon but there was still an abundanceof activity. We did get to witness an interesting offering. It included a wooden carving made to look like a Pyinsa  Rupa, on a pulley system. The Pyinsa Rupa is the Myanmar mythological creature that contains five different animals: a deer, elephant, lion, fish and bird. People could put money in the carving and a woman would crank the handle so the offering could be sent up to an alter located midway up the pagoda.

The second pagoda we visited is called Botataung Paya. This pagoda is unique as it is hollow and we were able to walk through it. Just like the outside, the interior of the Pagoda was also painted with gold leaf and was just incredible with the different designs it contained. There were hundreds of relics and old Buddha statues behind locked cases inside the pagoda as well.

Again we were approached by a monk who told us to go see a giant Buddha statue located at the back of the complex. While back here, we learnt that the statue had been taken by the British for a number of years and it wasn't retuned to Myanmar until it became a free country and government officials requested it be returned to the country.

Our final big stop of the day was at the market. What an overwhelming experience! The amount of jade and other stones being sold is absolutely unreal. The whole main building is lined with stall after stall of jade jewelry and figurines. One shop even told us they could make us something of our choosing. We could choose the jade, design and watch it get made in about 4 hours, all for the low price of 10,000 USD. I could only laugh, shake my head and slowly back away. We were only able to explore a fraction of the market but it was still a ton of fun.

So far, I love Myanmar. Yangon has been an incredible experience and I love the people. They are genuinely interested in talking to us and do it so that I don't question what they really want because other than chatting with us, they don't want anything.