Travel to Myanmar (Burma)

March 28, 2016 34907 346 32 Comments

Description

Myanmar

An eleven day trip in Myanmar that guides us to the main attractions of the country. A trip full of beautiful experiences as Kostas Liakos, Vagelis Evangelou and Dimitris Destounis enjoyed it. Myanmar, or Burma before 1989, is the largest country in southeast Asia with a population of almost 54.000.000. Its geographical shape is quite unique as 1/3 of its borders create a continuing coast line. The official language is Burmese and the currency is called the kyat, with 1 kyat worth 0.86 cents.

cities & villages

  • Mandalay
    Mandalay is the second largest city in the country with a population of 1.225.000 inhabitants. It’s one of the big commercial and cultural centers in Myanmar and for this reason we had planned to stay two days to visit its main attractions. There, we visited Sandamuni Pagoda, Shwenandaw monastery (a historic Buddhist temple built in 1880 by King Thibaw Min) and Mandalay hill (a 240m high hill, located northeast of the city center. Mandalay hill was an important place of pilgrimage for Buddhists for about two centuries. At the top of the hill is Pagoda Sutaungpyei, where we really enjoyed the panoramic view of the city).
  • Nyaung U
    It is the river port of Bagan and a cheap option for tourists to visit this area.
  • Νyaungshwe
    A small town ideal place to stay and explore Inle lake and Shwe Oo Min Natural Cave Pagoda.
  • Kalaw
    An city ideal city for hiking as here begin many hiking routes.
  • Yangon
    The capital and largest city in the country with a population of 4.348 million. Here we visited People’s Park, which covers an area of approximately 65 acres and includes more than 3000 plants, the town hall and Sule pagoda, the Shwedagon Pagoda, which is the most important attraction of the city, Maha Bandula Park, which takes its name from the homonymous general who fought against the British in the years 1824-1826 and the Kandawgyi lake, which is artificial and was built during the British occupation to supply the city with clean water.

sights and attractions in Myanmar

  • U bein bridge
    A bridge of 1200m length that was built in 1850, and crosses the Taungthaman lake. The U bein is considered to be the longest wooden bridge in the world. It lies on 1,086 wooden pillars that are, unfortunately, rotting away over time, but are gradually being replaced with concrete.
  • Archeological zone of Bagan
    An area of 104 square kilometres that has more than 2.200 temples. We visited Ananda Temple, Gubyaukgyi Temple, Sulamani Temple, Thatbyinnyu Temple, Dhammayazika Pagoda, Mingalazedi Pagoda, Dhammayangyi Temple and Bagan Golden Palace.
  • Inle lake
    Inle is the second largest lake in Myanmar with many floating villages and during our visit we saw around many interesting things.
  • Shwe Oo Min Natural Cave Pagoda
    A huge limestone cave filled with thousands of gilded Buddha statues, which is located near the town of Pindaya. The temple consists of a natural complex of caves connected by tunnels. Inside the caves and according to the latest count, more than 8,000 statues of Buddha have been found. Statues which have been donated by pilgrims from around the world.
  • Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung monastery
    A wooden monastery which is one of the most photographed places around Inle lake due to its characteristic oval-shaped windows.

Myanmar