There are two parts to this post, because so much was packed into the two days.

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“Are you ready?” I was ready. I’d woken up at 6AM with the sounds of cockadoodledoo still in my subconscious, eaten breakfast and dressed (well done me). Viktoria, an Austrian who I’d met the night before was going to explore Yangon with me. “I need coffee” she added. I’d already enjoyed two coffees with my breakfast, but didn’t want to rub it in.

We put on our backpacks equipped with cameras and entered the elevator (yes, the hostel was so modern it had an elevator, and a very good one at that.) First stop, coffee. No, wait, I need a haircut. I really need a haircut. My hair had grown almost out of control in the two months since I’d left England. On the opposite side of the road stood a barbershop.

“How long?” I tapped my watch.

“3,000.”

“No, no. How long?”

“15 minute”

“Now?”

“Yes, come.” The Burmese barber spoke surprisingly sufficient English.

“Two. Buzz. Here – this.” I indicated the small fraction I wanted.

If you’ve ever had a haircut in a country where you don’t speak the language, you’ll know how awkward and difficult it is to explain what you want. There is one perk though: no small talk. I settled into my chair.

The haircut was a success and for such a low price, I was greatly impressed. Viktoria was still in the hunt for coffee, so we walked in the direction of a pagoda located in downtown Yangon. Viktoria is a keen photographer and was happy to show me a few tips and tricks as we passed a pair of banana shops. You read that right, banana shops. Shops selling bananas. And coconuts. But mainly bananas. For ten minutes we posed our new models in a variety of ways, until we’d had enough and Viktoria’s coffee cravings became even stronger.

Eventually we found Cafe KSS, just a stone’s throw away from the Sale Pagoda. The menu was incredibly varied, with shakes, smoothies, coffees, tea, cakes and bubble tea. I chose an iced mocha (because I wanted to treat myself after the hair cut) and over coffee, we decided it was already time for lunch.

999 Shan Noodle Shop is well renowned for delicious noodles (well of course noodles, it’s in the name) and it was just around the corner from the pagoda. We walked past the pagoda, knowing we’d return sooner and ate some noodles (duhhh, that’s what they sell). I tried some shan sticky noodles, a speciality in the region and found them to be incredibly sticky (the Burmese are good at naming things for what they are, it seems), but perhaps a bit too much as they clumped together to create one noodly blob.

As with many other places in Asia, we were asked to remove our shoes and socks before entering the pagoda.

“Where are you from? Would you like a guide? I can show you around the pagoda.” These words were repeated several times (and would echo throughout Yangon as we visited other places), but we decided to explore for ourselves. As we were wandering around a monk approached us.

“What day of the week were you born?”

“Tuesday” I answered immediately. I have a knack for remembering information that rarely helps me in life and was proud this time it came in handy.

“You are a lion. Me too. You must go to the Tuesday shrine.”

By chance, Viktoria had also been born on a Tuesday, so the monk ushered us to both go to this shrine. A Buddha sat on a pedestal with a small sink filled with water in front of him. Down below stood a lion.

“Five times you give water to Buddha.” He poured five cups of water from the sink on to the Buddha’s head. “And three times on the lion.” Again he poured the water, this time on the lion below. “Now you”

I must say, it was a strange experience. Not least because I was annoyed about my feet getting wet, but nonetheless I dipped the shot sized glass into the water and allowed it to drip on to the two statues.

“Now, follow me.” Further around the pagoda we went until we stopped at a bell about 70cm tall. BONG. He hit the bell with a blunt instrument. BONG. “Three times you must hit it” BONG. “Now you.” Not wanting to cause too loud a noise, or even worse, break the bell, my first hit was delicate. Bing…..the bell went. “STRONG” he shouted. BONG…..BONG. I can’t say that I felt entirely spiritual from the experience, but it was interesting to participate in a part of the local culture.

As we finished seeing the statues in the pagoda we felt the first spots of rain. Maybe our karma wasn’t that good. Maybe I didn’t DONG the bell correctly…There was one sight nearby that we wanted to see, the Independence Monument so we agreed to go there before hiding in a coffee shop while the rain passed. Exiting the pagoda, we crossed the road to be greeted by a 50 metre high white obelisk pointing toward the sky. After a quick photo or two we went for another coffee. (While writing this post, I am in another coffee shop. Myanmar has excellent tea, being an ex-UK colony and excellent coffee – everyone’s happy!)

There were just two more stops on our trip around Yangon. First of all, the Armenian Church and second, St. Mary’s Cathedral.

“Okay, it should be just on the next street”

“Is that it?”

I looked down at my phone…”Yes….”

“It’s….”

“Awful?”

“Yeah…”

I’ll be honest with you, I was expecting an interesting church with some nice architecture and a perfect cute little photo moment. Instead we saw a building that represented nothing more than a church function hall. It was disappointing and not even photo worthy in my opinion. I know, dear reader, that you would like to see it for yourself in order to judge it, but really, it was just not worth it. If you really want to see it, get on a plane and go to Yangon, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

“Cathedral?”

“Cathedral”

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‘GALLERY’ showed a sign hanging above a doorway on the road to the cathedral.

“Let’s go in and take a look.” The door was difficult to open and screeched worse than the bats in Hpa-An, but up we went to visit the gallery. Up one flight of stairs and around the corner…

“Oops!” I heard him before I saw him. A Burmese man painting the wall outside his gallery with no t-shirt on. Quickly, he scurried back inside and put on some clothes, before showing us the beautiful art. A small collection, it was a nice break in the walk. If you do ever visit Yangon, take a look at 43 Art Gallery.

As we left, the heavens opened again and we ran from cover to cover on our way to the cathedral. When we arrived, it felt like I was back in Europe. Words are not needed for this one, so I’ll let you take a look at the pictures instead. Unfortunately, as there was a service on at the time, I was not allowed to take pictures inside, but carved on the sides one could see pictures of Jesus carrying the cross, beautiful stained glass windows and statues portraying several saints.

And that was it! The rest of the evening, we relaxed, ate a bit more food, saw a rat and planned the rest of our time in Yangon (more on that soon). Oh, yeah. The rat. Well, as we were eating, the rain came pouring down again. From my seat I saw something small run toward the restaurant. When it arrived, it peeked its head up and inside (much like the mouse in Fawlty Towers) before running away again.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post. If you have, please share it with friends and family. Yangon and Myanmar in general are fantastic and I’d love for more people to know about how amazing it is.