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by Ebi
So it was Yangon.
Even the name had a pronunciation like that of a monster called Godzilla.
Arriving late last night, I had to go to bed without going my where. I went downtown first thing in the next morning.
Husband "Oh! Yangon's a beautiful city!"
Ebi "Yeah. The roads are so wide Roadside trees grow so big. How should I put it? It is unlike the feeling of South East Asia. No resident buildings at the heard of city and so quiet. So convenient to take a walk."
Would you like convenient travel? Or tranquility! These are hard things to find. But it was quit able for a couple like us preferring a peaceful start of a journey.
Photo1 We thought Yangon was peaceful and quiet. Later, we come to know that downtown Yangon was crowded just like elsewhere in Asia.
We started early in the morning and found the pagoda festival at Botataung pagoda. Some food stalls and curiosity shops. Astrology was so popular in this country it seemed. Very interesting. Astrologers' stalls were found here and there. After looking around the stairways for a while we went to the pagoda. We found the monks returning form the daily round of accepting offerings of food.
Ebi "Let's follow them closely."
Husband "Oh! I don't think it would be polite".
The last place we paid a visit was a monastery situated long way at the back of the pagoda. While we were hesitant the monks urged us saying
"Come! Come!"
We went inside thankfully. We were in time for a sutra-chanting session and had a chance to observe. Noticing the guests, the novices took glances at is and recited the prayers vigorously. A monk who seemed to be the leader came to us chatted making us rather embarrassed by feeling of respect. Was it allowed here without saying prayers? Another monk came and gave us a year-2000 calendar saying
"We give you this as a gift."
Such generosity. As it was chosen form among the possessions not to be thought affluent and plenty, we would cherish it and keep it carefully. Thanks a great deal lot!
Husband " The monks are so kind-hearted."
Ah! Even though it is a monastery the atmosphere here is free and open. Why?
Photo2 Little monks are chanting a sutra.
As we wished to go to Mandalay we want to the bus terminal to book seats on a night bus. On the way we came across a railway station. The sight of the long railway coaches caught us. Ho! Ho! We faced each other.
Ebi "Let's go by train."
Husband "We'll see the world of Myanmar through a window of a train. Anyway, the seats are so narrow on the buses."
Whatever you say! Seeing the station, we could not overcome the wish to go by train. We though that we would not get tickets for the journey that might but we did get the tickets somehow. The tickets cost six times more than the bus fares and the strange thing was that it took about on hour to make arrangements to sell us the tickets. (Laugh)
Photo3 Won't you be surprised to see such a scene of the Yangon rail way station?
We had a lot of time to kill before the train left and we just turned ourselves to portrait painters.
Husband "Are you a roadside performance artist?"
Anyway, we both spent the time well.
Photo4 A merry-go-round at a mobile recreation center installed for the festival. Used manual power.
We headed towards the Yangon Station. Looking at the evening sum over the shoulder of the old trishaw man our wishes to ride the night train. We had not seen much of Yangon since we had only wandered around for a day. That would be all for now. We hope we would be in Mandalay the next morning.
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