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  • Day 83

    Yangon

    March 15, 2020 in Myanmar ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C

    Full day in Yangon today. Decided to go out to have a look around with Faustine, the french girl who I was chatting to last night. We had breakfast in the hostel which was actually very nice and then went for a walk about. Walked to the Sule pagoda which is a small pagoda in the middle of Chinatown. Very cute. Then we had a look around the main market, and then down to the old colonial centre from when the British were in charge.

    We also stumbled across some street art areas which were very cool. Got back to the hostel about 1.30 and were very hot! Enjoyed the air con and then went for lunch down the road- lovely katsu curry.

    Had a rest and then headed to the Shwedagon Pagoda, which is the really big famous pagoda. We’d been advised to go in time for sunset as it’s cooler and also it looks really nice at night. We got there about 5 and immediately got stopped by some very friendly Burmese who explained they were teachers and would we mind spending a little bit of time with their students to help them practice their English. We said yes so we sat down and about 15 20-30 year olds all came and sat around us. They asked us questions like ‘what is your name?’ and ‘how old are you?’. Very sweet.

    We left after about 10 mins and had a look around-it’s a huge gold pagoda with so many gold Buddhas all around it and is a very sacred place for the local people. It was mainly locals there all praying and hanging out. It was very pretty at night all lit up. Left about 7 and headed back to go out for dinner with a couple of other girls from the hostel- went down to the night market and got some bbq which was amazing.

    Lots of chat today about coronavirus - people with differing opinions on whether to keep travelling. I’d signed up to government alerts for travel in Myanmar and while at dinner I got an email saying the advice has changed and now they were advising against all but essential travel. Called mum and dad and Kate after dinner and discussed whether it was time to come home, and came to the decision that it probably was. Really don’t want to but with countries closing borders it was getting more and more risky to stay and have trouble getting home. I said I’d sleep on it- there is a thai airways flight at 19.50 tomorrow via Bangkok which was the best option.
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