Yangon’s main bus station is more a small village than a station. The individual companies have their offices along several small streets, which are all packed with buses. The air is filled with suffocating diesel fumes and still, people sit down for a drink or a bite to eat. Most of the drive up north was much quieter than the trip to Ngwe Saung. The Yangon-Mandalay highway is reasonably smooth and we used it for all but the last 2h of the 9h trip.

The Tazaungdaing Festival, also known as the Festival of Lights, held on the full moon day of Tazaungmon, the eighth month of the Burmese calendar, is celebrated as a national holiday in Burma (Myanmar) and marks the end of the rainy season. It also marks the end of the Kathina season, during which monks are offered new robes and alms. So much from Wikipedia. The area I’m staying at in Yangon (Sanchaung) is a little better off, people living here work as merchants or have their own business.

Quiet day with a bit of work and exploring street food around the hostel. At the train station now, waiting for the bus to Ngwe Saung beach. Not a big fan of overnight buses but it was kind of the lesser of two evils.

Bus stops in Yangon are a noisy thing. Conductors of waiting and arriving buses shout directions and routes at the top of their lungs. For somebody who doesn’t understand the language nor is able to read the numbers, it is a somewhat confusing experience. Luckily I had student of the German language and future tourist guide Hanny with me, who had agreed to join me for a trip to the country side south-east of the city.

The big Shwedagon pagoda is one of the main sights in Yangon and accordingly the government and many merchants are happy to make a few dollars out of it. Today I came by one of the many smaller pagodas in the city and went inside for a short visit. The atmosphere was really relaxed with some people praying while others read a book or chatted with friends. Nobody paid much attention to me and I could just sit around and let my thoughts wander for a while.

I feel really creative with my post titles lately… After yesterdays social times, I had more nice experiences coming today. A local couchsurfer had contacted me a week or two ago and offered to show me around the city. We met in the early afternoon and I learned that she is studying German at the Goethe institute, hoping to work as a tour guide once finished. We talked in German the whole time and her skills were pretty good.

Looking for a taxi at the airport on Monday, another backpacker approached me and asked whether I’d be up for sharing a taxi. I certainly was and on the way into town I learned that my newly found companion had already spent time in Yangon in the past. Perfect - local advice! Today we met up for a little tour around downtown and Yangon looks a fair bit like other Southeast Asian cities.

Can’t believe I’ve already left Bangkok again. I had a couple of really good days and (as usually) was reluctant to leave Thailand. But with Myanmar calling, it was much easier to leave. I had an 11:30 flight out of BKK’s old airport, Don Mueang, which in terms of facilities isn’t exactly up to speed with Suvarnabhumi. Still, getting there is easy enough and the longest part of the trip was waiting for AirAsia to check people in at glacier speed.

Just a few metres down the street is what looks like a Buddhist temple. A monk is reading from a script and speakers broadcast his speech onto the street. People sit in the temple and in the street in front of it, listening. Religion in the neighbourhood seems to be mixed. Aside from the apparently Buddhist, I’ve seen a Hindu temple and a few guys with what I could swear is Muslim head cloth.