After lunch I walked along New Yay Tar Shay to the road that led to Shwedagon Pagoda. The area my hotel was in was chaotic with a lot of traffic and busy markets. There were a lot of street dogs which I was initially wary of however I soon realised that they were terrified of humans and were probably no danger to me. I didn’t like the sights or smells of the market. I was unable to put a name to the smell that I found so offensive but found myself walking through the area breathing in as shallowly as I could so that I didn’t smell it anymore than absolutely necessary.

I didn’t really know where I was going other than Win Hlaing pointing to the right of my hotel. However it would be hard to miss. I reached an intersection where I looked to my right and there was my first glimpse of Shwedagon Pagoda in all of it’s golden glory. It was an uphill climb through more smelly markets where the locals looked at me like they’d never seen a white face before. Once I got nearer the pagoda there was a covered area with souvenir sellers lining each side. I didn’t want to buy souvenirs at the first place I saw, especially to have to carry them around the pagoda so I walked through deciding to have a look on my way back down later. I reached a point where shoes needed to be removed – a young boy pushed a plastic bag into my hand saying “for shoes” and then said “money money”. I was happy to carry my shoes without a bag so shook my head and he took the bag back from me. I was then approached by another boy so figured buying a bag was just part of the experience. I handed him 200 kyats and he left me alone with my plastic bag. I crossed the street carefully, having learned earlier on my taxi ride from the airport to the hotel that painted stripes on a road might look like pedestrian crossings but they don’t mean drivers are going to cross. I was still getting used to the constant tooting by drivers.

After a hot climb up lots of steps I finally made it to the top of the Eastern entrance and paid my 10,000 kyat fee to see the pagoda. I made sure to turn left at the top and encircle the pagoda in the correct Buddhist clockwise direction. Many people, Burmese included, were walking anticlockwise which surprised me. I thought that if I knew of the importance to go the right way, without understanding why, that they would too and respect that. I discovered early on that the marble flooring was very slippery when wet. I soon understood the purpose of the rubber mats across the marbled areas and into the different parts of the pagoda. I’d mistakenly thought that the pagoda was just the round dome covered in gold leaf but it was actually a much larger complex with different rooms and spaces around the outside. Encircling the main pagoda was also a large number of gold stupas including a monument for each day of the week. I observed some fellow ‘born on Friday’ Buddhists and watched them make offerings to the Buddha by washing and cleaning their stupa.

I was approached by a number of friendly Burmese men wanting to know where I was from – it wasn’t long before one of them responded with a comment about sheep. I soon realised that they weren’t being friendly to the tourist – they were trying to sell their Shwedagon Pagoda tour guide services. I wanted to explore the pagoda at my leisure so declined all offers. I stopped looking at my pagoda brochure to see what I looking at because that was when the guides targeted me. I just kept walking in a steady pace, taking photos and moving on to the next area of interest.

Shwedagon really was a beautiful place – I’ll let the images speak for themselves:

At around 3.30pm I decided to make my way back the the Merchant Hotel. Given how uncomfortable I felt walking from the hotel to Shwedagon during the day, I didn’t want to trying to get back there after dark. I stopped at one of the stalls on my way back downhill and bought a small brass bell and a triangular-shaped brass instrument that is tapped gently at each side to produce a nice ringing sound.

I found a convenience store, called Grab and Go, on my way back to the hotel so I bought more bottled water and a few other bits and pieces.