Myanmar Travel Infographics

Collaboration: kateabuzo x idioticgiraffe

Backpacking Myanmar Series: Mandalay

Mandalay is located North of Yangon and formerly the capital of Burma. While preparing for this trip, I only expected to be amazed by Bagan but Mandalay was quite a pleasant surprise and provided a perfect end to our Burma trip. Thanks to our new found friends Kriz and Apol (whom we "made alliances" with in Bagan, hehe), we not only got to share the tour expenses with 2 more tourists but they also chanced upon the taxi driver Ye Lwin who toured us to the most important places to see.

On the first day, we visited the Shwenandaw Kyaung teak temple near Mandalay Hill. It had very intricate carvings and is definitely one of the prettiest temples I've seen to date. We then proceeded to the largest book in the world which is Kuthodaw Pagoda. This is a funny story. When we entered the temple (which at this point of the trip we were so immune to doing after visiting a LOT in Yangon and Bagan), we started looking for a literal book complete with its cover and pages only to find out that we were actually "inside" the book. The whole place apparently houses the pages. They were made of marble tablets with the teachings inscribed in these stones and were encased in rows and rows of mini stone houses.

Backpacking Myanmar Series: Yangon

Yangon, the capital city of Myanmar, is a good place for a city walk. The buildings that you'll see here have an old world charm that boasts of rich architecture.

Unfortunately, majority of the stores were closed during our visit as Myanmar observes a full week of celebrating the Thingyan Water Festival and their New Year.

On the flip side, we got to celebrate and join the locals in enjoying all-day water fights around town.

Yangon houses a lot of Buddhists temples. Some of those we've visited were Shwedagon, Sule, and Botataung near the pier.