Myanmar

So 2 weeks ago I went to Yangon, Myanmar with P and J. Let me start of by saying we spent WAY too long in Yangon and hence my mixed review on Myanmar. I think my expectations were just too high, because I have heard SUCH great reviews from people who have liked it more than Cambodia (which is probably my favorite place in Southeast Asia that I have been to). Well Yangon did not really live up to my hopes but I still had a great time.  But I've heard the other cities like Mandalay and Bagan are beautiful, so I definitely want to go back and experience these places.

We spent 3.5 days in Yangon and stayed at the AMAZING Strand Hotel. If you go to Myanmar you must stay here. It's a lot like Raffles Hotel in Singapore...a colonial building that is very grand in the inside. The service is excellent...although we had a few issues that I guess come with staying in a historical building like the toilet not working one morning and the lights going out. My pictures of the hotel do not do it justice..so here is one I found online:

this is the restaurant that became our home..i kind of miss it!

The best part of The Strand was the cafe! We ended up eating here for almost every meal...as sad as it sounds. The food was out of this world especially the breakfast was included. They had the most amazing almond crusted french toast...I am still dreaming about it! We sat at the same table every time we went down  and it really became like home.

So if you are planning to go to Yangon...let me tell you you only need max 2 days! There are not that many like attractions i guess you can say....and its really kind of small town. The Shwedagon Paviliion was pretty much the only thing I wanted to see in Yangon and it was really awesome.

The only thing is that the structure is just SO gold that it almost looked fake if that makes any sense. The top of this structure is supposed to be covered in jewels that have been donated from around the country...I used my camera's zoom to look and I really didn't see any sort of jewels. All in all, I have never seen anything like this...but I also kind of felt like I was at like an epcot-esque theme park.

Aside from this there is also a giant budha that is laying down. That's pretty much all I can say about it:

We did see a cultural show that was in this traditional looking barge. It was a ridiculously LONG show...which we were not able to sit through. We did see some cool costumes and attempted to eat Burmese food.

this elephant costume thing was really colorful and shiny

The last kind of touristy thing we did was go to this temple that was built in the middle of a river...again it was really GOLD:

If you are thinking you could see/do all these things in one day...well you totally can! There is a national museum, but it just so happened to be closed the entire time we were there. I so regret not going to another area in Myanmar. I also really regret not shopping around at the markets. I don't know why the markets didn't really interest us when we were there BUT when we were at the airport I saw SOO many cute knick knacks that I would have liked to buy. But knowing that airport prices are way more expensive than that outside I knew it wasn't worth it.

So that is basically our entire trip...we don't have another trip planned until October so I am just going to enjoy Singapore until then. XXOO lovelies!