Special Things about Yangon, and 6 Unusual Ways to Enjoy the City

He suggested to visit Yangon for New Year, and I kind of regretted it as soon as I said yes because, what the hell can we do in Yangon? Even when we were making our way in our meter-less taxi (all taxis in Myanmar are without meter) through the dimly-lit streets of Yangon to our hostel in Chinatown, I felt zero excitement about the city.

But boy, was I wrong.

I started to have a big crush on the city on our second day. But I did not know that as I stepped out of the taxi and walked in what I thought was a dull-looking neighborhood.

If you look up for “What to do in Yangon” on Google, you will see that the main attractions there are the Pagodas, including the famous gold-plated Shwedagon Pagoda. You will also see that the parks, Kandawgyi Lake and Nature Park, and People’s Park, also made it to the top attraction list.

We went to Shwedagon. Yes it is an impressive giant pagoda block, with its glaring white ceramic floor. But honestly if you, like me, have little knowledge in temple or Buddhist history and architecture, that’s all about it. In fact, we did not visit other pagodas after Shwedagon.

Shwedagon Pagoda

Don't Climb Foreigner. A corner in Shwedagon Pagoda

We also went to the parks. Coming from another Southeast Asian big city, I think there was nothing special about the parks. Sure they were nice to go for a stroll in, but in some parts they were quite dirty, too artificial (a field of plastic flowers, for example), and too noisy with some speakers blasting dance-y music for some community’s social gathering.

Some corner of the park.

But Yangon, as I found out, is not about the Pagodas or parks. The most refreshing things about the city are the peaceful, relaxed vibe and the old apartment buildings. And also the people. 

The Vibe

You know that ecstatic and noisy street full of tourists like Khao San road in Bangkok? Yes, I am not a fan of that too. 

Yangon –I like this fact very much- also has the busiest street in Chinatown called Ko San road. It is nothing like Khao San road, though. This street looks like an alley, with decaying colonial apartment buildings on both sides, which I strangely love. In the evening, the street is lit with thousands of battery-powered LED lights of the food sellers. Bars and restaurants are filled with people, and you can smell beers, broth, and minty tobacco in the air. There is no overbearingly loud club music, only chatters and vague sound of live bands from inside a few bars. Local kids are playing and running around, sometimes one of them will come to your table and ask for money.

Ko San Road at night

The city centre is very chilled. We went there in the morning to check out a famous tea house (which turned out to be quite crowded and touristy), when I saw a very old guy sitting in a little nook in the wall, casually typing something on his also very old typewriter, a thick stack of typed flyers sitting next to him.

City Centre

The Old Buildings

There are only a few areas in the city where new and modern buildings made their way. On the contrary, old apartment buildings are scattered everywhere in colorful but faded colors. They look haunted at night, decayed and abandoned during the day. Through the wide opened, curtainless window, we could see the accumulated number of stuffs for many years crammed in the apartment, while its inhabitants going about their daily lives. For some reasons I found this fascinating.

same building, day vs night

The People

Guys in Yangon wear some kind of skirt sarong. Girls usually wear their traditional colorful dress. Everybody’s face is covered in Tanaka, a traditional cosmetic powder. Those are already quite interesting things to see while you are in Yangon, but my favorite thing about the people? They don’t give a fuck about tourists. In a good way.

I come from a place where the people are usually over friendly, sometimes quite aggressively, to tourists (especially the Caucasian-looking ones). The locals in Yangon, however, just go on and do their own things. They do not look at you curiously, nor try to be uncomfortably friendly to you, despite the fact that the country was just re-opened to the world several years ago. No matter where we went; the train station, the traditional market, the far part of the city where it was less busy and touristy, it was all the same: nobody looked or treated us differently because we were tourists.

I love it.

So to best enjoy those three, you can do these things after visiting the Top Attractions list

1.    Sleep in Chinatown

But not on the big road. We stayed the first night in one hostel in Lanmadaw Street. I barely slept because it was noisy, and in the morning there was someone on the street continuously speaking on a loudspeaker.  My suggestion is to sleep on the quiet side of the area, for example on the 11^th – 13^th street.

2.  Try kun-ya

Many locals’ teeth are reddish-color stained. It is because they have been chewing kun-ya (Indonesian: pinang) for years. Kun-ya are betel nuts and tobacco wrapped in a lime-coated betel leaf. Those red stains on the streets and walls all over the city come from people’s spit while chewing on kun-ya.

If you are curious, you can buy your first kun-ya on the street (100 kyat for 3 parcels). There is a kun-ya seller every 50 metres or so. Just pop the whole leaf parcel in your mouth and chew it on one side of your mouth. Also try to spit on the street, local-style. It was fun.

Warning: Betel nuts are the fourth most commonly used psychoactive substance after tobacco, alcohol and caffeinated drinks. Excessive consumption of betel nuts can cause oral cancer. (Healthline)

3.    Photograph windows

There are many old colonial buildings, with equally decayed, colorful windows. If only I realized this sooner, I would have taken a picture of different windows, one window at a time, and made an interesting collage.

Dayum those windows

4.       Find a café where you can people-watch

There was one café on Ko San road in Chinatown where you can have coffee in the morning and watch people on the street. We went to the second floor, and sat facing the window that can be opened. We could also see people’s lives in those old apartments through the opened doors and windows.

Ko San road in the brunch time

5.       Buy fried grasshoppers in a plastic bag, go sit somewhere in a bar, eat your grasshopper, chug it down with a beer

And then flaunt on Instagram.

Always have your beer ready when planning to eat this guy

      

6.    Go to a rooftop bar in the evening

Find one you like (we went here), and enjoy your drink while looking at the glimmering golden pagoda under the black sky. You will see how strangely peaceful the city is.

Sule Pagoda against the night sky