Late on Sunday, I'd managed to make contact with my friend, Captain Myo Lwin. He'd been unwell on Sunday but offered to visit on Monday morning so, at eight o'clock, the Captain, his wife and Aye Yi Wah arrived at my hotel and we spent a pleasant couple of hours discussing a wide variety of topics. Aye Yi Wah had to leave us and so the Captain, his wife and I walked to the multi-storey car park to retrieve the Captain's car. I was invited to join them for lunch at the splendid 'Signature Fine Dining' restaurant in the beautiful Kandawgyi Lake zone of Yangon. The restaurant's website is here. We enjoyed a splendid meal in the elegant, purpose-built restaurant.
Lunch in Yangon's 'Signature' Restaurant.
I was then asked to decide on a destination for the afternoon. Eventually, I suggested Botahtaung Pagoda because, whilst I've passed it many times, I'd never actually visited (for instance, see the post Relaxing at the Strand Hotel from 2014). Although the site is ancient and still houses very important Buddhist relics, the pagoda itself had to be rebuilt after the Second World War since the original had been destroyed by British bombing raids which attempted to prevent the important port facilities being used by the occupying Japanese forces.
Botataung Pagoda.
The rebuilt pagoda is hollow inside, divided into a series of wedge-shaped rooms, all gilded and was packed with pilgrims. Adjacent to the pagoda itself, there's an artificial lake, crowded with turtles. I joined the other visitors in throwing chopped vegetables to the turtles: a most interesting visit. I was then returned to my hotel after a very enjoyable day.
Botataung Pagoda: The Turtles.
In the late afternoon, I decided to walk to the station where I observed the train movements during the afternoon 'rush' for around an hour and took many more pictures for later study. One of the station staff recognised me from my signal box tour earlier in the year (described here), so we had to make the obligatory photograph with him and his colleague.
Yangon Central Station.
Related posts on this website
This is one of a series of posts describing my 12th visit to Myanmar. The post Starting out is the first post in the series.
Clicking on the 'Next report' link displays the post describing the next events. In this way, you may read about the trip in sequence.
Next report on this trip.
Alternately, clicking on the 'All my Burma-2017(2) reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Burma-2017(2) reports.
My photograph albums
Where necessary, clicking on an image above will display an 'uncropped' view or, alternately, pictures may be selected, viewed or downloaded, in various sizes, from the albums listed:-
Yangon around and about.
Botahtaung Pagoda.
Yangon Central Station.
Sule Shangri-La Hotel, Yangon.
[Related posts updated, 21-Oct-2017]
