Mandi i'm off: Last Post from Myanmar or Bye Bye Burma.

With less than 48hrs spent in Yangon,I am in no position to be judgmental about the city,but I could certainly have afforded to budget more time than I have to appreciate its charms.Ultimately of course it is up to me how I allocate my time and money to individual places and pursuits but,and here come the big BUT,the bullshit that passes for advice in some major travel publications including the solitary asteroid one that so many travelers,young and old pore over from breakfast to dinner in as many languages as I knew existed,needs to be questioned and challenged a little more.To this old grey and grizzled traveller much of what I have read smacks of the views of the over privileged,precocious me generation with influence far beyond there life experience, here endeth the lesson.

Where were we,ah yes Yangon ex Rangoon,home to Shwedagon pagoda most revered Buddhist monument in the region,covered in half a tonne of gold and a most impressive monument to those who would buy there way to heaven.

Also Chinatown every major city has one,this one no less interesting, streets and lanes of barrow stalls selling everything from Chinese fast food to up to the minute electrical devices that the fluctuating current here would surely fry if not for the ingenuity of local electricians.Then there is Bogyoke Aung San Market,probably the best marketplace in Asia for those that want to compare prices of like items, in real life as opposed to eBay,you may not need what is for sale here but you certainly will want.The streetscape has a variety of decaying British colonial buildings,churches cathedrals,Pagodas and Stupas.There are up to the minute flash motor cars and there are beggars with their babies trying to avoid being run over by them,the whole fabric of the city,in fact the country held together by the smiles and goodwill of these gentle brown people.I will miss them.

The Bodhi Tree.