Myanmar with a toddler

For one of our last trips for Matt’s work, we decided to check out Yangon Myanmar. I was a bit nervous about this trip because I did not know a lot about Myanmar and it’s culture. Therefore, visiting Myanmar with a toddler was soon to be an adventure I would always remember.

It was a short flight from Hanoi and we departed and arrived with no issues. An interesting thing about Myanmar is that they drive on the right side of the road, but also drive on the right side of the car, making it dangerous for the passenger to be picked up and dropped off.

Upon arriving we met with our driver and tour guide, Mr. Z. Our first stop was the Kyauk Daw Kyi, which houses a large marble Buddha, carved from one single piece of marble. The Buddha is enclosed in a clear casing that protects the Buddha from bird droppings. It’s very near to the airport so it makes a for a nice little stop to enjoy some local culture and stretch your legs a bit from being on the plane. Lily loved looking at the different statues and posing by them. She also liked watching all the stray dogs nearby as they slept in the middle of the floor or played with each other.

Our next stop on the way to the hotel was to see some white elephants are they are seen as lucky and sacred animals. However, the way these elephants were displayed was very heartbreaking. Yes, my child enjoyed seeing elephants, because she is two. However, they are chained up under this roof with no room to walk around as their chain is about two feet long. They sway back and forth obviously in distress so it was hard to watch and want to stay at this “attraction” very long. It was quite disappointing to stop here and I wish we hadn’t. I don’t recommend for anyone to stop there, whether you like elephants or not.

After the elephant stop, we headed for the main attraction of Yangon, the Shwedagon Pagoda. At this pagoda, you must have your legs covered and shoes come off, which I brought my own skirt from Thailand for this very purpose. It is recommended that you take your shoes with you or leave them in the vehicle as there is not a dedicated place to leave them, so we left ours in the car. Then upon entering we ride up an escalator to get to the top of the hill, which was so awesome as most religious sites uphill you have to walk a thousand or so steps!

Once reaching the top one of the workers followed me up and told me my shirt showed too much of my legs in the back so I had to rent a skirt to cover the skirt I already had on. So that was a bit embarrassing! Within the pagoda, there are many different Buddha statues and bells to admire.

 

 

Myanmar culture focuses a lot on the day of the week that you are born on so naturally inside the pagoda there are different areas dedicated to each day of the week with a Buddha statue around it. The different days of the week go around the main golden pagoda which we toured all around. It had just rained before we arrived so the ground was pretty wet and Lily enjoyed jumping barefoot into the puddles.

 

We even had some souvenir photos taken of us in front of the pagoda. This is definitely a must see stop in Yangon, just remember to dress properly!

Once we were done with the Shwedagon Pagoda we headed for our hotel, the Melia. We checked into our enormous room with a great view of the Shwedagon Pagoda and then headed to the mall next to our hotel to find a place for dinner. And what did we find for dinner…The Hard Rock Café!

Day 2

After having the most amazing buffet breakfast in our hotel, we headed out for the day’s events with our tour guide, Mr. Z. He first took us to Kandawgyi Lake that has an enormous park area for people to have picnics, walk around the park and even a small playground. We stopped here for a few minutes, but there is not much to do. We took some photos and Lily played on an old rusty playground before loading up in the car again.

Next, we went to the center of the city to look at the Independent Monument, the Sule Pagoda, and the City Hall. All of this was within a square so it was easy to view. It was nice to admire the colonial architecture of the buildings as it makes the city look more developed.

The next stop for the day was to go to the Bogyoke market. This market holds many things that are famous in Myanmar such as local handicraft and jewelry stores, art galleries, and clothing shops.

We opted to buy the longyi, a traditional Burmese dress, for Lily and I because the material was so pretty. The men in Myanmar also wear this type of clothing which is usually a wrap around skirt and matching shirt. After buying a few more souviniers we met Mr. Z and headed off for our hotel to relax and then we would meet him for our dinner show at the Karaweik Palace which is on the banks of the Kandawgyi Lake.

The food was an international buffet so we got a nice taste of local and international cuisine. Then the performers do different dances with ancient stories behind them. The dances were very interesting as most of the women danced in long dresses with a long train. Lily enjoyed the dancing very much and wanted to dance along until the elephant dance was up. The elephant is made of two men in a large costume and afterward, they come into the audience for tips and Lily became extremely scared of it! The show lasted about two hours but was definitely nice to see.

Day 3

On our last day, we didn’t depart from the airport until late in the afternoon so we had some time to do some last minute sightseeing. We first went to the Yangon Zoological Gardens, which we thought would be an enjoyable experience and give us something to keep our two-year-old occupied. Upon entering we were one of the first customers of the day and there are hardly any signs guiding to certain areas so I literally had to read the map to figure out where to go. It was damp and dirty and not well paved in some areas. Lily ended up with some animal poop on her shirt and I don’t know how it happened. The animals were not cared for properly and most were in small enclosures or a cage. The hippo’s enclosure was the largest and his nose came right up to where we were standing which was pretty scary. The bears had the next biggest enclosure but they looked visibly unwell. After about an hour we headed out because Lily was scared of some of the animals and wanted to be held the entire time.

We met Mr. Z and he took us to Chauk-htat-gyi where a huge reclining Buddha is located. Legs also need to be covered and shoes removed, but they have an area to leave your shoes at the door. To our disappointment, the Buddha was covered in scaffolding as it was being cleaned. However, we were still able to admire the beauty and the large size of the Buddha.

We walked around and let Mr. Z give us some information about the Buddha while Lily went around and rang all the bells.

We then headed back to the hotel to pack and head to the airport for our trip back to Hanoi. Mr. Z even gifted Lily a yellow teddy bear that she loves and always says Mr. Z gave me this bear! Overall, Myanmar with a toddler was a great cultural expereince for a traveling family with a young child.

Don’t Forget to Pack: We went during the rainy season so be sure to pack for that and of course dress appropriately for religious sites.

Food:  We ate locally when we could, but since our hotel was next to a mall we were able to eat all different types of cuisine.

Observation on Myanmar: Myanmar is still a developing country. They loved seeing a fair skinned child and a lot of times would take pictures or stop and pinch her cheeks. In most areas, there is still a lot of culture and tradition, but in the more modern areas, you can see that it is becoming a more international city. I think Myanmar will continue to grow as years go by.

Hotel Review: This is the second Melia we stayed at and it was fabulous. The room was unexpectedly huge and the breakfast was great. We had a drink at the bar downstairs, but didn’t have much time to enjoy the pool because it rained in our free time!