Shwedagon Paya

Last weekend we visited Shwedagon Paya. The Paya or pagoda is a huge (98 metre) gilded shrine which contains relics of Buddhas and is right in the middle of Yangon as though it's not that big of a deal! It's quite impressive. At the moment it's covered in scaffolding, which is something to see in itself, as they do repairs on it. We were asked to remove our shoes in the car park which was a bit icky but we felt a little better when we got upstairs and saw the cleaning crew in action around the place. Unfortunately i don't have a photo but imagine two rows of around 20 women, elbow to elbow, each with a broom in hand, shuffling throughout.

All around the stupa are 8 shrines representing the 8 days of the week. (Wednesday is two days a.m and p.m) Each planetary post is represented by an animal and the day of the week you were born on determines which shrine you should visit. Don and I were both a Monday and this shrine is represented by a tiger. So predictable!

We were approached by a gentleman who helped us find the correct day of the week and showed Don how to pour water over the Buddha for good luck. He then went on to tell us that he used to be a history teacher and was very rich but is no longer allowed to teach history (said in a hushed voice as nobody talks politics!) and so now he's very poor (hand outstretched). "Helping" tourists (whether they ask for it or not) is his new job. Poor man.

The whole place was really quite spectacular and this post doesn't really do it justice.