April in Wanderlust: Yangon...

One of the most noticeable things about Yangon is the old Colonial architecture. Beautiful buildings but most have been run down unfortunately, be it paint peeling, mold, falling apart, or just abandoned. The government-run buildings are in good shape though... which is another thing you'll see around Myanmar (Burma) is it's huge lack of balance between the government and it's people. It’s strange to be in a place where the style of architecture doesn’t match what the stereotype is for Asian culture like a lot of right and acute angles, ornate detail with dragons, lotus, lions, and such, but we do have to keep in mind that Burma was once occupied so a lot of things here tend to be more Western… like the toilets (Yay! No squat toilets for a change!)

I love these tiny and colorful trucks that are all over Yangon, they're like Mini's on steroids

The reality

Another detail that I love about Yangon is all of the color! I'm pretty sure people just find some random color and slap it up on the wall, but with such a great effect!

And this is how scaffolding goes up... with a lot of bamboo and teamwork. It more closely resembles a very large lattice.

I love the red robes of the monks here

Allie, one of my travel companions from Seattle

Chris, my other travel companion from Australia

The people of Myanmar love to see westerners. We were constantly greeted with warm smiles and a lot of "hello!" This lady ran across a very busy street to come and talk to us!

At an amusement park where I think we ended up being one of the attractions -- here a local who was peeking on us

Relaxing at the park

This would have made for a very different movie

Fresh cane juice throughout Asia... Delicious! And I think it would be PERFECT in a margarita!

We decided to go to a leaning Buddha statue in Yangon before we went to the big pagoda in town and were befriended by a local wanting to give us a tour of the monastery there. We agree to go and it ended up being really interesting. He took us through different buildings of the monastery and how they are affected by the government, plus we even got to see some newly induced monks and nuns! Nuns in their pink robes and freshly shaved heads along with the boys in their brick red robes. They meditate and practice concentration... and watching someone practice concentration even in their walking is extremely difficult to watch especially when I have no patience to even watch such a practice! But it was such privilege to witness the inner workings of the monastery to see how they really live.