Yangon Rangoon Myanmar Hotels...

Just tell the taxi guy "dengziseh", food is quite ok, girls are pretty and the Myanmar nightlife tide is high.

Everywhere you go the legacy of the colonial British empire is visible. The English didn't compromise with this part of the East, the result were wide streets and a solid brick architecture of Victorian style and inspiration, before that most non sacral buildings were constructed in wood and Bamboo. The British did the same what they have done in British India, that’s the reason why Yangon appears very much like an Indian city. Not only by the architecture but also in the city organization, the markets and the typical Indian style of concentration, means there is a quarter with textile shops, another with everything related to books and printing and so on, actually today this is floating, the old structures are vanishing.

At Yangon (Rangoon) the traveler is constantly being taken back to London about 150 years ago; a good example is the Custom House at the Yangon river, the style of the building is that of the London Thames River Customs House at that time, there is still a gleaming of dark woods and brass but its constantly rotten more and more. A good example is the Burma (Myanmar) railway building in the very Yangon (Rangoon) center beside the Grand MeeYaHta Hotel and Apartment building, MeeYaHta means railway. The old railway building is a absolute stunning brick construction with a great old style, unfortunately the building is in total decay. It is a petty that a country let rot and disappear their great past. There are several other beautiful Yangon (Rangoon) buildings showing great nostalgic architecture. There are some Yangon hotels where the architects have picked up this old local style, one of them is the Kandawgyi Hotel, pictured at right.

Plenty of other British-colonial times era houses and government buildings, a legacy of the British presence in Yangon or Rangoon , Burma or Myanmar, these structures were built between the mid-19th century and the outbreak of World War II in 1940 are still visible in Yangon or Rangoon Myanmar. Together with many beautiful Myanmar or Burma lakes, Myanmar or Burma pagodas.  Another big massive modern style accommodation is the Sedona Hotel. Your travel to Myanmar
Savoy Hotel Yangon city	wouldn't be complete without visiting some new hotels in old, renovated buildings such as the governors residence and the Savoy Hotel to give a distinctive colonial touch you wont find elsewhere. Both hotels are high price hotels with a
very stylish atmosphere in teak and brass

- In the city center is the Sule Pagoda,

people say the pagoda is about two thousand years old. The British made the Sule Pagoda the center of Yangon (Rangoon) when they rebuilt Yangon City. A very old fashion stylish hotel in Yangon (Rangoon) today is the Kandawgyi Hotel at the Royal or Kandawgyi Lake. The main through roads are full of stinking buses and small trucks who carry the people of Yangon (Rangoon) back and forward. Almost all the roads in the city have incrustation of stalls and the people do their business just at the boardwalk, repairing shoes, cutting textiles and eating Myanmar (Burmese) style fast food), the Botataung pagoda is at the south side of the port.

There are colorful flower markets along the road with tropical and tempered flowers, fruits and vegetables, meat and all kind of items for the daily life plus myriads of shops selling all everything from cameras, watches, software, pharmaceutical products (which are mostly imported, except traditional Myanmar (Burmese) medicines. Through these old British style arteries now runs pure oriental blood made from Toyotas, home made Myanmar cars and plenty remains of WW2 cars, autos, trucks and buses and street markets are lining the roads.

The streets of Yangon (Rangoon) in bright sun with strolling crowds and dense traffic have a look for the Yangon pictures on this page and elsewhere in the website. The Yangon (Rangoon) river is administered by the Port Authority which controls all ship movements. The Yangon river has the inland harbor and the more prominent the ocean going vessels moving in from the Andaman Sea, a part of the Indian Ocean. Close to the Yangon (Rangoon) port is the Botataung Pagoda. Very close to the waterfront runs the Strand Road with the famous Strand Hotel Yangon (Rangoon) Rangoon on the other side of the road. The area is very busy and ocean-going vessels from about 10 000 to 15 000 tons are anchored alongside the bank and in midstream. After conquering Burma during British colonial times until after WW2 Yangon was a stopover for British vessels from India to Penang and today Georgetown Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur and present day Singapore.

Its not an area to stay since it is very stinky because of the never ending cue of trucks to pick up freight from the harbor. Myanmar trucks and WW2 SUV emitting huge clouds of smoke, which is the same with the newer trucks imported from Japan and China.

Yangon (Rangoon) is the largest seaport and river port in Myanmar but not the Capital anymore, that was moved to Naypyidaw further north.

The Yangon (Rangoon) port stretches along the river from Insein where the notorious Insein prison is located to Botathaung Township and the Pazundaung Creek in the south-eastern

part of the city where the Bago River joins the Yangon River. The bridge over the river connects to   Thanlyin or Syriam and parts of the Irrawaddy delta which was devastated by the Cyclone Nagis some time ago. Panoramas open up with beautiful golden and white pagodas glittering in the tropical sun.

Yangon River Ship

Syriam was in the 16. Century the base of Philip de Brito, a Portuguese adventurer who made it from the kitchen boy of a Portuguese trading vessel to a local warlord.

In 1613 the King of Toungoo together with the King of Ava tried to get rid of Nicote. Their huge army laid siege to Syriam - close to today Yangon (Rangoon) and soon made Nicote’s position quite desperate,

one of Nicote’s men’s changed sides, finally they got and impaled him.

The Yangon River flows southwards and the brown waters empty into the Gulf of Martaban in the Andaman Sea.

At the Strand Road waterfront are more than 15 kilometers of wharves, jetties, pontoons and landing stages for different types of river, coastal and ocean vessels.

The Strand Hotel built in 1901, a few years later the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok and the Strand Hotel in Yangon (Rangoon) were the top Hotels in East Asia. The Strand Hotel has been renovated at the beginning of the 1990 ies. The hotel still has original fittings such as teak furniture and decoration, ceiling fans, marble bathrooms, and Myanmar art. The problem is, in front of the hotel is Strand Road one of Yangon city busiest street where almost 24 hour extremely stinking trucks move from the harbor in and out. back and forward, not to count the other extremely noisy traffic.

Other interesting colonial-style buildings are the Yangon Railway Station with Myanmar traditional designs; the Railway Office (formerly Burma Railways) of red brick trimmed colonial architecture; the Bogyoke Aung San Market Building plus the Holy Trinity Cathedral, all typical English colonial style brick buildings.

There are other typical Myanmar style buildings to see at Yangon (Rangoon) such as this small pagoda on the road to the Shwedagon pagoda where all surfaces are covered with beautiful glass mosaic. This Yangon pagoda, the Sein Yaung Kyi Pagoda is small but optically a real sacral treasure, Yangon has quite a lot of pagodas but this pagoda is a real highlight. Sein Yaung Kyi means  Bright Diamond Hued and it really looks like a mosaic of colored diamonds placed at the walls and some relief. The location is almost opposite the Defense Services Museum on the road to the Shwedagon Pagoda.