been very busy and all.
havent had the time to update.
and pictures are still in our archives, just waiting to be put on the blog.
but blogger can be a pain sometimes hence the lack in posts.
we are currently in Abu Dhabi and will be flying off to Milan on Sunday.Once we get back to KL, pictures will be posted and stories will be told. Bank on it.
Thank you.
Mad love.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Myanmar Part 1 - Welcome to Yangon.
whoo, here it is. our first official travelling entry. first stop in this journey of ours is Myanmar. there will be several parts to Myanmar as we went to different places and we couldnt possibly fit everything into one post! we went to Myanmar in December 2006 - from Yangon to Bagan, then Mandalay and Inle Lake and back to Yangon. to sum up Myanmar in a few words: left, right, pagoda everywhere. the place is filled with pagodas! from small to massive, from old to gold covered ones.
one pagoda that really stood out was the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. the Shwedagon Pagoda is covered with real gold and precious stones (like ruby's and sapphires) near the top. all this aswell as a huge diamond on the tip. and we mean HUGE. :x there's a lot of pagodas in Yangon itself but thats the main pagoda there. its situated somewhat in the middle of the city - you can see it from where ever you are. the area of the Shwedagon Pagoda is also hugeee! theres smaller pagodas in its compound.
when we were there, we came across a lady who, covered in monk clothing, was sitting alongside the pagoda, facing the sun. she was just sitting there staring. we were wondering what she was staring at and it turns out she was staring straight directly into the sun. ouch, how bad would that hurt? according to our tour guide, that lady was staring at the sun because these monks believed that they could get "powers" by doing so. its weird, but its really interesting watching the monks as they could sit there for hours.
the Shwedagon Pagoda
the surroundings
the different Buddhas in Shwedagon's compound
the smaller pagodas around the Shwedagon
at every corner of the compound, theres these small statues and water feature that represents different months that you were born in. we couldnt really remember if it was zodiacs or birthdays according to the Buddhist beliefs. anyway, people would go to their respective months/statue and pray for various things. they would scoop out a bit of water and pour it over the statue. its sort of like a cleansing ritual.
a "cleansing" statue
then we went around the city. the city was clean. it's developing but there was a lot of old buildings still. the men there walk around wearing a type of like "kain pelikat". its really funny, only some of them wear pants. and this is in the city itself! imagine walking around KL or any city in a sarong. hahaha. : p
the city
us!
next we went to the Reclining Buddha. the name says it all, the Buddha was actually reclining. it was lying down on its side. and it was big aswell! what is it with these Burmese and big things? haha. but this reclining Buddha was really cool to see. at the bottom of the feet of the reclining Buddha, there was writings of the Buddhist beliefs. the reclining Buddha was the biggest reclining Buddha in Myanmar. it was built with fundings from all over the world. there's plaques of people who donated money to help build the Buddha all over the place. like other holy place or praying place, we had to take our shoes off to enter the place.
the reclining Buddha
we went to eat at an Indian restaurant for lunch. it's not really easy to find Halal food around Yangon. its easy if you have a tour guide like we did. because we specified for Halal food. there's a lot of Indian influence in Burma as it goes back to the roots - most of the Burmese ancestors were migrants from India. and we went for Chinese for dinner. the food was okay. no complains there.
we were in Yangon for only a night, which was the first night in Myanmar. but we later came back for another night at the end of the journey for our flight back to KL.
next stop: Bagan : )
one pagoda that really stood out was the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. the Shwedagon Pagoda is covered with real gold and precious stones (like ruby's and sapphires) near the top. all this aswell as a huge diamond on the tip. and we mean HUGE. :x there's a lot of pagodas in Yangon itself but thats the main pagoda there. its situated somewhat in the middle of the city - you can see it from where ever you are. the area of the Shwedagon Pagoda is also hugeee! theres smaller pagodas in its compound.
when we were there, we came across a lady who, covered in monk clothing, was sitting alongside the pagoda, facing the sun. she was just sitting there staring. we were wondering what she was staring at and it turns out she was staring straight directly into the sun. ouch, how bad would that hurt? according to our tour guide, that lady was staring at the sun because these monks believed that they could get "powers" by doing so. its weird, but its really interesting watching the monks as they could sit there for hours.
at every corner of the compound, theres these small statues and water feature that represents different months that you were born in. we couldnt really remember if it was zodiacs or birthdays according to the Buddhist beliefs. anyway, people would go to their respective months/statue and pray for various things. they would scoop out a bit of water and pour it over the statue. its sort of like a cleansing ritual.
then we went around the city. the city was clean. it's developing but there was a lot of old buildings still. the men there walk around wearing a type of like "kain pelikat". its really funny, only some of them wear pants. and this is in the city itself! imagine walking around KL or any city in a sarong. hahaha. : p
next we went to the Reclining Buddha. the name says it all, the Buddha was actually reclining. it was lying down on its side. and it was big aswell! what is it with these Burmese and big things? haha. but this reclining Buddha was really cool to see. at the bottom of the feet of the reclining Buddha, there was writings of the Buddhist beliefs. the reclining Buddha was the biggest reclining Buddha in Myanmar. it was built with fundings from all over the world. there's plaques of people who donated money to help build the Buddha all over the place. like other holy place or praying place, we had to take our shoes off to enter the place.
we went to eat at an Indian restaurant for lunch. it's not really easy to find Halal food around Yangon. its easy if you have a tour guide like we did. because we specified for Halal food. there's a lot of Indian influence in Burma as it goes back to the roots - most of the Burmese ancestors were migrants from India. and we went for Chinese for dinner. the food was okay. no complains there.
we were in Yangon for only a night, which was the first night in Myanmar. but we later came back for another night at the end of the journey for our flight back to KL.
next stop: Bagan : )
Monday, September 17, 2007
okaaay.
So here we are. Two sisters who one day just decided to start up a blog (well, you can call it a travel blog i guess) about the travelling that we've done and places we've been to. Hey, we might as well share the adventure and stories with other people right? So yeah, we're here to share with you our experiences around the globe.
We are from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but currently residing in Perth, Australia as we are both studying here. Perth is a nice city, with a very relax feel to it but KL will forever be home : ) We've been to a lot of different places around the world and has seen a variety of cultures and people from all walks of lives - and how interesting they are.
Please bear with us as we are still going through our photo archives looking for pictures from our trips/holidays to post up here. Check in here often as there will be updates very soon. This site will be up and running in no time : ) We hope you'll enjoy our stories as much as we'll enjoy sharing it with you's.
luve.
- yana+raina.
We are from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but currently residing in Perth, Australia as we are both studying here. Perth is a nice city, with a very relax feel to it but KL will forever be home : ) We've been to a lot of different places around the world and has seen a variety of cultures and people from all walks of lives - and how interesting they are.
Please bear with us as we are still going through our photo archives looking for pictures from our trips/holidays to post up here. Check in here often as there will be updates very soon. This site will be up and running in no time : ) We hope you'll enjoy our stories as much as we'll enjoy sharing it with you's.
luve.
- yana+raina.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
