Its Sunday afternoon and following my weekly meditation session, I decide to visit another Yangon pagoda. My friends are all pagoda'd out so I travel by myself. Firstly, a very helpful police officer puts me on the correct bus, as the Yangon bus system has changed this week, reducing the number of routes from 300 to 60. The Botataung pagoda is an important site on the waterfront near the ferry piers and industrial wharves. The story is that two strands of hair ...

The iconic Secretariat building is usually open to the public for just a few hours on one day a year. It is being restored as a potential site for arts and cultural events. The colonial buildings were the centre of the British imperial power and the magnificent architecture has been decaying for decades. It was also the place where Burma's leader Aung San was murdered back on 1948. The German Goethe Institute has organised a modern art display by world famous art...

One feature of life here in Yangon that you get used to is stray dogs. There are estimated to be 200,000 stray dogs in the city's 33 townships up from 70,000 three years ago according to one article I read. I am not sure of the reliability of the figures but 100,000 is a figure not disputed by many. Because of the risk to public health from rabies and other communicable diseases, the authorities are beginning to take the issue seriously. There have been some o...

In the backstreets of downtown Yangon lies a small war cemetery for Commonwealth servicemen. Once again, it is perfectly maintained by local Burmese gardeners on behalf of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They wear smart grey uniforms and and carry out their responsibilities with respect and attention to detail. The graves are laid out in the same way as the other war cemeteries I have visited. This time I noticed something very poignant - pilot and na...

Mandalay offers two unique sights. Set in stone in the grounds of Kuthodaw pagoda at the foot of the Mandalay hill is the world's biggest book. It has 730 large marble tablets with the Theraveda Buddhist script. There are 1460 pages and each page is nearly 4 feet wide and 5 feet tall. The upright stones are arranged in neat rows and work began in 1860 with the site opening eight years later. The writing was chiselled and originally filled with gold inlay. Ub...