Thanlyin

Thanlyin has the largest sea port of Myanmar, located across Bago River from the Yangon city. Thanlyin is an attractive site due to its village scenes and ways of life of people as well as its rich historical background of De Brito and Natshinnaung, a grandson of King Bayinnaung, who went over to ally himself with Filipe de Brito and was executed in Thanlyin.
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Yangon

Yangon is the old capital of Myanmar and still the busiest city in the country. It is also the largest city in the country and is the first city to arrive to Myanmar for most travelers. It is a city of style and old-worldly dilapidated majesty. Left like nowhere else on earth following decades of isolation after independence, huge swathes of the city are peppered with some of the region’s most stunning colonial architecture. Find vast teak wood mansions in the traditional style hidden away amongst shady side streets and broad leafy boulevards flanked by towering old-commercial grandeur. The unique fusion of local and Indian tradesmen with the influences of Victorian and Edwardian Britain have resulted in some of the era’s most extraordinary and most ostentatious architecture. And it’s...
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Bagan

Bagan

Situated in central Myanmar is one of the world’s richest archaeological and historical sites, featuring more than 2,000 pagodas and temples all set on a vast 26 square-mile plain beside the legendary Ayeyarwady River. The Bagan kingdom was swept away by earthquakes and the invasion by Mongols. Some 2,230 of an original 4,450 temples survive. Buddhist belief that to build a temple was to earn merit and that could be the reason there were so many pagodas throughout Bagan’s desert plain. Modern day Bagan now features a variety of good hotels and is also the starting and ending point for cruises on the Ayeyarwady River to and from Mandalay. A unique travel experience is a hot-air balloon ride over the archaeological zone, which is available during the winter months.
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Kyauk Tan Ye-Le Pagoda

About 7 miles southeast of Thanlyin, there is Kyauk Tan. The floating pagoda is adrift on the river and one of the highlights is people feeding the gigantic catfish appearing and emerging from the water at the edge of the pagoda platform (steps). Take one of the ferries boat from the riverbank. Two things are noticed, the water level never rises to cover the pagoda, and there will always be enough room for everyone who come to visit the pagoda (meaning, even the pagoda has small room for visitors somehow it is always balanced out between those who is coming & leaving).
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Shwedagon Pagoda

Shwedagon Pagoda is the ‘heart’ of Buddhists in Myanmar. The Pagoda is believed to be 2,600 years old and there are always full with many people praying and making offerings at Shwedagon and especially on Full Moon days and religious days.
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Botahtaung Pagoda

Botahtaung Pagoda is close to the Yangon Jetty (Botahtaung Jetty). Bo means leader and Tahtaung means one thousand in Burmese. Botahtaung means One Thousand Military Leaders/Officers of the king. They were drawn up as a guard of honor to welcome the landing in Burma of the relics of the Buddha brought over from India more than two thousand years ago. There is a sort of mirrored maze inside the stupa, with glass showcases containing many of the ancient relics. The pagoda is also a home to a nat, or spirit, shrine of Amadaw Mya Nan Nwe, and a guardian spirit, Bo Bo Gyi.
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Amadaw Mya Nan Nwe

Botahtaung pagoda is also a home to a nat, or spirit, shrine of Amadaw Mya Nan Nwe, a devout Buddhist famous for her devotion to the pagoda, dedicated her life to making merit. Following her death in 1957, Amadaw Mya Nan Nwe became a revered figure in her own right. In 1990, a shrine containing a statue of her was erected inside Botataung Pagoda, and from that point on she was worshipped as Mya Nan Nwe Htayyi (Goddess), a nat with the power to grant the wishes of those who appealed to her for help.
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