Yangon pt. 2

Returning to Yangon after the amazing Bagan we hope we have left the best sight for last, the Shwedagon Pagoda. This is the one you'll see first if you search for "myanmar sights to see". If you can't be bothered, it's an enormous gold conical temple with little temples and Buddhas of all manner surrounding it, not to mention small structures dedicated to the days of the week. The purpose is to find the Icon representing the day you were born, and to wash water over it while saying Buddhist things. Don't ask me what, I don't know. Don't ask me why, I don't know. The various temples surrounding the pagoda each contain one or more Buddhas, in various States of repose and made of different materials, one jade, one crystal, many gold. There is a gigantic black bell in one temple for special ceremonies, called King Thayarwady's bell. At eight and a half feet tall and forty two tons, it doesn't need to be struck very hard to make a very big sound. There is a temple containing Buddha's footprint and one with a replica tooth and a site at which the Buddha's hairs, which were enshrined in the giant pagoda, were washed before they were encased in several thousand tonnes of pagoda. I feel I am not doing this remarkable holy site justice. I'm really not sure how I could. The scale of it is quite unbelievable, and the fact the government, in it's infinite wisdom, moved the capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw and replicated the pagoda in it's entirety, is testimony to the wonder of the Shwedagon pagoda and chiefly to the government's barmyness. The last remaining sight for us is an immense reclining Buddha with characters all over it's foot, each representing a different important word. As it happens, there is another immense Buddha statue at the opposite end of the city, right by the airport. The names of the temples in which these statues are housed differs by one letter, and if one's mouth is full of betel nut, the names sound very similar if one is telling the cab driver which one to take us to. I don't think I need to finish this story. This left us with just enough time to get to the airport. Sigh. Thailand ho!