Day 53, Summer in Asia, Yangon, Myanmar
We wanted to see Chaukhtatgyi Buddha Temple, otherwise known as the lipstick Buddha, which I’d read about on a number of travel sites. Turns out the Buddha not only had lipstick, but blue eye-shadow, red nails, and a fair bit of bling. The Reclining Buddha stretches some 217 feet long, and is rather impressive. The first version was completed in 1907, and replaced with a new one in 1973 that had a more pleasing, less aggressive expression, and definitely more made up. I saw photos of the previous one, and I preferred it–the Buddha was looking pretty fierce. On the way out we saw an open-air library with books on Buddhism and the Buddha.
On the walk to the restaurant, we saw a group of female monks waiting for the bus. Here the women wear a pink draping as their top layer over their robes.
Entrance to another pagoda along the way.
We ended our final day in Myanmar at an Italian restaurant with a small collection of other tourists. You don’t often see the people from here eating in these, they’re too overpriced for the average wages. Most people are grabbing food from the sidewalk carts.
