Accommodation
Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake Yangon
Breakfast at the hotel.
Spiritual Shwedagon Pagoda with Blessing Ceremony
For a true and complete Buddhist experience, we invite three Buddhist monks to pray for you. Kneel or sit in silence as they recite Buddhist verses in a ceremony practiced throughout the lives of Theravada Buddhists of Myanmar. The ritual is essential for locals when opening a shop and inaugurating a house or car and for the visitors they do the special prayers for a special occasion like an anniversary, a honeymoon or a birthday. The duration of the whole ceremony about 20 minutes.
So what’s behind the golden façade of the Shwedagon Pagoda? During this interactive half day tour we take you through the back door and show you the full history of the pagoda, the daily life of all people living in the immediate surroundings of the pagoda and a deeper insight in the Buddhist religion and how the spiritual belief is mixed with the belief in nats – the Myanmar spirits. An intriguing half day tour starting from the bottom of the hill and passing the workshops, markets and monasteries which will be useful or even essential to understand more of the country during the rest of your journey. The tour includes a traditional Burmese breakfast, offerings to monks and the pagoda, a visit to a fortune teller and a Burmese lunch.
Yangon Heritage walk – Short version (2 hours)
Yangon downtown is unique with much of its colonial-era architecture still standing. You find one of Asia’s most impressive collections of late nineteenth and early twentieth- century buildings, religious and secular. Starting after breakfast or lunch this walking tour will take you a step back in time, through downtown Yangon, focusing on its old colonial buildings, neglected or purposefully restored. Stop at the Secretariat, the location of Myanmar’s first parliament after gaining independence in 1948. After the tour you will have time to enjoy a drink at Gekko, a cosy restaurant on Merchant Street in a historical building.