Yangon is Myanmar's biggest city and former capital. After the last cyclone, they built a new city somewhere else for the government but no one really lives there yet. All the pitfalls of big city living are here: too much traffic, too many people on practically nonexistent sidewalks, and too much noise and pollution. The airport is well connected, however, so it’s a necessary stop and worth a couple days to have a look around.

Without a doubt, the Shwedagon Pagoda is the highlight of visiting the city. It’s one of the holiest Buddhist sites in the world and one of the largest. The main pagoda is 326 feet tall (about 100m) and has a 22 inch orb (56cm) at the very top containing 4,351 diamonds and a 76 carat diamond at the apex. The umbrella section just below that has 83,850 gemstones and is plated with ½ ton of gold (500 kgs). The entire pagoda is plated with something like 22,000 gold bars. Statistics aside, the most fascinating thing is people watching. Thousands of people visit each day. When the sun sets, a giant ring of lanterns completely surround the temple complex creating a spiritual vibe and an opportunity to pretend you’re a photographer for National Geographic.

The rest of the city is less interesting. There’s an archaic train system than takes 3 hours just to do a 28 mile loop around the city, of which we rode about a quarter of it before returning. There’s some colonial architecture left over from the Brits, and a few other pagodas and temples not worth mentioning. It was the only place in the country where locals warned us to watch our daypacks and stuff for pickpockets.

In the evening we decided to catch a movie and see what a Burmese movie theater was like. The film was the new Point Break release in 3D without English subtitles. I’m not sure how the locals without a good command of our language would understand anything but that’s how it is here. The movie was fair but the most indelible memory I have of this evening was the sound of popcorn eating! Seriously, it was a like a continuous, crunching roar for the first 30 minutes of the film. I didn’t know such a loud volume was even possible!

So thanks Myanmar. You get a big thumb’s up as an adventure travel destination. And with the new government about to take over, I only wish the best for your future. I’m headed back to Thailand and will decide where to go from there. Nora goes back to Austria to look for a new job thingy since she quit her old one to come here. Thailand is pretty "been there, done that" for me but it’s still one of my favorite places to revisit. But somewhere new is calling me and I don’t know where that is yet.