25 Fun and useful things to know about Yangon, Myanmar

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Some cities create lasting impressions. Yangon (Rangoon) in Myanmar struck us big time.

We visited this historic, newly flourishing city for several nights, book-ending an Ayeyarwady River cruise with stays before and after in Yangon. During our visit, we learned many quirky and interesting facts about Yangon – and picked up several useful Yangon travel tips too (from taxi costs to the best expat bar).

25 Facts about Yangon

You’ll want to read these 25 things to know about Yangon – to help you understand the city and its people better and to make your trip more enjoyable.

1) The Shwedagon Pagoda is epic!

And here’s one of the lesser-known Yangon facts – the Shwedagon isn’t the biggest pagoda in Myanmar. The gold Shwesandaw Pagoda that we gaped at in Pyay (Bagan) is three feet taller.

In truth, other golden stupas we saw in Myanmar appeared more magnificent to us. In Yangon, we especially liked the less touristy Maha Wizaya Pagoda, connected by pedestrian bridge to the Shwedagon.

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2) Taxis in Yangon are plentiful and cheap

Taxis only cost about $2 to $3.50 USD to go most anywhere in the city, even for fair distances and time-consuming congested trips. On our Yangon visit, we found taxis to be the best way to get around the city.

3) The Burmese are very sweet

One of the nicest Yangon facts we discovered for ourselves is that the Burmese people are kind and gentle. Perhaps their nature has something to do with their beliefs? Some 90% of the population are Buddhist.

4) Yangon is exotic

Though it’s making strides and sporting new development, Yangon has much catching up to do when compared to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

But it also holds many fabulous treasures, like pagodas, parks and lakeside walks.

5) Yangon sunsets are stunning

6) An open umbrella doesn’t mean rain

7) Young people wear jeans

Okay, this doesn’t sound too radical.

But older men wear the traditional longyi tied around their waist, as do school children in uniform (white shirt, flip-flops and navy blue longyis). Most young men under 25 wear skinny blue jeans, however, and dye their naturally-black hair a reddish-brown color, which they wear short and spiky.

8) Yangon is hot!

The heat and humidity are stifling.

At 2:00 pm, you mostly want to be lying in the shade under a colorful parasol by your hotel pool, sipping from a fresh cold coconut.

9) The sidewalks are dangerous

Watch out on the sidewalks – one misstep and you could tumble down into huge holes in the cracked cement, perhaps into a dirty sewer below.

10) Yangon has French restaurants

There are loads of eating spots with delicious local cuisine at very reasonable prices. But there are also exclusive upscale French and other restaurants, where dinner for two could set you back as much as fine dining back home.

11) Yangon is still very much cash-only

Large hotels, hotels and bigger businesses and shops now accept credit cards. But cash is still king at local shops and smaller places.

12) There are many Buddhist monks

But monks in Myanmar wear burgundy-colored robes.

13) And all monks seem to have cell phones

But they often walk barefoot.

14) Inya Lake is the most exclusive area

Inya Lake is an exclusive area – you drive past it on the way from the international airport to the center of Yangon. Here, beautiful colonial homes and embassies are hidden behind high stone walls topped with barbed wire. The U.S. Embassy and the family home where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her years of house arrest are found on the lake’s leafy south side.

15) Yangon is a botanical delight

16) Wearing a longyi is no simple feat

You need to know how to tie a special knot to hold your longyi in place. Beware the consequences if you don’t do it right.

George’s longyi fell to his ankles as we were exploring the Shwedagon Pagoda (he had to buy a longyi at the entrance to cover his knees, as he was wearing shorts). That got huge good-natured laughs from everyone around us.

17) Yangon is full of roses

We were surprised at how many vases of beautiful roses we saw – on restaurant tables, in hotel lobbies… We were told roses grow well in Yangon, and a rose farm supplies the roses.

18) Traffic is the pits

Wow – traffic! On a previous visit, the streets were mostly filled with bicycles and only an occasional car.

Now the streets are clogged with vehicles. In many parts of town, there are few crosswalks, often ignored (just like in Kandy, Sri Lanka). Probably one of the most important things to know about Yangon is that cars don’t look out for pedestrians.

We quickly learned to cozy up to locals who had mastered the trick of weaving around lines of cars or sprinting across gaps in traffic.

19) The Scott Market is a shopaholic’s heaven

20) Dentists could make a great living

Okay, here’s one of the quirky things to know about Yangon – dentists would always be busy (if people could afford to pay). Some locals only have stumps for teeth, their gums reddened and blackened from years of chewing red betel nut.

21) Bars are cool

Commonly spotted: 20-something NGO staffers, expats and embassy folk, chatting, laughing and kissing each other on the cheeks when coming and going.

22) You’ll see terrible things

We sometimes saw heart-searing things, like a severely deformed man with stump legs scooting across a busy street on his hands.

23) Haggling is hard

It’s hard to bargain unless you buy more than one thing. The bargaining tips that work in Mexico didn’t get us very far in Yangon, indeed Myanmar.

24) Buses are iffy

Colorful, smoke-belching public buses – windows open (no air-conditioning) are packed to the rafters with local commuters. Entertaining to watch, a conductor on each bus hangs out the side of the open door, waving wildly to invite more paying customers on board or signaling to flowing traffic so the bus can join in.

25) Yangon is beautiful, in a faded sort of way

And the city must have been gorgeous in its colonial heyday. Witness the iconic 1901 Strand Hotel, which we popped into for a look-see.

Apart from the Strand and a few other restored properties, the city displays many now-faded, but still evocative, colonial-era buildings.

Many of the best properties are rumored to be owned by military generals , supposedly willing to sell them for the “right price” to be demolished and replaced by more profitable buildings. Heritage preservation efforts are underway to try and save properties over 50 years old from being torn down to make way for skyscrapers – but that’s a challenge.

Only time will tell if these efforts succeed.