I had planned to wake up early on my second day and see the sunrise at Shwedagon pagoda but I ended up sleeping in as I was so very tired from the few days before. When I woke it was raining and I think that there may not have been a viewable sunrise anyways. I walked a few km to the famous and giant pagoda to see what it was all about. Shwedagon is beautiful and mammoth. I entered on the west side which I would later find out is the only side that has an escalator. Score! Though they were performing maintenance on it so I had to walk up the numerous flights. Ha! I walked around it for a while before this old nice man came up to me and started speaking to me. Random strangers being nice and wanting to speak English is a common thing in Myanmar (well in a lot of Asia actually). He gave me a big tour and told me a lot of information. He showed me the Buddha of my birthday and how to wash it and pray properly. It was really nice and sweet, but I kept trying to figure out if he was doing it for kindness or wanted money. In the end, he asked for a donation and I sort of chuckled to myself, as this is all part of the experience. I left shortly after and walked home, stopping at the big market to get an avocado smoothie. Well sort of a smoothie, as there is no electricity for blenders it was an avocado mashed into some milk and sweet milk which I then mashed even more with my spoon. Still, very tasty. I headed home and then met up with Moe Moe again for lunch to eat some traditional burmese tofu soup thing (didn't take a picture, sorry. But a picture will come later as I'll eat this Shan people tofu soup many times again) and then ambled around before going back home to take a nap as I was still tired and also the heat was oppressive. In the evening I got some dinner with a few of the people in the hostel and after eating we walked back to the hotel and stopped to eat some yoghurt/ice cream desserts. A nice way to cool the heat.
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