Yangon – Downtown Area

I was in for a bit of a shock after I left Sule Paya. The area immediately surrounding the pagoda is which calm. Go one street in either direction though and it’s a totally different picture. The streets are teaming with people going about their day to day life. The place is just mad with activity!


Right next to the temple, is the old City Hall. It’s quite an impressive building. It’s large and is crowned with pointy bits to match the temple. It’s painted a rather bold shade of yellow, which, as is always the case, has faded dramatically and is not yellow with black crusty bits. Most of the windows seem to be missing or broken as well. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the building is full of character. It must have looked mighty grand when it first opened, but now, I think it looks much more impressive.

Right next door, is the Immigration office. Apparently, this used to be a super mega shopping mall. In its day, it was apparently one of the largest department stores in Asia. It’s similar to the City Hall. It’s rapidly falling to bits and looks all the better for it. This time, the building is a lovely deep red in colour.


Across the road, is a church – the Immanuel Baptist Church. It’s in much better shape and looks like it’s actually been painted in the last ten years. Across the road from that, is a park commemorating the independence of Burma. There’s a giant phallus, I mean pointy monument inside to do the commemorating ($USD0.20 to enter).

A few blocks away, are the Customs House and the Court House. The Customs House is actually undergoing a face life. The facade is under scaffolding and there were men with paint brushes running about. About time!


All throughout the centre of the city are a lot of similar buildings. All would have once been grand show cases for the British Empire of the Burmese people. Today, they’re just rapidly falling to bits. Perhaps this is why the generals have decided to move the capital to a brand new location. They’re obviously not DIY enthusiasts and prefer new builds over renovations. Hopefully they will one day see some sense and come back to restore these buildings. If the people of Myanmar are ever unshackled from their retarded government, Yangon has real potential to be a great city. At the moment, it’s slowly decaying back to mud, which is a great shame.

As I walked past the Court House, this was brought into sharp focus. There was a police van jammed to overflowing with prisoners. For such a peaceful city, it seemed odd to be seeing so many people crushed into a police van. I could be charitable and think that they were all hardened criminals, but it’s just as easy to think of them as political prisoners. Either way, they were not being treated very well in that van.


There’s a real buzz to down town Yangon. I’m not quite sure if it’s the buzz of flies on a carcass or the buzz of renewed life. Either way, it was very interesting and got me thinking about the whole political situation here. I was initially reluctant to visit Myanmar, but I’m glad I have – walking the streets of Yangon has given me a great insight into the lives of the average Burmese.