Feeling royal

Last Sunday we decided to be tourists for a little bit and explore something in Yangon.

As we wanted to do something in nature without going outside the city, a walk around Kandawdgyi lake seemed like a good choice.

Kandawdgyi lake, which in Burmese means 'Great Royal Lake', is located in downtown area of Yangon, only 20 minutes walk from where we live.

To get to the area foreigners have to pay 2 USD or 2000 kyat. I don't know how much locals should pay, maybe 10th part of the amount if at all. Anyway, here in Myanmar they have foreigner prices for everything. It is such a shame that to get to any park or this particular lake you need to pay. But since there is no a good taxation system, someone needs to pay the maintenance... Rich foreigners :)

Anyway, once we got to the lake we didn't think about the high entrance fee anymore. It was just  so beautiful! All those wooden bridges spreading from one side to another looked so cute!

This long bridge connects one bank of the lake with another.

The lake is artificial and is connected to a bigger Inya lake with a system of pipes. Apparently there is not enough water exchange that's why the water gets this green color. 

Water drops on water lilies looked a bit like jelly fish :)

Palm trees along the bridge

  

We had a long walk along those bridges, enjoying the view, resting on the grass sometimes. There were lots of people, especially couples, who were hiding behind their umbrellas and kissing. Showing affection publicly is not so common here, but apparently if you're behind umbrella it's okay :)

This is the park where couples were hiding :) 

Sometimes it was quite dangerous to walk there since the bridges are poorly maintained and wooden bars are broken in many places. Also in the water there was some garbage of plastic bottles and bags. People here don't really bother about environment unfortunately.

The best view on Shwedagon Pagoda. 

We got to another side of the lake close to Kandawdgyi Palace, but didn't really go there since both were too tired. That will be our next touristy trip in the city :)

Kandawgyi palace

People were preparing to the Full moon festival by putting candles. 

Overall we did enjoy our little tour. What bothered me a bit was that sometimes locals were staring at me, making some comments in Burmese and sometimes even taking photos. I can understand that people are curious, but that was a bit too much... Still getting used to be a local celebrity - a weird white blond girl with strange dress.. :)