MAHA BANDULA PARK AT NIGHT

13th DECEMBER 2019 ~ We decided to return to Maha Bandula Park because we saw some kinds of lights had been installed there. There could be a display of lights and that would be something interesting. Furthermore we still had nothing else to do before calling it a day.

There were already many people in the park and everybody was busy clicking away their (phone) cameras with as many poses as possible. The place was beautifully lit up with colourful LED bulbs and it felt already like Christmas.

The whole thing was actually an event called "Fukuoka Fantasy". Guess it was a collaboration project with Fukuoka, Yangon's sister city.

Maha Bandula Park was transformed into a different place from what we had seen during the day. It must have been our lucky day to be able to join the event.

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THE NIGHT MARKET IN DOWNTOWN YANGON

13th DECEMBER 2019 ~ We came across this row of stalls just outside Maha Bandula Park in downtown Yangon, and realized that should be the night market. We were there a bit too early and the traders were still busy setting up their stalls.

The first section of the row consisted of food stalls. There were chairs and tables (like Japanese tables) with short legs and we could see this kind of seating by the streets in Yangon.

There was one stall operated by a Muslim because she was wearing a hijab. We did not buy any food from here as we were not sure of the halal status. Some of the food was similar to what we have back home.

I did not find anything fancy to buy from the night market. I guess it was just another night market which catered to the needs of the locals. It was still worth visiting if you are in Yangon, at least you will have the chance to mingle with people here.

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MINGLING WITH THE LOCALS AT MAHA BANDULA PARK

13th DECEMBER 2019 ~ The next pit stop was Maha Bandula Park which was just opposite/in front of Sule Pagoda. A prominent landmark of the park was the Independence Monument which was erected to commemorate the moment British gave the country back to its people.

Maha Bandula Park was surrounded by the old colonial buildings like the Town Hall and High Court, making it another significant landmark of Yangon.

The Independence Monument was installed to replace the statue of Queen Victoria (which was then taken back to England) in 1948. It reminded me of the similar structure I saw in Washington D.C. many years ago.

When we were there, it was only a few minutes past 3.00 p.m. but there were already a lot of people in the park. We thought this was too early for recreational activities. They were just sitting on the grass and chatting or doing nothing, and a few groups were having some kind of picnic. Just imagine people were enjoying the sun under the shades of trees in summer.

Too bad there was no English signage here on the structure so we did not know what the writing was about.

We only realized that the sun set faster in Myanmar when we were there, at about 5:39 p.m. No wonder people were already sitting on the open field when I thought they should still be at work.

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