Botataung Pagoda and the Yangon river

The Botataung Pagoda is near the ferry docks on the Yangon river in southeastern Yangon.  It was bombed in 1943 and rebuilt as a hollow structure that you can walk inside.  We spent some time here and then took a ship to watch the Yangon sunset.  However it was cloudy and the sunset was not spectacular.  But it was a pleasant evening, nice to be away from the hustle of the city.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Botataung Pagoda

Inside the pagoda

Nun praying inside pagoda

Buddhas hair relic enshrined in pagoda

Bronze Buddha

Commuters from other side

Busy river

Fishing nets

 

Twantay Pottery

Pottery sheds

A practised team 42 years in the making!

The kiln..imagine the fire hazard!

Young women apply redder wash to dry pots while taxi driver watches

We visited the pottery making in Twantay across the river, southwest of Yangon.  The pottery has been made here like this for over a thousand years.  In the grass walled "factory" worked a potter and his wife who turned the wheel by hand as well as young women, likely daughters who applied a red clay wash to the dried pots.  They ran the kiln every 10 days with a full load of new pots.  The pots are used by nurseries to plant shrubs and flowers and are often seen around Yangon.

final crimping to the planter

Potter explains how rings are used between pots in the kiln

Pits of wet clay mixture sit over night.  Potting wheel at back right

Our first apartment

Our first apartment where Cuso staff still live was in a townhouse on a side street off a busy business street called Insein St.  Quite appropriately named as the traffic is always "insane".  It was new and everything worked.  The landlords were a couple of returned Myanmar Americans who had fixed it up for themselves and then found that a house came with his job.  One of the Cuso staff lives in the apartment across the street and in the picture of that building you may be able to see strings going from balconies to ground level.  These are doorbells rigged up somehow as there are none in the "lobby".  Actually there is no lobby.  They are also the newspaper etc delivery system as there are no elevators and it would be a long walk down and back up just for a newspaper or such.  The item just gets tied on and is pulled up.  Efficient.

Hindu temple on Insein Street

  .

The building across the street.. look for the strings!

Our first street of houses and mini markets

Kitchen, one of two!

From the inside just heading out to work

Andy in front of our first place

The living /dining room with teak furniture.  Our stuff is ready to move!