A few images from Burma

[Seagull]

I'll leave you after that leisurely afternoon with a view looking past the adjacent Myanmar National Airlines building towards the Strand Hotel . It is taken from a pedestrian bridge over the busy road and onto the waterfront. I'm sure there will be a photo or two to show you from around there another week.

[ombugge]

I did stay at The Strand a couple of times back in the 1970's when it was run down and without A/C, even in the rooms, and the service was deplorable.
Still, it was better than the alternative, the Inya Lake Hotel that was built and run by the Russians and smelled of mold and decaying wood. (Now also renovated and well managed)

BTW; Across that walk bridge and down towards the river there is a very good Chinese Restaurant on the second floor of Ferry Terminal.

[pakarang]

...and the view of my table, through at the window on the right and an ideal vantage point.

That is such ana amazing view - WOW! The almost haze-like light in the other room makes this so moody, and beautiful. So perfect!

Oh, yummy, the cakes! I even spotted a tiny Crem Brûlée! (I think). I have a brain finely tuned to pick up even the tiniest smudge of that dessert.

[Seagull]

Close to the Strand Hotel, on the corner of Pansodan Street, is the Port Authority Building which dates from 1920. The tower is especially impressive, and seems to have distracted me from taking more photos of the building, though perhaps that happened because I didn't cross the roads at this busy junction to get a viewpoint of the building as a whole.

[Seagull]

On the subject of things maritime, here is a view of a local ferry. Bathed in the special late afternoon light as sunset approaches, it is an image I like a lot.




A little farther along I encounter more modern (since 2016) water transport - Yangon Water Bus. Here is a link to their website: http://www.yangonwaterbus.com/










Here's a tug photo. Mhan Aung-3, IMO 9738557, in the middle was built in 2014. I like this photo for the juxtaposition of the tugs with the traditional craft in the foreground.

[Seagull]

Across the Strand Road - a mix of architectural styles.



This is the British Embassy. It was originally built in 1900 for the Glasgow shipping and insurance company J. & F. Graham.




Back at Pansodan Street, looking across at the opposite corner from the Port Authority building is the former Accountant General's Office and Currency Department. There were originally three wings, built between 1900 and 1907. Some further construction was of brick and resulted in structural problems. In 1942 Japanese bombing destroyed one wing. While parts of the building are in use today, some is in a dilapidated, overgrown and neglected state.

[Seagull]

[Seagull]

More buildings sprouting trees.






...and looking up here I make a picture of overhead wires.

[ombugge]

If you go to post 48 onwards you can see some pictures of the same buildings some years back to see the decay on some and maybe refurbishment of other.

[Seagull]

Some fascinating comparisons ...I'm so glad your older photos didn't get deleted.

[Seagull]

This is a photo looking up at the mirrored underside of a canopy at the entrance door of a building.. I don't have a photo of the building itself from across the street, but I did photograph a little blue plaque! It tells me that the 1930s building was originally Grindlay's Bank, and for a while from 1970 housed the National Museum.
The blue plaques of the Yangon Heritage Trust commemorate significant buildings and their history.

[Seagull]

The imposing architecture of theYangon Stock Exchange, formerly the Reserve Bank of India, built in 1937.




This is the former bank of Bengal building from 1914.




Rander House is the original name of this 1932 building in Pansodan Street. It is the name of a town in Gujarat, India, from where traders had migrated to Yangon.




This is possibly the most modern building of the colonial period, stylistically and also in the use of reinforced concrete. It was the headquarters of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (later to be incorporated in Standard Chartered).

[Seagull]

On the corner of Pansodan Street and Merchant Road is the Lokanat Building, formerly Sofaer’s Building, and one of the most prestigious business addresses in Yangon. Unsurprisingly for such premises it has been awarded a blue plaque.

[Seagull]

There are interesting and photogenic streetscapes and buildings at every turn.










Detail of the above building.

[Seagull]

I just have to include a cinema for Jan-Olav, especially as they were screening one of his favourite films!




I've included this street scene to remind me that I haven't yet shown you a temple in Yangon, yet one pagoda is central to the urban layout in the area we have been exploring. It has also been a focal point in public life and politics. So I'll start there with views of the Sule Pagoda in my next instalment, and show you the nearby City Hall and a couple of other colonial buildings before taking a look at some of the busy bustling side streets of this downtown grid.

[Seagull]

Here is the Sule pagoda, and, although I was later to visit the tourist-must-see Shwedagon pagoda, it is the smaller Sule that most attracts me and which I personally find the most moving and beautiful. This is much due to its location in the townscape. In face it defines the townscape - the centre of the city around which the grid street layout of colonial buildings was created by the British in the 1850s.

The pagoda is in the middle of what is now in effect a busy roundabout. I did not have enough time to enter the temple precincts, where the surrounding buildings are apparently of relatively recent age - less than 100 years compared with the centuries-old stupa itself. Had I had longer, a place to pay respects, and also, sadly, to remember the events of 1988 and 2007.



Sule Pagoda remains the focal point of Sule Pagoda Road as originally intended, despite the traffic and some high-rise buildings. This photo is taken from walkways and a pedestrian bridge which is a superb viewpoint...



...and is itself a photo opportunity.

[Seagull]

So here, taken from the pedestrian bridge, is my favourite view of the townscape with Sule Pagoda and a grand building with towers in Burmese style (which may remind you of the railway station). This is the City Hall, my next destination.

[Seagull]

Although plans for a City Hall had been made earlier, construction to a revised plan by architect U Tin, which combined elements of Burmese and Western architecture, began around 1925 and continued over some 15 years.




I had worked out from a map that the park opposite would be the place to take a photo of the front of the building, but when I headed there after visiting the railway station, I got more in the photo than expected! It was a National Holiday (Union Day), and the park was full of folk sitting around and relaxing.