What a nice city. When I got there, my taxi driver from the airport asked me how long I was planning on stayig in Yangon, and I said four days. He told me this was silly. I could see all the sights in one day, he said. I suppose he was right in terms of seeing the sights. But Yangon is a great city to just hang out in. It's got a nice South Asian feel to it, a very bustling, exciting street life, lots of good food stalls, tea stalls, little temples, markets, nice wide boulevards, crazy-hectic side streets and alleys, beautiful old colonial architecture gone to rot in the sun.

One thing I was very surprised to find was all the tea stalls along the streets that turn play Thai heavy metal at night, with young kids sitting in tiny plastic stools, nodding along to the power ballads and playing air guitar. A very very nice city.

This gallery is just street scenes. I have another one for the temples.

On my second day in town, I decided to take a stroll up to 54 University Avenue, the address given in LP for the detained Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. I was assured by a tout who glued himself to my side one day in Yangon that I would not be able to get anywhere near her house. I said, "What are they going to do?" He said, "There are soldiers. They won't let you near it." He was not exactly right. You can walk right past her house, or at least what I imagine must be her house. You can walk across University Avenue no problem. I did. I passed 55 University Avenue, which was a not particularly grand villa on the side of the street across from Inya Lake, on which Ms. Suu Kyi's villa is said to sit. So, I figured if 55 is to my left, 54 must be to my right. But there was no marking, no obvious driveway. Just a lot of unkempt shrubs and trees and a HUGE banner, in Burmese so of course I have no idea what it said. The soldiers man little retractable gates, two soliders on each side of the road. As I approached them I motioned, asking, as best I could, if I could continue walking. They motioned that they had no problem with my walking past.

I then reached into my bag and pulled out my rather large Canon digital SLR. THIS got their full attention and they became quite animated, letting me know very seriously that there would be no photography. So, I smiled and returned the camera to my bag. Just past her house is a small temple. I went back there and took some pictures and on my way out, through the trees, I snapped a couple pictures of the soldiers on the street. Honestly, they don't look too serious. I've seen far more meanacing barricads in Colombo and even in Hanoi.

So, that was my Suu Kyi quest. It ended in failure. You cannot see her villa, at all. Possibly if you got on a boat and floated out into Inya Lake.