THE BURMESE ADVENTURE

Traveling is one of my greatest passions and I am blessed with a job that allows me to do so much of it. Although traveling for work is actually very tiring, and most of the time stressful, there are some amazing experiences that come along with it.

One of the cities that my job brought me to is the beautiful Yangon, in Myanmar. During my recent trip there, I even got to hang out with Myanmar's superstar, martial arts hero, Aung La "the Burmese Python" N Sang. Aung La is the ONE Middleweight World Champion.

Yangon in a nutshell for me is cultural, spiritual and busy. Here is a re-cap of my visit to Yangon and what one may consider doing there.

The Shwedagon Pagoda

This is probably the first attraction in Yangon that everyone would advise you to visit. Also known as the Golden Pagoda, the shiny stupa will always make an appearance while you are on the road. I've been here twice.

I learned that Burmese has no surnames and they are named according to the day they are born, which is super interesting. I would say that the day one is born determines a lot about an individual according to Burmese culture. There are different animals assigned to different days and these animals determine your characters (kind of like our starsigns). I am born on a Tuesday, and as a Leo, I am super proud that Tuesday is represented by a, yes you guessed it, Lion. ROAR! Too much energy inside this tiny body. If you want to know more about this, you can click here.

So when you visit the Shwedagon Pagoda, you will see that there are various corners allocated according to the 7 days of the week and the locals will pray in their designated corners. Since I am very spiritual, I did go to my corner and paid my respects by showering the Buddha statue.

It is said to be the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world, having been built 2,600 years ago. The pagoda is architecturally mesmerizing and if you like to shiny things, the gold plates that lined the structure will wow you. I was informed that one can actually climb up the terraces only if you are from the male species. Again the feminist inside of me can't take this, but I ain't going against traditions of a thousand over years. I shall just enjoy the base then. At night when it is cool and windy, just sit down and soak in the peaceful feeling among the crowd.

Just a note though, don't go in sleeveless outfits or shorts or they will 'force' you to buy some old-fashion farmers' wear to cover up your unsightly disrespectful body parts. Below is me in my farmer outfit. Note: The flower garlands around my neck are not part of the outfit. Those are bought as donation and goodwill.

A story to remember:

One time, when I arrived at my Tuesday corner, I stumbled across local martial artist, Phoe Thaw praying and his entire fight team was there too. He went on to give us a tour around the place. Phoe Thaw competes under ONE Championship, the promotion I work with and he is one of the kindest person I know. I truly believe he has enough life merits (if you believe in Karma) to have achieve a great life if he were to be reborn. He is not the least greedy and the amount of charity he does to help people puts him up there above the rest of us.

Anyway, we were all happily engaged in conversation and before we knew it, it was 10PM, time to close. We proceeded to the exit only to realise we do not have our shoes! Our shoes were at the other entrance and it was too late to go back (we can't really remember which entrance to begin with anyway). Long story short, we were barefooted for quite a distance and we were so lucky Phoe Thaw has a car and offered to give us a lift home. I am super grateful to Phoe Thaw that night, and actually on many other occasions. The next morning, me and my media friend embarked on a journey to find our shoes.

The Karaweik Palace

I've also been to the cultural art centre known as Karaweik Palace twice, for work. We have this face-off photoshoot between our athletes competing and the Karaweik Palace serves as a great backdrop for the photo opportunity. However, I have yet to catch any of the performances but visiting the outside of the building is enough to fulfill your photography needs.

We also used to stay at the now burnt-down, Kandawgyi Palace Hotel which gave us this beautiful view of the lake and Karaweik Palace. It is a shame that this hotel is no longer in operation while they rebuild.

A story to remember:

The photographer had to test a shot and he took this really cool one of me and my boss.

Transcend Gym & PT Gym

If you are a bit of a fitness buff or you just like training in martial arts, here is the place for you. We held a few open workout events here where our fighters trained for the media. I absolutely love this gym because it is spacious and clean. They have Khmer boxing and BJJ classes here as well as a fitness centre for those who just want to do weights.

Also recently opened is Phoe Thaw's new gym known as PT Gym. The interesting thing about this gym is that it is located on a rooftop and was setup by Phoe Thaw and his dad. Great effort! It is mainly a martial arts gym and if you are looking to delve deeper into the arts, you can visit this super humble but cool gym as well.

After 8

Definitely a place for good food and drinks. My ex-colleague brought us to this bar called After 8, and I love the creative quirky cocktail names they had on the menu. I wasn't that adventurous and I went for a delicious ginger rum drink called the "Big Banana" (they had other drinks like "Party Till you explode", "Fastfood after gym" etc). Both the drink and presentation scored full marks in my books. It is definitely a place to hang out and chill in Yangon as an urbanite.

I had a lot of fun in Yangon and honestly it is thanks to all the amazing people I work with.

Some notable activities I did in Yangon:

Taking photos with some Burmese pythons:

Since our world champion, Aung La is dub the Burmese Python because he grips his opponent so hard into submission (at least that's how I think he got his moniker), it was suggested that he did a photoshoot with his slithering tribe. It was my first time hanging around snakes - I was never really afraid of them; I mean I don't like them but I am not afraid of them if there is no harm.

I too was excited to take some shots with the python. They are not poisonous, so it is quite safe. The python must like my head too because it was swirling around the top of it. But in the end, we got some really awesome shots!

Hanging around a "celebrity"

Because Aung La is such a humble and nice guy (and kind of fatherly because I feel like I can't curse in front of him because he said "that's not nice"), you forget that he is so famous! If you walk around town with Aung La, you will notice the magnetic force he has. Everyone is drawn to him and everyone wants a photo or a signature. It is amazing.

We went to a market, trying to buy ingredients for a video shoot and we were mobbed by Aung La's fans. It is really great to see how a real-life hero inspires the nation. Till today, I love Aung La's victory speech - "I am not fast, I am not talented, but with you Myanmar I can do anything". Such great words applicable to life. It gets me emotional sometimes watching that speech - you will reflect on all the people who have helped change your life. We ourselves could not have done everything but with the support of others, we can achieve so much more.

I am also truly blessed to be able to train with Aung La too during my recent trip. It takes a lot of humility for a world champion to hold pads for a "commoner", and I truly respect Aung La for that. I feel ONE Championship has the best world champions - all of them are such humble people whom we can all look up to.

I look forward to sharing more stories about my work and travels soon. It takes quite an effort to be honest and with work, it is kind of hard. I haven't been blogging for more than a year and am getting a bit rusty with words. Hopefully I can pick it up again. Till next time!