Yangon offer a lot of attractions both for tourists and people living here, our writer Isaac Malone has made this guide of activities different from the touristy things people usually do.
A Quirky Guide To Yangon
A friend recently arrived for a short break in Yangon. With him spending just a few days in the city before venturing north to see the rest of the country, I felt confident that I had enough things in mind to keep him entertained during his stay. They were not particularly original, the things I had in mind. Things The Shwedagon and Sule pagodas, National Museum, and Pansodan Street but I felt he would be satisfied enough.
Instead, over beers on his first night, he revealed that he had in fact done all of those things before – on a previous visit to the country which I knew nothing about – and that he was looking for something different from his trip.
I panicked slightly, but wracking my brain, and with a few friends who were with us, we were able to come up with a list of things that were a little bit different.
Pegu Club
Address: Pegu Club, Zagawar Road (near Taw Win Centre), Dagon Township, Yangon.
“The Pegu Club,” wrote Rudyard Kipling during a visit on his one and only night in Yangon, “seemed to be full of men on their way up or down.”
It is here, while one would guess he sat sipping on the famous Pegu Club cocktail, Kipling’s musings and observations inspired him to write his poem ‘Road to Mandalay.’
The site has fallen somewhat into disrepair since those heedy days and the building that was once the most exclusive British club in all of the Indian Raj (even Anglo-Burmese with mixed ancestry were not allowed membership), has fallen into a decrepit state since it was taken over by the Socialist regime in the 1960s.
Built in 1882, the site once hosted tennis courts, billiards rooms as well as dining, cards and reading rooms but the windows are now smashed, fittings have been stripped away and the occasional animal dropping sits where generals would have sat to relax during their life in the tropics.
You may not agree with everything the club stood for (or even anything it stood for) but it’s still a fascinating and unique site which gives a fading glimpse of how the British would have lived a century or so ago.
