Things to do in Yangon

Landmark · Singuttara Hill, Dagon Township

A gilded stupa nearly a hundred metres tall on a hill above the city — the most important Buddhist site in Myanmar and the fixed point of Yangon life.

Local tip: Enter barefoot at any of the four covered stairways; shoulders and knees covered. Late afternoon into dusk is when the gold does what it is famous for and when Yangon families actually come.

Neighborhood · Kyauktada / Pabedan townships

The colonial-era grid of the old commercial city — banks, courts, secondhand bookstalls and some of the largest surviving early-twentieth-century architecture in Southeast Asia.

Local tip: Walk the numbered streets north from Strand Road in the early morning, before the heat. Much of the building stock is decaying, so look up, and mind the pavements.

Culture · Pabedan Township

A 1926 covered market of cobbled lanes selling lacquerware, gems, textiles, longyi and antiques under a colonnaded roof.

Local tip: Closed on Mondays and public holidays. Prices are negotiable everywhere; the tailors on the upper level will make a longyi properly and cheaply.

Food · Latha Township

A single lane of barbecue stalls, plastic stools and beer that has been Yangon's most reliable eating street for decades.

Local tip: Point at what you want on ice at the front of each stall and they grill it. Go early in the evening — power cuts thin the crowd later and lighting is generator-dependent.

Nature · Bahan / Mayangone townships

Two lakes north of downtown, ringed by walking paths, embassies and the city's leafiest residential streets.

Local tip: The Inya Lake path is where Yangon walks and runs at dawn and dusk. Kandawgyi's boardwalk gives the classic view of Shwedagon across the water.

Culture · Loops the city from Yangon Central Station

A slow, hot, three-hour loop of the city and its market gardens on wooden-benched carriages, for the price of a cup of tea.

Local tip: Buy the ticket at Yangon Central, sit by an open door and go anticlockwise in the morning. Services have been reduced and disrupted in recent years, so check on the day rather than relying on a published timetable.