Once called Rangoon and the great capital of British Burma, Yangon is in fact a dynamic city. It still remains a city of the past because of it’s extremely unique landscape compromising a fusion of ancient Burmese, British colonial and modern architecture. Yangon downtown gives the city a very photogenic skyline look from above. Also, Yangon has this one thing I love most about, which is having all religions and cultures coexisting and flourishing peacefully. This is evident by the fact that churches, temples and even mosques are located at close proximity side by side to each other. You will hear Muslims’ call to prayer on one side while Buddhist chants on the other at the same time. We even saw shops selling Buddhist sculpture art that were hung next to Christian artwork and Muslim calligraphy sold next to Buddhist scripture. It was indeed one of the most beautiful and memorable things about Yangon.

Fann and I spent a night in Yangon because we had to wait for our bus which would depart the next day to Mandalay. We stayed near the Inya Lake area which gave us luxury of access to the beautiful lake and it’s quiet surroundings. There we explored a small part of the lake and we saw the country’s freedom icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s residence. We also spent our last 2 nights in Yangon after exploring Mandalay, Mount Popa and Bagan. During this time, we stayed in the downtown area where the busiest roundabout temple, Sule Pagoda sits. Staying here gives us access to many beautiful colonial buildings and awesome street foods, all within walking distance. There were also markets of all sorts – wet, night, souvenirs, convenient, you name it.

Yangon is a fantastic place for street photography because of it’s lively and busy environment. Try getting mixing into the crowd and you’ll see what I mean but do be careful of the streets. Yangon is notorious for it’s cars not stopping for pedestrians. Since I wanted to grab some landscape shots of the city, I tried my best to do some research on where the sun would set and where some of the important buildings were situated beforehand. We also spent most of our time in Yangon exploring the streets by walking around and getting lost. We managed to find a couple of great spots for landscape photography and we met quite some friendly people who were extremely helpful and courteous as well. We tried lower angles, street angles and even high-rise angles to capture the beauty of this city. Here are some of my favourites during the trip. Enjoy.

The Shwedagon Pagoda getting ready for dusk

Karaweik hall and Shwedagon Pagoda at dusk

Sule Pagoda lights up at dusk

Ayerwaddy Bank and Immanuel Baptist Church during Twilight

Burmese traditional roofs dominating the skies of Yangon

Myanmar Port Authority building during sunset

A colonial building at the corner of Strand Road during sunset

The Sule Wharf at sunset

Karaweik hall and Shwedagon Pagoda during sunset

Fann concentrating on her landscape shots

Shwedagon Pagoda

Yangon architecture in the jungles

Another ordinary day in downtown Yangon

Sunset at the Strand Road

The sun setting as the traffic gets congested after working hours

Sule Pagoda at Twilight

Yangon city streets at dusk

The beauty of the Shwedagon Pagoda at night

Shwedagon Pagoda at dusk