Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Martyrs' Mausoleum
Ar Zar St (entrance roughly opposite the bottom of the Shwedagon Pagoda's northern staircase) • Daily
8am-5pm • K3000
The striking
Martyrs' Mausoleum
, immediately north of the Shwedagon Pagoda, is a
vaguelySoviet-lookingmausoleum-cum-monumentshapedratherlikeaskateboardingramp,
painted bright red and decorated with a single white five-pointed star (the same as appears
on the national flag, symbolizing the union of Myanmar). The mausoleum holds the remains
of General Aung San and the eight cabinet ministers assassinated alongside him in 1947 at
the city's
Secretariat
, as well as his spouse, Khin Kyit, and the graves of Queen Supayalat,
wife of Burma's last king, Thibaw, and former UN Secretary-General U Thant. The original
mausoleum was largely destroyed in a 1983 bomb blast carried out by North Korean agents
in an attempt to assassinate South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan during a visit to the
mausoleum - the president escaped, but 21 others were killed in the explosion. The monu-
ment was subsequently rebuilt but kept closed to the public until 2013 for fear that it would
serve as a rallying point for pro-democracy campaigners thanks to its association with Gen-
eral Aung San and his family.
Yangon Zoological Gardens
There are three entrances to the gardens: the Southern Gate, at the junction of Zoological Garden and Bo Min
Khaung roads; the Northern Gate (off Lake Rd); and the Museum Gate (at the junction of Upper Pansodan and
Bo Min Khaung roads) • Daily 6am-7pm • $2
Yangon's old-fashioned
Zoological Gardens
(opened in 1906) aren't exactly state of the art
but, equally, aren't as bad as some Asian zoos. The fact that many of the animals formerly
held here have now been moved to the new zoo in
Naypyitaw
means that overcrowding isn't
a problem, although the handful of tigers which remain are still confined within wretchedly
small pens, and the monkey cages are pretty medieval too. Otherwise it's a pleasant place,
with a good range of fauna scattered around attractive wooded parkland, even if there are
rather more free-range crows on view than any other sort of wildlife. Star exhibits include a
redpanda,awhitetiger,whiterhinos,blackbearsandtheunusualbinturong(bear-cat).Visit-
orsarealsoallowedtofeedsomeoftheanimals(includingelephants,bears,hipposandmon-
keys) with selected foods bought next to the pens in question (sugar cane for the elephants,
for example). Needless to say, such unregulated feeding runs contrary to all good zoological
and veterinary practice, although it does at least save the zoo the cost and bother of feeding
the animals itself.
Kandawgyi Lake
Boardwalk $2 for foreigners
Muchoftheareaimmediately east oftheShwedagonPagodaandnorthofYangonZooisoc-
cupied by the attractive
Kandawgyi Lake
, a crinkly-edged expanse of water wrapped up in
attractively landscaped gardens and surrounded by some of the city's prime real estate. The
