Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to Twante. There's not much to Dalah itself, although the flyblown little market and dusty
streets offer an interesting snapshot of rural life in the Delta, seemingly a million miles away
from the densely packed buildings of the city rising just over the river.
Twante
Horribly crowded and uncomfortable pick-ups (K1000; 1hr) run between Dalah and Twante, leaving when full;
alternatively, a motorbike taxi will cost in the region of K6000, a taxi around K8000
Foraninstanttasteofsmall-townrurallifeinthe
BurmeseDelta
,withinanhourofdowntown
Yangon,
TWANTE
istheplacetogo.TwanteisknownwithinMyanmarforitscotton-weav-
ing and, especially, as a major
pottery centre
, with workshops scattered all over town, in-
cluding the well-known Oh-Bo Pottery Sheds - most workshops are happy for visitors to
drop in and have a look around at the workshops' pottery wheels, kilns and great stacks of
bowls.ThetownwasbadlydamagedbyCycloneNargisin2008buthaslargelybeenpatched
up now.
Shwesandaw Pagoda
1km southwest of the centre along the Dalah Rd • K2000
Twante's main attraction is the fine
Shwesandaw Pagoda
, dating back to the eleventh cen-
turyandoneoffouridenticallynamedtemplesscatteredaroundthecountry(theothersbeing
at Taungoo, Pyay and Bagan), each of which enshrines a hair relic of the Buddha.
Entered via a broad flight of steps on its southern side, the temple is centred around a 76m-
high Shwedagon-style stupa, gilded above but rather crudely gold-painted below. Numerous
shrines dot the terrace, including fine glass-mosaic shrines at the stupa's south, north and
west sides, and with an unusually impressive crop of Buddhas in both marble and bronze.
Baungdawgyoke Pagoda (Snake Temple)
6km east of Twante • Daily 8am-8pm • Free
Local motorbike taxi drivers in both Twante and Dalah will also probably try to get you on
the back of their bike for a trip to the
Baungdawgyoke Pagoda
, commonly described as the
“Snake Temple”
, just east of Twante. An interesting alternative to your usual Burmese pa-
goda, the temple comprises a small shrine in the middle of a square lake, connected to the
shore by four long wooden walkways. The real surprise is inside, however, where a couple
of dozen huge (but harmless) Burmese pythons roam, sliding around Buddhas and dangling
from windows. The snakes are cared for by the temple's nuns, who consider them holy - not
so surprisingly, given that they're one of the world's five largest snake species, with an aver-
age length approaching 4m.
Thanlyin and around
15km southeast of Yangon • K35 by taxi
Southeast of Yangon, across the confluence of the Yangon and Bago rivers, the city of
THANLYIN
(formerly known as “Syriam”) has been one of Myanmar's principal ports for
