Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Swimming
Non-guests can use the lovely pool at the
Royal Kaytumadi Hotel
for a modest
K3000. There's also a small pool at the
Evergreen
café on the east side of the lake (K500/
2hr), although its pea-green waters look suspiciously murky.
Naypyitaw
Quite possibly the world's weirdest capital, the
newly created city
of
NAYPYITAW
(aka
NayPyiTaw,NayPyiDaworNaypyidaw -meaning “AbodeoftheKings”)wasunveiled in
2005 as the brainchild of Myanmar's military government and occupies a strategic location
roughly midway between Yangon and Mandalay. The official reason given for the sudden re-
location was a lack of space in Yangon, although rumours suggest that the decision to move
the capital was taken by General Than Shwe after his personal astrologer had warned him of
the possibility of an invasion from the sea. (Quite who would wish to invade Myanmar, by
sea or by any other route, remains unclear.) The location of the new capital - complete with
a substantial military presence - close to the historically turbulent Shan, Kayah and Kayin
states may also have been a factor in the decision.
For the visitor, Naypyitaw is interesting mainly as a study in contemporary urban planning
at its most OTT - and for the gaping disconnect between the city and the rest of Myanmar.
Spreading over a vast area of still largely empty countryside, the new capital is simultan-
eously outlandish, brazen and faintly lunatic - a vast wilderness of eight-lane highways
(largely deserted, except when the motorcade of a passing general or visiting dignitary shat-
ters the silence), supersized roundabouts, grandiloquent government buildings and over-
blown hotels more reminiscent of the modern cities of the Arabian Gulf than anything re-
motely Burmese. City life, such as it is, is confined to a few stringently demarcated market
zones plus a couple of modern malls, while specific sights, barring the vast
UppatasantiPa-
goda
, are few.
