Myanmar Day 5: The Utopia Tower, Inya Lake & Kandawgyi Lake

In Myanmar, I stayed at Chatrium Royal Lake Hotel.(http://www.chatrium.com/chatrium_hotel_yangon/). I was lucky to get a good view overlooking Schwedagon Paya Temple on the right side and lake with a park in the right side of my room window. The temple reflecting the light becomes a center point in the night. While on the day, the swan shape boat house in the lake was just too tempting to visit. As this is the last day we are in Yangon, we decided to just stroll around visiting the lake.

Inya Lake from my window

The area is called Kandawgyi Lake. Kind of a repetition name as Kandawgyi means the great lake in Myanmar language.  This lake is apparently beautiful picnic spot with sets of restaurants, botanical garden and play park. We started the journey from the Utopian building. It was one of the brightest building at night and the tallest one we've seen aside of temples. I asked the hotel receptionist what's in there. They said it's a disco. Oh well, it's a day time. But let's just give it a go. From outside, Utopia Tower is looked like an ancient wall stoned building. Came closer to it, we were fooled. It's made from brick and modern construction material :p. Anyway, still the building can give us a good view. It has 6 floor. Inside are entertainment venue like bars, pubs and KTV. We took lift to get to the top. They said there' a coffee shop there. Again we're fooled for the 2nd time :D. I had a too high expectation when hearing about cafe on the top. It was a small stall with instant coffee. Ahmm.. OK-lah.  But the view is indeed good. I could see Yangon from above. The Inya and Kandawgyi Lake looks pretty :)

 Down from Utopia Tower, I went to Inya Lake. It is one of the largest lake in Yangon, though it is actually an artificial one. Long time ago, British Colonial channelled the water through pipes from Kandawgyi to supply clean water to the city. With lake, garden and some umbrella on the bank, the place is really nice to just relax. The time I was there, almost all the seat is occupied by couples spending their romantic moment, hugging and kissing. Awwww!

Inya Lake. a romantic spot for couples

Walking a long the lake, I arrived to Karaweik Garden, or people also call it as Kandawgy Nature Park. The garden is built around the Kandawgy Lake, which much smaller than Inya Lake. I was curious with a very nice giant golden boat that I saw from Utopio tower before. It happens to be  The Karaweik Palace, a famous landmark of Yangoon. Later I found it a lot at souvenir store in the T-shirt, bags and other stuff. The palace is the concrete copy of a royal barge. Its shaped like a pair of mandarin ducks carrying a pagoda. I thought it is a palace where the king and the queen lives or used to lived. But it is actually a cultural place. In the evening there are some cultural show playing: traditional myanmar dance and a theatre play. Just too bad. None playing in the afternoon. Otherwise, I'd love to see one.

The place is pretty big and I didn't realised I've walked for 2.5 hours. Time for treating my self with good drink and ice cream :). There was some ice cream stall selling a home made one. One scoop for 600 kyats. I tried taro-orange. It tasted strange, but filling and refreshing. Yummm!!

TIPS:

• Entrance fee for broadwalk is 2000 kyats. Yes, it is a bit pricey. Other way to deal with it is just walk around from the outside gate. It's pretty convenient pavement and can see almost everything inside the garden.
• To get close to the Karaweik, go into the entrance in the southeast corner. Entrance fee is 300 kyats + 500 kyats for camera and 1000 kyats for video camera.