Travel Day 1155 – Pyin Oo Lwin, MYANMAR
The exploration of Pyin Oo Lwin had been great yesterday, but besides its British colonial architecture, this small town was famous for something else…
National Kandawgyi Botanical Garden in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar
Pyin Oo Lwin was also famous for its vast botanical garden and the picturesque, classical horse buggies. In Bagan I had already seen all kinds of shiny horse buggies, chasing tourists to make astronomical deals for a ride around the ruins, but here things seemed to be quite different. These horse buggies of Pyin Oo Lwin were actually quite run-down, actually the official means of public transport and surprisingly authentic.While I had already taken many horse buggy photos already yesterday, feeling astonished about this level of authenticity, today I was wondering if the botanical garden would be equally as preserved…
Actually the 177 hectare botanical garden which was founded in 1915 was officially called the National Kandawgyi Gardens. This lovely manicured park once functioned as a recreational area for the British colonizers who obviously appreciated the opportunity of enjoying a walk through the greenery while staying at their cool summer capital. Nowadays the gardens were equally as well accepted by the local people who came to enjoy a relaxing day in the park with the family or loved ones…
Classical Horse Buggies in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar
Since the National Kandawgyi Gardens were located on the outskirts of Pyin Oo Lwin, I decided to rent a bike instead of a nostalgic horse buggy and used the comfortable sunny weather for a little bike excursion with an extended park visit. Unfortunately the bike could not be brought into the botanical garden area, but at least since there were different exits it could be parked centrally by the main entrance. Seeing the park itself was then another outlandish and surreal experience and everything once more felt nothing like the rest of Myanmar…
Everything in this beautiful botanical garden was extremely well maintained, clean and lovingly arranged. Even the visitors seemed to be on their best behavior, there was absolutely no garbage lying around and with things like smoking and spitting being prohibited, the latter because of the ugly beetle nut stains, the entire atmosphere seemed to be different form elsewhere in the country. I personally embraced this unusual change in scenery and culture while I was making my way around the Kandawgyi Lake…
Takins in the Botanical Garden in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar
Most of the day I spent then obviously like the locals did and enjoyed a little bit of a pick-nick in the shade. But quite surprisingly the National Kandawgyi Gardens did not only have recreational, but also educational value. There were some 514 species of indigenous trees and 300 species of indigenous orchids plus an amazingly scary butterfly and bug museum. Some of the exhibited black moths were actually as big as birds and some of the spiky, black bugs seemed big enough to take on rats…
Besides this collection, there was another zoo-like area with real Takins, a strange-looking animal that I had never seen before. Apparently the Takin, a type of goat-antelope is found only in the eastern Himalayas and is actually the national animal of close by country Bhutan. For me the bulky looking Takin with its two-toed hooves and short horns was just adding one more ingredient to the mix that made Myanmar such a unique country. But in combination with the out-of-place British colonial architecture, the overly manicured botanical garden and the vintage horse buggies, Pyin Oo Lwin was definitely quite an interesting destination…
Find all Pyin Oo Lwin Photos here.
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