Sule Pagoda Road

Dominated by the beautiful but slightly beleaguered Sule Pagoda, this is not a shopping street (except for a modern mall, and a medical appliance shop and pharmacy, see *10), but a great street for hunting Blue Plaques (six of them!) from the Yangon Heritage Trust (http://www.yangonheritagetrust.org) and some lovely grand old buildings. This used to be part of Cinema Row with many movie theatres – now there are just two.

Other (mostly architectural) things that caught our eye:
*1 A beautiful small building housing The Bible Society of Myanmar.
*2 The Central Fire Station (a Blue Plaque building).
*3 Find out what’s going to happen by consulting with one of the palm readers who ply their trade in the shops round the bottom of the pagoda.
*4 City Hall (a Blue Plaque building) with fantastic carved peacocks.
*5 The recently renovated Burma Tourist Building.
*6 Mahabandoola Park – a popular green space, with two Blue Plaques.
*7 Yangon Stock Exchange (a Blue Plaque building).
*8 Myanmar Economic Bank Branch 3 – used to be the Imperial Bank of India.
*9 Formerly the “New” Law Courts (built to replace the original courts in 1927), now a luxury hotel (and a Blue Plaque building).
*10 AA Pharmacy can be found on the ground floor of “The Castle” which was the Du Bern Ice Factory once upon a time, and is the fabulous red brick building opposite the Central Fire Station. AA Pharmacy sells all manner of medical appliances and rehabilitation equipment, e.g. crutches, including forearm crutches (which are quite hard to find here) and wheelchairs, as well as more typical pharmacy items. And it is open every day.