Running in Yangon, Myanmar

Sunday is my long run day. It's also one more week until the Winchester Half Marathon.

Today, I am in Yangon, Myanmar, the biggest city of the country. Surprisingly, it is not the capital city (though it used to be). The capital, Naypyidaw, is actually located hours and hours away from any biggest city. Rumor has it that the leader of the country (I believe a some sort of military dictator) decided to move the capital in 2005 there for his little aesthetic project based on feng shui. It cost the country billions of dollars to build a completely new megapolis in the jungles when most people in Myanmar are still impoverished. Almost no embassies have moved there because there is absolutely nothing there except giant, modern complexes for show and a few government facilities.

So Yangon is still the cultural, economic, education, arts, etc. hub of the country.

I also happened to have come during the monsoon season. To be fair, even in the pouring rain and the hardest rain I have ever experienced in my life during my morning run, it was still much better than running in the heat of Mandalay. I am staying at the Melia Yangon, a gorgeous hotel that was only built this year, and since it is located right next to the Inya Lake, it was a great choice for my long run. However, the lakeside path only lasts for 2km or so, and I then moved to the south of the river to University Road, where roads were little rough, dirty, and flooded. I definitely stepped in many brown puddles, but oh well. The south side has Aung Sun's family house, US Embassy, Fuji Japanese Restaurant, and the University of Yangon. Then, there is another really nice paved path on the west side right until the Lotte Hotel. My route looked like this:

Here are some photos on the west side. These pictures do not show how POURING it was. I felt so bad when I was walking in the gorgeous lobby of the Melia that I was soaked from top to bottom. I definitely got a few smiles from the expats staying at the hotel who was probably surprised anyone was actually running in this weather and in Yangon. In fact, I didn't see a single runner even though Inya Lake seems like a good route.

#myanmar #summer #running #travel #weather #halfmarathon #training #route #traveltips