2nd Dec - 7th Dec: Dude in Mandalay & Kalaw, Myanmar (Burma)

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Mandalay, 2nd - 4th December

Bus from Bagan to Mandalay 8,500Kyats 8+half hours, ...km Dep 07:00 arrive 15:30hours
Royal Guesthouse, twin room with fan & shared bathroom 4USD
The bus from Bagan to Mandalay is small and the seats don't recline, but I have just enough leg space and relived not to get DVT. The drive is nice and it is the only bus journey I manage to do during the day as the Burmese love to travel by night. The road is much better this time.

I arrive in the evening to be confronted by hotel touts for the first time, just two of them though and again very polite, very friendly and not pushy, unlike some other countries in SEA. The one bloke not promoting a hotel but asking me if I need a trishaw has excellent English and looks like a friendly character, so I ask him to show me a couple of guesthouses in downtown Mandalay. The trishaw ride takes about 45 minutes, at a fee of 3000Kyats. His name is Winkyang (pronounced Win-Chang) and we agree to do a tour of the city the next day for 8000Kyats. I give him 10,000 in the end because he was a nice bloke and work so hard!


Anyhow, on the 3rd we go to see a 100year old Wooden Monastery the name of which I can't remember, Buddha marble and wood carving workshops, gold leaf making, the Royal Palace and in the evening we head to Mandalay Hill for sunset, followed by a brief look at the 'biggest book in the world'.

I like Mandalay. Though everything is caked in dust, the roads outside downtown area are pretty bad and it's a bit dirty, there are some nice markets, nice sights, good food stalls, friendly people etc...

The Biggest Book in the World: There are about 1500 (more or less) stone tablets about 1.5 meters high with Buddhist teachings written on both sides. Each stone tablet is housed in a 'Stupa' which is like a miniature temple about 5 meters high and about 3 meters square inside. The stupas are lined up in two big groups - so effectively the biggest book by SIZE and by the number of pages???

Chapatti corner: There are a lot of people of Indian decent in Burma and with them comes the Indian style of cooking. So there are lots of chapatti stalls, where you can down some freshly made chapattis with curry and rice yummy jummy - though I offer a prayer after each meal so that I don't get the runs.

Kalaw, 5th-7th November

Bus from Mandalay to Kalaw 11,000Kyats, 10 hours, dep 16:00 arrive 02:00
Golden Lilly Guesthouse, twin room with bath, 5USD

The trip from Mandalay to Kalaw is also bearable, though I land in Kalaw at 02:00 - too early in the morning for my liking. I am the only person to get off here, the bus continues with all the rest of the passengers to the capital of this region. Though I have a blanket it is really cold as Kalaw is at an altitude of about 1300 and really cold at night.

I run into a Chinese looking hotel and because the rooms are expensive, I study my map and start walking towards Golden Lilly Guesthouse in the dark and cold, find it easily, wake up the sleepy owners, get a room and jump under the blankets to warm up.

The Golden Lilly is run by a Sikh women and her brothers and cousins. It's strange to see Sikh blokes with their turbans and beards at first, but this is a strange country.

The Sikh women being of Indian origin is obviously a switched on business woman and gets me, Clive and Lucette (a couple, He English She French) to do a day trip with a taxi on the 6th December for 10USD per person to see the sights to the north of Kalaw. This proves to be fun as the sights and countryside scenery is fab and Clive and Lucette are a laugh. Among the fun excursions, the Bamboo parasol making and the Bamboo hat making was interesting and having lunch in a town called Pindaya was nice. Being approached by a Chinese man and within a few minutes being asked to donate some money to his daughters education was also part of the fun.


The next day, we explore Kalaw and luckily the market which is held in town on every five days. The market is a real cauldron of Myanmar ethnic minorities all dressed in colourful clothes and selling all sorts of fruit, vegetable, local grub (barbecued eels on a stick and what not), poppadoms, curries, rice, lots of oranges and tangerines, all sorts of toys for the kids etc. We manage to get lots of nice photos of the locals and wander around the market for a few hours taking in the atmosphere.


We start trekking the NEXT DAY on 8th December....


For Photos of Mandalay:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76498&l=ad6e7&id=672660622

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76504&l=67f88&id=672660622

Kalaw:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76506&l=cc5db&id=672660622

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76509&l=e88e5&id=672660622

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