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During the course of my time in Mandalay I got food poisoning, was robbed (Don't worry it was from my bag, not in person), had to pay 30% commission on a cash advance, and met virtually no tourists. Needless to say that Mandalay will not be going down as one of my favourite spots of the trip. Despite all the negatives though, Mandalay can be an interesting city to walk around and see the sights in. It was the last Royal capital of Burma before the British seized power in 1875, and it has several historic sites. I spent five nights here that at times seemed never ending and tedious. Here is the story of my six days in Mandalay.

Mandalay is a remote city, in a reclusive country, so in the low season it does not see many tourists at all. Like Yangon, there are holes in the street and walking at night can be dangerous due to the lack of streetlights. In fact, after leaving Myanmar I read Paul Theroux's book, Ghost Train to The Eastern Star, where he tells of his 2006 trip across Asia. Of his time in Myanmar, Theroux was astonished by how little had changed since his last trip there in 1973. Where as the countries around it (Most notably India) have exploded economically, a visit to Myanmar can seem like a visit to the Asia of yesteryear. The most popular form of transport in Mandalay is a trishaw, which is basically a pedal bicycle with a seat attached to the side of it. Definitely not the fastest or most technologically advanced way of getting around.

My original plan had been to spend three days in Mandalay and then catch a bus to Bagan; a series of temples that is supposed to rival Angkor Wat in scale. Things were going according to this plan until on my third night in Mandalay I decided to go for a pizza to get away from the bland local cuisine. I had a great pizza dinner and was in bed by my usual Myanmar time of 10:30 P.M. but then woke in the middle of the night with stomach cramps and nausea. I then spent the rest of the night and the next day alternating between trying to read on my bed and making frequent trips to the bathroom. The situation was made worse by the fact that the hotel only ran its generator at night. This meant that from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. the air conditioner, fan, lights, and television were all shut off. I spent the entire day unable to leave my dark and hot hotel room, with the only relief coming from the occasional breeze through the opened window. This was unquestionably the worst day of my trip.

By the night I was recovering, and the next day I was up to doing something other than sit in the hotel room. It was at this point that I noticed that my bag was $50 U.S. shorter than it should have been. This combined with my lost day in Mandalay meant that Bagan was out, because my flight back to Bangkok was on June 6th and it was already the 3rd. This left me with three more days in a Mandalay I was already a little sick of.

Before the food poisoning I had seen the vast palace complex that lies in the center of Mandalay. It was impressive in scale (Think Versailles) but cheapened by the fact that it was nothing more than a replica of the original palace. The current edition was built using forced labour in 1990 and was eerily empty during my time there. That same day I had also hiked up Mandalay Hill, a 240 metre tall hill in the Northeastern part of the city. The way up is a covered stairway littered with temples, Buddha statues, and monks. At the top lies an open terrace where people go to watch the sun set over the historic city. Watching the sun dance off the palace walls and descend into the moat was probably the highlight of my time in Mandalay.

After the food poisoning I arranged with a local for a full day motorbike tour of the ancient cities that surround Mandalay. This tour was pretty cool and relatively cheap at $12 U.S. It started with a trip to one of Myanmar's biggest monasteries to watch thousands of monks silently eat their breakfast in massive communal dining halls. The afternoon's highlight was a visit to Amanapura, home of the World's longest teak bridge. The U Bein Bridge was a wonder to see as it was 1.2 kilometres long and basically an expressway of good and people.

With the extra couple of days I had in Mandalay I hit places probably skipped by most tourists. I paid 2000 Kyat ($2 U.S.) to visit the Mandalay Zoo and another 500 Kyat ($0.50 U.S.) to feed two hippos. This zoo was pretty small but incredible in how lax the safety regulations were. The hippos came right up to me and opened their mouths as I threw lettuce in. At another display, I witnessed a monk get to close to the monkey cage, and nearly have his whole robe ripped off by an aggressive monkey. Another day I went swimming at the local Olympic sized public swimming pool. The teenagers swimming there were very friendly and amazed at my swimming skills. Most of them could not leave the shallow end and only one or two could swim the length of the pool with me.

On my final day I had to bite the bullet and pay a 30% commission on a Visa cash advance of $150 U.S. Even with this, I almost ran out of money and had to rely on the generosity of strangers for my departure tax money upon leaving Myanmar. I left Mandalay the same way I came in: The brand new gigantic airport. It sits virtually empty with the only planes on the tarmac flying to other destinations in forgotten Myanmar. An apt symbol of a government and country that has lost it's way.

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