Mandalay

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We'd booked a shared taxi from Hsipaw to Mandalay for 9am. Tap tap on my door at 7am... taxi will be here in 15 mins!! Huh?? Good job I'd been organised for once and packed the night before!!! I'd considered taking the train as the scenery along this particular journey is supposed to be stunning, but a few days before the train had been cancelled due to track flooding and it was renown for being late at the best of times. I later met a French couple who had taken the train that morning... an eight hour journey turned into a 15 hour epic and they finally arrived in Mandalay at 1am! I was glad I'd taken the taxi ;0)

I'd planned to have 3 or 4 days in Mandalay, but in the end I opted to leave with Edel, an Irish girl I'd met in Hsipaw, and move on with her to Bagan after 2 days. I managed to pack quite a bit into the time I had here though and whilst there was lots more to see, after the relative tranquillity of life in Hsipaw I was more than ready to go when it came to leave! We arrived in Mandalay at lunch time, checked in and went straight off to explore. Most of the sights in Mandalay are covered by a single $10 ticket - Edel had bought one the last time she was here and was loathe to buy another (more money to the government), so instead we hired a trishaw man and got him to take us to some 'free' sights. First stop was Shwenandaw Kyaung - OK so this one wasn't a freebie but we just stood outside and took pictures. Kyaung means monastery and this one was of the traditional teak wood variety, a style that is common in Burma. The buildings are really quite beautiful, plain but often with more ornate carved doors and frames and so dark inside! Shwenandaw was once part of the palace complex but was removed and reassembled outside the palace grounds, becoming a monastery in 1880.

From the monastery we went on to Sandamani Paya, where a central stupa is surrounded by 1774 marble slabs inscribed with the Buddhist Tripitaka. The slabs are housed within their own small stupa's, either singularly, in pairs or three's and were erected in 1913. The central stupa was built in honour of Prince Kanaung who was assassinated in a revolt in 1866 - the prince had helped his brother overthrow the previous king and subsequently ended up governing the day to day running of the country whilst his brother (now king) dealt with religious affairs. The paya was all white, gold and v peaceful - the jingling in the wind of the chimes on top of the smaller stupa's was about all you could hear. I was sitting there minding my own business and listening to the chimes when my peace was interrupted by a local lady who was keen to help me - my freckles it seems are ugly but, not to worry, she could help! In China every chemist I went into was full of skin whitening moisturisers or anti blemish creams (in this case a blemish being freckles not spots!) - here it seems sandlewood is the perfect thing for getting rid of these unsightly skin defects!!!

Our next stop was Kyauktawgyi Paya, which took some 25 years to build and was finally completed in 1878. Around the edge of the complex are figures of Buddha's 80 arahats, or enlightened disciples, each housed within a small stupa. At the centre of the complex is a large 8m high, 900-tonne marble Buddha - apparently made from a single block that took 10,000 men 13 days to transport from the canal to its current site. One striking thing which was v different from any other Buddhist temples that I'd visited at this point was the decoration of the ceiling and pillars of the main structure - mosaic's of thousands of small pieces of coloured glass covered them, whilst the ceiling of the entrance corridor was brightly painted with scene's from Buddha's life.

We briefly stopped at Mandalay hill... 230m high and a whole load of steps to get to the top. I decided it'd been a long day and I was a weeee bit tired so wimped out. Instead we went off for some dinner at a v posh place - had table cloths and everything - and then to see a marionette show. Marionette's are puppets, of the string manipulated type, and the show is set to traditional music provided by a group of musicians sitting just infront of the small stage. It was good to see but probably not my kind of thing.

For my second day I hired our trishaw drivers 'brother' (or friend, it seems everyone is a 'cousin brother' but noone is actually related...) for the day to visit the ancient cities around Mandalay. Once I'd survived the stone carving shop (did he really think I'd get a 3ft marble Buddha statue into my backpack!), weaving shop and longi factory that they insist on taking you to regardless of whether you want to buy, we finally made it to our first 'sight' - a huge white stupa with a nice sign at the bottom informing visitors that women aren't allowed to climb... pah well what would I want to do that for anyway! Too much like hard work. Instead I milled around the bottom taking photo's. It was here that I was accosted by a group of young boys who started miming that I should photograph them.. ahhhh ha I thought, I know this game - "take my photo. take my photo", which you do and then the hand goes out and it's "1 dollar, 1 dollar".... I'd fallen prey to that one in China. But I take it all back because here it was v different - the boys just found it v v entertaining to pose for a photo. I'd barely taken it and they'd be running back to have a look, laughing and jostling to get the best position to see and then dashing off to pose again for the next one. In the end I spent so long there playing with them that my driver came looking for me!

Next stop was another temple full of huge brightly painted images... apparently this one is in the old LP but not the current version so I've no idea what it's called, but it was really quite different in being so colourful. The main event of the morning though was a visit to Maha Ganayon Kyaung, home to hundreds of young monks and where tourists arrive by the dozen to watch them line up and receive their last meal of the day - the monks are not allowed to eat after noon. Signs requested that tourists not break the lines of monks or get too close, but of course they were completely ignored by some as they tried to get the perfect photo.... even being waved back by one of the older monks didn't deter some. Despite the encroaching tourists and their cameras the monks, even the young ones, remained quite calm, almost serene like, and completely ignored the jostling going on around them. It was here that I discovered pre-novice monks (I never knew that such a sub class existed!) - these were the young ones dressed in white not red. There were three seemingly never ending lines of monks that slowly snaked their way to the food hall - as those at the front filed past and collected food, new ones would appear from nowhere and join the end of the queue. Once all the food had been served (and many of the young monks had disappeared elsewhere to eat in peace away from the tourists!) I went for a wonder round the monastery - some monks were cleaning out huge pots that had been used to make rice, others served remaining rice to some of the poorer local children.

In the area around Mandalay are a number of former capital cities - for a while it seemed like each time there was a new king, the capital would move! Today I was visiting three of them... Sagaing, Inwa and Amarapura. We started at Sagaing Hill - OK so there weren't that many steps to the top of the hill but it was soooo hot and perhaps I'm a bit unfit these days ;0) Once I'd stopped gasping for breath I had a chance to walk around the top - amazing views out over the river and surrounding countryside, with the tops of gold and white stupa's seemingly everywhere.

Next stop was Inwa, where you have to take a short boat ride to get to the old city. The first challenge though is getting to the boat.... past a zillion small children wanting to sell necklaces for "$1, $1," and then dodging the other few thousand that are waiting to pounce when you get off. It's only when you reach the horse and cart that you're safe.... apart of course from when you leave the safety off the cart to go to the sights, where all their little friends are waiting for you with "$1, $1!!! The 'challenge' part is not bankrupting yourself by the time you leave - I managed to get through with only 2 new necklaces and a bracelet.... not bad I thought ;0)

The first sight at Inwa, where the only way to get around is by horse and cart, was Bagaya Kyaung. This monastery is built entirely of teak and we watched local children having lessons. A monk explained to us that many of these children are too poor to afford school so the monastery provides them with lessons. From there we went to Nanmyin, a 27m watchtower which leans at a rather alarming angle... it's nickname is the leaning tower of Inwa! It's all that remains of a palace built here but there were fab views of the surrounding countryside - we weren't all that far from Mandalay but here the environment is v rural. Our last stop at Inwa was for me the most impressive - Maha Aungmye Bonzan, a yellowish coloured brick monastery built in 1822. I'd seen a number of monasteries in Burma but they were all the teak variety - they were beautiful, dark and peaceful inside, but this one was far more striking and ornate.

The day ended at Amarapura, famed for its 1.2km teak wood bridge across Taungthaman Lake. The bridge dates from 1849 and I crossed hoping I wouldn't be taking a swim! Amarapura was also briefly the capital from 1783 - 1860... by the end of the day I was getting quite confused with where had been capital when! It's the prefect spot for watching sunset and today was particularly busy - apparently the next day was a monk holiday so they were down here in droves looking for tourists to practise their English on. Like so many other Burmese I'd met the monks were v keen to learn English, some progressing on to learn other languages such as French and Italian once they were fluent in English - there was a monk university nearby where many seemed to be studying. I looked suitable embarrassed when they asked how many languages I spoke.... In addition to all the tourists and monks the bridge was also full of locals - kids bridge jumping , adults fishing and couples out having a stroll. A chilled end to a manic day!

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