Blogs from Mandalay, Mandalay Region, Burma, Asia - page 8

We arrived early and it was still dark, again we had booked our hotel in advance at the UFO guesthouse and again received a pickup from the bus station, in all my time travelling I’d very rarely considered booking ahead, it really does save a lot of hassle when you are dumped in a new town in the middle of the night with zero bearings. I would consider doing this more often, but in some cases it might mean having to pick the phone up for myself and physically speak to someone....wouldn’t want to come across as a sell out now would I. Sleep was minimal on the bus so upon arrival at a slightly chillier Mandalay we took a few hours kip before heading out to explore the streets of Mandalay. In the reception area ... read more

Mandalay 18 januari 2011 Vanochtend zijn we, na een goed ontbijt, fietsen gaan huren om ons wat sneller en verder te kunnen verplaatsen door Mandalay. Eerst zijn we bij het klooster van de monnik die we gisteren ontmoet hebben langs gegaan. Hier werden we met open armen ontvangen en hebben we nogmaals ontbeten. Onze gastheer, U Nanda, zegt erg blij te zijn met ons bezoek en we hebben lange tijd over vanalles zitten praten. In de gemeenschappelijke ruimte kwamen steeds meer monnikken even kijken wie die vreemde blanken waren. Sommige vonden het erg spannend en bleven op een afstand, anderen vroegen erg beleefd of ze met ons mochten praten om hujm engels te oefenen. Het was een mooie ochtend en een hele bijzondere ervaring die we nooit meer vergeten. Na ons bezoek aan U Nanda ... read more

26/11/2010 - 29/11/2010 From Bago I took the overnight bus to Mandalay. Luckily someone already warned me about the f* cold airco which is on all night, still caught a cold though.. To the contrary of most people I actually liked the city with its dusty roads. Okay it has a more busier atmosphere, mostly because of all the motorcycles (opposed to Yangoon where only government people are allowed to have a motorcycle). However i's a nice city to explore with a bicycle and so I did. I rented a bicycle from Morris, local guy always hanging around outside the guesthouse. Morris turned out to be more then just the bicycle rental guy, he became more my personal local guide taking me to the cheap local good street restos, having tea with the locals, helping me ... read more

We were so excited when Owen and his friend Louie said they would take us to Amurapura because we really wanted to go there but getting there on our own seemed tricky. With locals on our side, it was so easy to hop from bus to bus and very cheap! Amurapura is where U Bein's bridge is located, the world's longest teak walking bridge (over 1km) and is over 200 years old! It is a famous landmark in Myanmar and is very picturesque at sunset - of course we wanted to go there and take some pictures!! We take a couple different local buses, pay 400k each and it takes about an hour to get to Amurapura, then we walk 15 minutes down to the bridge. There is almost no way we would have figured this ... read more

Arriving in Mandalay was a full scale assault on the senses, little do you realise what a universal uniform jeans and t-shirts are until you come to a place where noone wears them. Instead, the longyi (similar to a sarong) is worn by men and women in a variety of styles. Catching the end of rainy season and a typhoon for good measure we were knee high in flood water. After resigning ourselves to the fact that we were going to get wet feet, we lost our shoes and tried our best to follow the examples of the locals and just get on with things. During my time in Burma I saw only one official, a police officer doing anything of any value. This was a boy that could be no older than 15 (believe me ... read more