Mandalay

Mandalay ….28th October

Arrived in Mandalay on Sunday. Peacock Lodge very nice thought the room is a bit basic and old fashioned. The owners Chitsu and Tun are very nice and all the staff friendly and helpful. Unfortunately (for us anyway) the place is quite away away from any sites so we have to take a blue taxi to go anywhere. They do have a resident driver here called Sein. I don't know if it is me but his taxi seems taller than others so I struggle to hall myself up into it ….. alittle plastic step required I think.
As soon as we arrived at 2.00pm Tun suggested we do the local Temples and Pagodas then we could climb Mandalay Hill to watch the sunset. Off we set in said blue taxi. The Golden Monastery was quite interesting as were the other Pagodas but Tun neglected to tell us that Mandalay Hill is a Pagoda and to reach it you have to climb 1700 steps......in this heat!!!! You can take a taxi but that is cheating of course!!!!. Mandalay Hill is the only Hill in the place and the views are spectacular as was the sunset.

Monday we took the river boat to Mingun to see some ruins and temples. The boat leaves at 9.00am and returns at 1.00pm but you do struggle to fill the time unless you climb to the top of the earthquake damaged unfinished stupa..... we chickened out this time!! Still we can now say we went on the famous Ayererwaddy River.

Tuesday was a day trip to the sites which lay outside Mandalay. Had a different taxi and a guide Tie Tie who we met at Mandalay Hill. We really enjoyed the day though we declined to wait an extra hour to see the sunset at the Teak Bridge and went off home for a cold shower. We really seem to find the heat and humidity quite difficult to cope with.

Sadly there is no luxury river boat to Bhagan until November so we are having to fly instead so off now to start packing again!!

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