Mandalay!

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We are here!!!! We are finally in Burma! so excited! We nearly didn't make it mind as the super organised Howard had forgotten to print out our visa confirmation letters and they won't let you board the plane without them. Thankfully Air Asia came to the rescue and sorted it for us - phew. Despite the long queues and because the flight was slightly delayed we managed to grab a quick Subway sandwich before boarding.

I ended up sitting next to a monk, who spoke really good English, I offered to swap seats with Howard as I thought women were not supposed to touch monks but the monk said he didn't mind, I desperately tried to breathe in so my flab wouldn't touch his robe but after 15 minutes I was sound asleep, but I'm sure Buddha would forgive me if I spilled over slightly!

So we landed in Mandalay, found an ATM, found a taxi and were on our way. The main road was really quiet but our driver still managed to use his horn at every opportunity. The scenery was very flat and green, but there were golden spires dotted around as far as the eye could see, marvellous!

It was clear a lot of the people live in poverty by the ramshackle and makeshift shacks but as we got closer to the city there were more and more houses, it was a kind of mix of Thai and Indian, the streets became rammed with scooters, motorbikes, cars, vans etc etc and it was manic. We pulled up outside Hotel 8 where we are staying for the next 3 nights, it is a tall narrow concrete block but the staff are lovely and helpful. Our room is quite small but we have air con, wifi that works, a not too hard bed,a sink that when you use it the water goes down the plug hole and then miraculously pops out of a hole in the bottom of the wall further along and down another open hole! Bizarre but it works.

So checked in, sorted out and having booked a trip for tomorrow we set off to find the station. Like many countries pavements don't exist or where they do you park on them or set up a stall instead, so it was out in the road we went, dodging all the traffic and risking life and limb crossing the main roads until we reached the station. Turns out you can only book trains that leave from the station you are at so we will just have to hope there are seats left when we get to Pyin Oo Lwin.

Having failed at that it was time to see the sights so we found a taxi and set off for Mandalay Hill, luckily for me he drive us right up to the top and dropped us by the lift up to the Pagoda! So that saved me 1000 stone steps in bare feet 😊 Su Taung Pyai Pagoda was an unusual sight as it was covered in mirrored mosaic tiles topped with golden spires. There was great 360 views over the surrounding countryside and the city. Again apart from odd hills or mountains in the distance the landscape is really flat.

Eventually we took the lift back down, put our shoes back on and taxied down again, where we visited another 3 pagodas - Kyauktawgy Pagoda is only a year old and covered in gold paint and neon, it looked great in the dark but a bit peculiar in the light.a couple of young monks were larking about, running all over the place and scoffing sweets, kids are kids whatever!

Then it was over the road to the White stupas of Sandamuni Pagoda, each stupa holds a stone slab, which are actually pages of the book of Buddha's scriptures and there are 1,774 of them, an awesome sight. finally we visited the beautiful Kuthodaw Pagoda just as the sun was setting and turning the spires into beautiful rosy colours, gorgeous.

Temporarily pagodad out we took yet another taxi back into town (walking just isn't done here and every journey costs about £3 regardless) and went to the Shan Ma Ma to eat. This is a place that serves local Shan food, got great reviews and so we gave it a go. All the different food choices are laid out on a long table and the lad working there tells you what they all are, you then pick what you fancy and sit round plastic tables by the road side. We tried sweet pork, not a spicy dish and lemon chicken, which was, it all came with a huge bowl of rice, soup, salad and a dish of chilli sauce, we added a large local beer and a coke zero and the bill was £4 not bad eh? Howard was well chuffed!

And so the first day ends and it's been a good one 😊

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Photos

kyauktawgy Pagoda
It was very neon!