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Published: January 5th 2012
After a long cold (their buses run on MAX A/C the entire time, then have to stop every few hours to cool off the engine because it is overheating. Dress for wintery cold when travelling on buses in Myanmar!) night bus to Mandalay, we arrive at 6am. With the lack of tourist info for Myanmar, nearly every tourist here has the same Lonely Planet book and so all travellers on our bus make way to the same guesthouse recommended in the book. We figured since it was off-season and a lesser-travelled country, reservations would not be needed. We were wrong. After 3 hotels, we find a room at ET Hotel where we pay $12 for a double room with bathroom and breakfast included. The first thing we do is nap for a few hours to rejuvenate then we hit the streets for a full day of sight-seeing!
We begin with the LP Walking Tour to see the clock tower and a couple minor payas. While these sights are only minorly amazing, the life and bustling of the city streets is awesome!!! Everywhere it is chaos with everything from people to horses pulling heavy carts, motorbikes, buses piled high
with boxes and people riding on the roof and people walking around the intersection blaring music to entertain the traffic waiting to get to their destination. The cars are some of the most interesting we have ever seen, in colour, size, # of wheels and how they drive. Oddly enough, many of their cars have the driver's seat on the opposite side as we are used to here, but they drive on the same side of the road! The streets are filled with markets selling all kinds of onions, peppers, bananas, rice, dried fish and other produce. We see stations "distilling water" by dripping an ice block through a cloth into a cup. The roads are also filled with monks of all ages in dark red robes on the trucks, buses and walking by foot through the streets. The most amazing sight is the people carting huge loads on pull carts behind them or on their backs as they hunch over to get to their destination as quickly as possible. What strength!
Since we had such a great boat trip from Battambang to Siem Reap in Cambodia, we decided to wanted to take the boat to Bagan,
however, after walking 2.5km we find out that the boat tickets are A)run byt he government (aka, we DON"T want that!) B) to not go via gov't boat is about 4x the price and C) the boat only runs twice a week and not on the days we are looking for! 😞 What a waste of time and energy! I guess we will be taking the bus again.
As we tour around Mandalay on foot, we are approached by many trishaw drivers wanting business. As with in every other country is gets a little tiring, but there is a striking difference here - even after turning down the ride, many drivers stick around and ask us a few questions about where we are from, where we are going and our impressions before continuing on their way. It really made a huge difference in how we perceived the people of Myanmar! They were honestly some of the most friendly and approachable people we met in any of the countries we travelled to - more on that later!
Another long walk brings us to Shwe In Bin monastery, an old, beautifully hand-carved teak monastery that was
completely devoid of any tourists! In Myanmar, you take your shoes off in temples and the grounds here are so vast and dirty, so we quickly are covered in a layer of dust, but this monastery is so worth it! The monastery is built on stilts and decorated with extremely detailed carvings. In one of the school rooms we can hear some of the monks-in-training singing Justin Beiber - I guess no matter how closed off their are from the Western world, some things still infest their lives!
We continue on to nearby Mahamuni Paya, one of the biggest and most famous temples in Myanmar. There are lots of people here and the temple is surrounded on all sides by entryways with corridors lined with souvenir shops. Inside the temple is beautiful and very gold! In the centre is a huge Buddha statue that only men are allowed to go up close to. Women can sit back and watch through a window and pray while the men go up and place a piece of gold paper onthe Buddha, touch their forehead to the statue for good luck. As a result of years of men putting gold paper
on this statue, the bottom of it no longer resembles anything at all, just a giant golden bulge. A local man offers to show Mike to do when approaching the statue and takes a photo of him touching the Buddha. We should have seen this coming, but he was so friendly at the beginning, but after he followed us around demanding $ for his services. We refuse for a while, then give in and give him 100K. He is clearly angry at getting to little money, but we leave and I'm sure he went off in serach of another tourist to scam.
We search the rest of the temple, which is quite difficult because there are covered walkways everywhere so it was hard to appreciate the grandeur of the temple, but it was a very beautiful place. When we are finished, we take a moto taxi (1500k) back into the city centre and have lunch at a Nepalese restaurant where we get chapati, rice, curry, daal and other veggies sides (2000k each) - very delicious!
Finally, we have walked so much today and we are tired so we give in a get a trishaw driver to
take us to Mandalay HIll and back for 3000k. We make a quick detour at Sandamuni Paya, a large gold paya surrounded by rows of small white payas. It is very picturesque and since it's nearing sunset, there is no one taking tickets here.
While touring this temple, a monk named Owen starts walking with us and we also meet up with Mark, a guy we met on the bus. The four of us walk up the Mandalay Hill stairs to the top of the mountain. Owen has very interesting views of his country and is keen on leaving Myanmar to come to Canada when we can get money for a plane ticket. He is also not afraid to talk negatively of his government/country, which is something most other locals are very
quiet about. The top of Mandalay Hill offers amazing views over the city and it an awesome place to watch the sunset. We also meet a bunch of students learning English. They come to the hill on weekends to practice their English with tourists. They reminded me so much of my students back at Sinju Middle School in Yangsan and we spent quite a while chatting with them.
On our way back down the hill, Owen invites us to visit his school the following day, which we agree to do! We get in our trishaw and go back to our hotel, where we meet up with Mark and have dinner and a Shan restaurant. It is a buffet-type place, where you choose your dishes and pay based on what you eat -meat dishes 900k, veg and rice dishes 400k. The food is quite tasty but cold. The guys head in for a second helping and wanting to try something new, they go for what the cook calls "chicken bones" which is actually chicken neck and head - ew!
We find some cheap draft beer at Rainbow, which we suspect to be a government run
place when we are about to leave and they give us nice colour Mandalay maps for free. The beer was cheap (600k/glass) and soccer was on the tv!
The next day after breakfast, we change hotels to pay only $7 double with shared bath at Royal Guesthouse. We walk all the way across town, by the Mandalay Palace and moat, and finally find the school after walking up and down the street a few times. Owen is not at school when we arrive so another monk gives us a tour. This is a school for young monks and it is a free school. Most of the students live here and come from families who could not afford to raise them or send them to expensive government schools. We see the sleeping areas (they all sleep on the floor), eating area, and school rooms. Surprisingly, this is a well-equipped school with classes in sewing, wood working and real skills that these students can use to sustain themselves and their families when they graduate. Although this is a school for monks, they are inclusive and will take any and all students that want to come. Owen returns and continues
the tour, taking us to the library where he shows us a blow up world globe to point out the city in Canada he plans to exile to - Hamilton! haha
In the library we also meet a kindergarten class watching Wall-E and they are so eager to sit with us and play games! The kids are so cute and we have a great time! After the tour we go with Owen to a nearby tea shop to chat more and then have lunch at a traditional Burmese restaurant that is similar to last night's dinner, but only 800k for rice, 1 meat and 3 veg dishes. It is all so fresh and soooo delicious! Burmese food is quickly becoming a favourite of ours!
We visit Owen's friend's house and he decides to join us on an afternoon trip to Amurapura.
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Monk owen
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Hello I am monk owen. Do you remember who I am? I met you in Mandalay hill and i invited you to visit my school. Now I am not in Burma. I am in Europe now. This is my email monkorwell@gmail.com Please take care and have a nice day. MonkOwen