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Published: December 18th 2006
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2006-12-15 09-53-50
Looking on Mandalay from our guesthouse. Our guesthouse with 5 storeys might very well be one of the few taller buildings. On the morning of Dec 15, 2006, we arrived by bus to Mandalay from Yangon, after a 14 hour bus ride.
At the airport in Bangkok (on Dec 12), we met a 60-year Austrian lady (Roswitha is her name) travelling by herself. She stayed at the same guesthouse as ours in Yangon, and she also travelled on the same bus to Mandalay with us.
In Mandalay, we arranged to stay in the same guesthouse and she will be doing a few things with us together in Mandalay.
Mandalay is an old capital, where there is a palace. Although, it has barebones structure,
the moat and the palace wall is impressive. We walked outside the palace wall and along the moat and enjoyed the walk.
Mandalay, at this time of the year, is not hot. The humidity is not unbearable. The air is not very clean, but we often see blue skies.
We quickly learned that there are white taxis (sedans), blue taxis (a small pickup truck with two small benches) and trishaws (a tricycle with two additional seats).
The taxi and trishaw drivers are a lot more aggressive in getting business (as compared to
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Slabs of inscriptions are housed here Yangon).
Whle we were walking, a lady approached us and offered us a day trip on a blue taxi for 15,000 Kyats (about US$12). We took up the offer and arranged to have them meet us at the guesthouse the next morning.
In the evening, we found a street restaurant that sells chapati (pancakes, with curry condiments), roti, coconut rice and meat curry. We enjoyed the chapati but did not appreciate the rice, as it is served cold.
The lady at the guesthouse told us that Mandalay's electricity supply is on a rotation basis.
This means there is power for two days, then one day without power, and so on. Therefore,
on days with no power, there is no hot water for a shower. The guesthouse will use generators to supplement for the lighting.
Dec 16 -- Amapura, Ava, Sagaing Hill
Our taxi driver showed up, along with an English speaking guide (the husband of the lady who approached us yesterday). Roswitha, Gary and I all hopped into the blue taxi and off we go.
On this day trip, we will visit three ancient cities, see the pagodas, a teakwood monastery, the worlds' longest
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On the first day, we toured around Mandalay city on foot. teakwood foot bridge, ride a ferry and ride a horsecart.
It is a fun day trip, with one exception. In Burma (also in Thailand and Laos), we will need to take off our shoes when we visit a pagoda. At the pagoda in Sagaing Hill, Gary left his shoes at the top of the stairs. Phyllis took hers along with her. After the sight-seeing, Gary found out his shoes were stolen. His shoes were the "crocs", but they were imitations, but still worth enough for someone to steal them.
Anyways, our guide took him to a local shoe store that sells only Burmese leather slippers and he bought a pair, but he gave them away at the end of the day. The shoes were given to a little boy who charmed us with his excellent English, and he claimed to speak Italian, German, French and Spanish.
Dec 17 -- Drive around (Mandalay Hill, Pagodas)
In the morning, we went to the market to get a new pair of rubber slippers for Gary.
Then we hired two trishaws to take us around. It was a lovely afternoon.
We went to Mandalay hill, which has many
pagodas, joined by sheltered stairs. This time, we took our shoes with us and not leave them.
In Burma, there are five classes of people. The upper class are the monks, then male, female, then nuns, then transvestites (homosexuals). The nuns wear pink "sari"s. We have seen younger monks and older nuns beg for money.
Then we went inside the Palace. Although the buildings are reconstructed (said to be done by forced labour, i.e. slaves), the grounds are still impressive.
In the evening, we went to the night market. We learned that the men's sarongs (called longyi's) were usually pre-sew. However, the ladies' sarongs are not, but could be sewn for no extra charge, and in a few minutes. Roswitha bought two longyi's and have them sewn as a couch cover, for just over US$2.
Dec 18 -- Mingun boat trip, buy train ticket
In the morning, we took a trishaw to the boat jetty for a day boat trip to a place called Mingun. It has the world's second largest bell (the biggest one in Russia, and three times bigger, but cracked). It also has the base foundation of what was supposed to be
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Slabs of inscription. the world's biggest stupa.
The boat took an hour to take us to Mingun and we spent three hours to visit the tall and impressive base foundation, the bell and a couple of other pagodas.
Throughout our Mandalay visit, whenever we visit a pagoda, there are usually vendors who sell incense or flowers. They are rather persistent and will not take no. Unfortunately, this has spoiled some of our fun visiting.
Our original plan was to take a slow boat to Bagan on Dec 20. However talking to an English couple, we decided to visit Hispaw before we go to Bagan. So we went to the train station to get a ticket. It was a little adventure itself. We approached a counter and they told us to go to the next counter, until there are no counters left. A tout took us to the Myanmar Tourist Information office downstairs and were told they can get us the tickets but we will need to pay one extra dollar for each ticket as commission.
So, we went back upstairs and go through a door (beside the last counter) and ask the gentleman there. We hit jackpot. He takes
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They all looked less than 10 years old care of tickets for foreigners. We bought two first class train tickets to HsiPaw that will leave on Dec 20.
Many visitors avoid government run business (boats, trains, government hotels) as a gesture of boycott. We decided to take the train, as it is convenient and the ride is supposed to be very scenic.
Dec 19 -- Explore around Mandalay
Dec 20 -- Train to HsiPaw
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