Sunshine, Palm Trees and Tinkly Temple Bells?

Asia » Burma » Mandalay Region » Mandalay
September 12th 2017

Published: September 13th 2017

On The Road Boat To Mandalay To get to Mandalay, I took a boat up the Ayeyarwady River on a ten hour trip north departing Bagan at stupid o'clock. At 4am, I stumbled out of bed, showered, packed, and met my pre-booked driver who took me to the pier at Nyaung U in time for my 5am check in at the boat. The boat departed at 5.20am with just seven passengers. This is one upside of traveling during ... Read Full Entry

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Siewch

About Me: I am a native of Singapore and a professional expat. Since leaving Singapore in 1994, my life journey has taken me first to Bangkok, then to Manchester UK, and then to the United States - starting with Los Angeles, then Honolulu, then Silver Spring, MD, and then back to Honolulu. I took some time off from work between July 2017 and March 2018 to travel and reflect (check out my Midlife Crisis Flashpacking series). I'm now back in the corporate world with a renewed attitude towards life and work. I plan to take another extended trip ... full info

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Maha Myat Muni Pagoda

Tacking gold leaf.

Maha Myat Muni Pagoda

Shwe In Bin Monastery

Detail on teak door.

Mandalay Palace

Throne room and watch tower.

Mandalay Palace

My sweet kitty friend. She looked as if she’d just had kittens. It was so hard to say goodbye to her.

Mandalay Palace

View from the watchtower.

Kuthodaw Pagoda

Closeup of a stupa with stone tablet inside.

Mandalay Hill

Steps, steps, steps.

Mandalay Hill

Kuthodaw Pagoda as seen from Mandalay Hill. This bird's eye view helped me appreciate the scale of this monument.

Mandalay Hill

My sweet kitty friend at one of the shrines near the top of the hill.

Mandalay Hill

These were the lions I was looking for when I wanted to start my climb. I only found them when I came down!

Maha Gandayin Monastery

Anatomically correct lion. Tee hee.

Maha Gandayin Monastery

Lining up for their meal.

Maha Gandayin Monastery

I'm not sure why this lot was in white. There weren't many of them.

13th September 2017

Kuan Yin
Karen Johnson

White robes at the monastery
The people you saw dressed in white at the monastery are nuns - or novice nuns. I've seen nuns in white in Thailand, and novices in pink in Yangon. If you go to the Bogyoke Market in Yangon at a certain time of the morning - it seems to me it was around 10 or 11 am - you will see a whole procession of novices collecting alms. Quite a sight!

14th September 2017

Siewch
Siewch

I figured they were novice nuns...
... but I couldn't quite tell because of the shaved heads and all. I was also a little surprised that there would be mixed sex accommodation in the same complex.

14th September 2017

RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew

Kitty!
Awww look at that little paw curled up in happiness :) The river trip sounds lovely and relaxing - with food provided - bonus! 'Mandalay' has always sounded exotic to me, and as you say - this can easily lead to having over expectations. Love the details in the temple photos.

14th September 2017

Siewch
Siewch

Sweet Kitty
I had a hard time leaving her. It looked as if she recently had kittens. They don't fix their animals here. The cats seem okay but a lot of the dogs are in rough shape :-(

17th September 2017

alex waring
Alexander Waring

Mandalay Memories
Gosh, your blog has brought back many memories of my travels in Myanmar - I think we followed pretty much the exact same itinerary whilst in Mandalay, although I didn't climb Mandalay Hill myself - well done you on that one! I also took the same picture of the "crush all those harming the union sign" - not the most welcome of signage for a tourist attraction...!! Glad to hear you took the boat from Bagan, it must have been impressive arriving in Mandalay by river (I took a flight with Air Mandalay)

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Sunshine, Palm Trees and Tinkly Temple Bells?

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