A day of waterfalls and gardens

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Anisakan Falls

I met up with Magdalena, my German friend, and Inbar, a one-armed Israeli Major, one morning and we decided to go an see a waterfall. A two hour taxi ride and 40 minute walk down a bloody steep track got us hot and sweaty, but the waterfall was magnificent. Mag and Inbar got out pretty quickly, but I was determined to cool down enough for the long walk back up the steep track.

On the way down to the waterfall we made friends with a drink seller, or more accurately, a drink seller attached herself to us like a limpet.

We each bought a drink off her at the waterfall to get rid of her, which is of course like giving a cat milk to leave your back door. Her small cooler, which contained only five cans on our descent seemed to hold even more after we had bought three off her. It would have been like fighting a hydra.

Our limpet clung on as we headed back up the bloody hot bloody steep hill and fanned us at every stop and pushed whoever was at the back. I tried to get her to stop but, like a good limpet, just clung on tighter.

I rewarded her by buying a 20c drink at the top.

National Kandawgyi Gardens

We got the taxi to the National Kandawgyi Gardens which were pretty similar to botanical gardens everywhere: green, quiet, and beautiful.

The main attraction for me was the people. This was the first time I saw locals dressed in jeans and t-shirts. It was as if I had stepped back forward a century to 1970 instead of being stuck n 1870.

We had a look around at the lake full of black swans (which had thought were unique to Australia), an aviary full of bird cages (with sulphur crested cockatoos which, apparently, are peculiar to Austraila), and a swamp walk full of dust (wrong season I guess). When we walked out, we were back in the nineteenth century with the traditional garb and horse carts. Much better.

On arrival back at the Royal Guesthouse ($6 a night) we found that a senior government official was in Mandalay, so the electricity would be on all night.

Ahhhh... aircon.

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