Mandalay
Another long and dusty bus ride - 7 hours this time - landed us in Mandalay. I would like to rant for a moment: the roads in Myanmar are deplorable. Absolutely horrendous. Here we are, driving on the MAIN interstate between 4 of the busiest places in the whole country, particularly for foreigners, and the roads are one-lane half paved/half gravel atrocities. Driving in the mountains is even more absurd- unpaved roads on hair-pin turns with no guard rails. Seriously - the routes are only 150-250 kilometers - they should NOT be taking nearly as long as they are! It's ridiculous that the government can't even provide their people with basic, good roads. Arrgh. Ok, rant over.
We had no trouble find a place, food and then to bed. Day lost to travel, as is often the case.
Details about Mandalay: it is the 2nd largest city, and is more modern - I saw 2 sh
opping centers and a donut shop! The buildings were much less grimy than in Yangon, but I still wasn't terribly moved. The attractions are mostly located outside the city.
The next morning we hired a taxi to drive us around all day for total of 15,000 kyat ($15). Very nice, especially because the distances were un-walkable. We started with a trip to Mahamuni Paya, a pagoda which houses the most famous Buddha statue in Myanmar. It's interesting because it's a strange-looking glob of gold. Only male worshippers are allowed to approach the Buddha and apply gold leaf, which has made the statue look extremely odd. Also, monks wash it every day and bottle the run off as holy water.
As I was observing, a monk approached Maria and I and wanted to practice his English and tell us about the pagoda. So he takes us around, telling us interesting facts about Buddhism and the statues and rites that are often associated with them. His accent was a bit difficult for Maria, but I've had lots of practice in that arena. Soon, Maria started to worry about they guys, who were waiting, so she left...and I was unable to extricate myself. Finally,
I managd to get across that I had to leave and he hit me up with his "donation" plea - $20! I gave him 2,000 kyat ($2), and he's objecting fiercely becuase he wants to buy new robes, when our taxi driver runs up, grabs my arm, and drags me away, saying "Bad monk! I no like!" Well geez, if you can't trust a monk, who can you? Oh well, at least I got some nice info. Here's my monk.
Then we went to Inwa, which was the Burmese capital for centuries - so imagine many ancient buildings. However, a governement $10 fee to enter some of the buildings forced us to just "take a look" - it was okay though, since we'd already seen our fair share of monestaries and pagodas. We walked the paths for an hour or so, much to the dismay of the men with horse-drawn carts who followed us at least 1/4 mile, saying "Hello? 500 kyat. Ok? Cheap. Very long. Hello, ok?" It was like a broken record, and I had to laugh, even though it was rather irritating.
After that we made our way to Amarapura, which has the famous teak bridge, the longest in the worls at 1.2km. It's 200 years old and let me tell you, the age was pretty obvious as I was carefully picking my way across, staring in shock at the kids who were riding bikes across and running around - I really feared they would flip over. I'm sure it's happened before. It was very picturesque to see the Burmese people crossing during their daily commute, the children in school uniforms, and of course, the monks, which drew many secretive photos. We stayed for the sunset
and then headed back to Mandalay.
The next day we went to Paleik, or the Snake Pagoda, where, in the 1970s, three pythons arrived, curled around the Buddha statue, and never left. Weird, huh? It gets better. Every day, the snakes are led to a pool, where they are lovingly washed and dried. They also calmly pose for pictures. Then, they make their way back to their spot, with hardly any direction. Funnily enough, only Maria and I were brave enough to hold the snake! The 3 boys vehemently declined,
haha. The pagoda itself was kind of frightening, with freaky looking pastel statues everywhere -reminded me of a carnival. We left pretty quickly. Then we went to Sagaing, a 500 stupa-covered hilltop that is above the Ayeyarwady River. It was quite a hike to the top, but the views were very nice. But again, we had already seen our fair share of pagodas, so we didn't stay very long. Back to Mandalay and a relaxing evening.
We had no trouble find a place, food and then to bed. Day lost to travel, as is often the case.
Details about Mandalay: it is the 2nd largest city, and is more modern - I saw 2 sh
opping centers and a donut shop! The buildings were much less grimy than in Yangon, but I still wasn't terribly moved. The attractions are mostly located outside the city.The next morning we hired a taxi to drive us around all day for total of 15,000 kyat ($15). Very nice, especially because the distances were un-walkable. We started with a trip to Mahamuni Paya, a pagoda which houses the most famous Buddha statue in Myanmar. It's interesting because it's a strange-looking glob of gold. Only male worshippers are allowed to approach the Buddha and apply gold leaf, which has made the statue look extremely odd. Also, monks wash it every day and bottle the run off as holy water.
As I was observing, a monk approached Maria and I and wanted to practice his English and tell us about the pagoda. So he takes us around, telling us interesting facts about Buddhism and the statues and rites that are often associated with them. His accent was a bit difficult for Maria, but I've had lots of practice in that arena. Soon, Maria started to worry about they guys, who were waiting, so she left...and I was unable to extricate myself. Finally,
I managd to get across that I had to leave and he hit me up with his "donation" plea - $20! I gave him 2,000 kyat ($2), and he's objecting fiercely becuase he wants to buy new robes, when our taxi driver runs up, grabs my arm, and drags me away, saying "Bad monk! I no like!" Well geez, if you can't trust a monk, who can you? Oh well, at least I got some nice info. Here's my monk.Then we went to Inwa, which was the Burmese capital for centuries - so imagine many ancient buildings. However, a governement $10 fee to enter some of the buildings forced us to just "take a look" - it was okay though, since we'd already seen our fair share of monestaries and pagodas. We walked the paths for an hour or so, much to the dismay of the men with horse-drawn carts who followed us at least 1/4 mile, saying "Hello? 500 kyat. Ok? Cheap. Very long. Hello, ok?" It was like a broken record, and I had to laugh, even though it was rather irritating.
After that we made our way to Amarapura, which has the famous teak bridge, the longest in the worls at 1.2km. It's 200 years old and let me tell you, the age was pretty obvious as I was carefully picking my way across, staring in shock at the kids who were riding bikes across and running around - I really feared they would flip over. I'm sure it's happened before. It was very picturesque to see the Burmese people crossing during their daily commute, the children in school uniforms, and of course, the monks, which drew many secretive photos. We stayed for the sunset
and then headed back to Mandalay.The next day we went to Paleik, or the Snake Pagoda, where, in the 1970s, three pythons arrived, curled around the Buddha statue, and never left. Weird, huh? It gets better. Every day, the snakes are led to a pool, where they are lovingly washed and dried. They also calmly pose for pictures. Then, they make their way back to their spot, with hardly any direction. Funnily enough, only Maria and I were brave enough to hold the snake! The 3 boys vehemently declined,
haha. The pagoda itself was kind of frightening, with freaky looking pastel statues everywhere -reminded me of a carnival. We left pretty quickly. Then we went to Sagaing, a 500 stupa-covered hilltop that is above the Ayeyarwady River. It was quite a hike to the top, but the views were very nice. But again, we had already seen our fair share of pagodas, so we didn't stay very long. Back to Mandalay and a relaxing evening.
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