Next stop at Mandalay

I got a flight this morning from Bagan to Mandalay, it was only about an hour so I got to Mandalay by lunch time. I was going to take the daily ferry from Bagan to Mandalay up the Irrawaddy which leaves at 7.00am but I was told it had been cancelled because of lack of tourists since the democracy demonstrations last year, so another flight it was.

I got a taxi from the airport to a budget hotel called the ET Hotel. It was pretty unremarkable and I quickly dumped my stuff and as I'd only an afternoon to see the sights I had to hurry things along and prioritise. The main tourist sights in Mandalay are the Hill and the Kings Palace. The Kings Palace dominates central Mandalay and from the exterior it resembles a huge fortress with walls which must be over a kilometer long on each of its four sides which are surrounded by a moat. I had been told that the old Kings Palace inside the walls had been gutted and that there was very little to see, and so with only half a day in Mandalay, that one got struck off the list.

So it was to the hill. I flagged down a trishaw which is the normal mode of transport around Mandalay and proceeded there. Mandalay is situated on a flat plain and the hill is the only one in the whole area so you get a grandstand view over the old city. There's a staircase up the hill which is lined with small Pagodas and food stalls and the like. Many Burmese Buddhists come here on pilgrimage, and today was no exception, with many family groups climbing the stairs.

Even though the sky was pretty overcast I still got a great view of the city, with the moat surrounding it. I had a quick lunch of noodles at one of the foodstalls and then it was back down again. My trishaw driver took me to a famous Buddhist temple which is known as the worlds largest book. This is because there are hundreds of stones there, each of which is inscribed with verses from one of the Buddhist scriptures. The cute little shoe girl at the entrance, who was about 9 years old had had her face painted with really elaborate Thannaka. Thannaka is the traditional facepaint that Burmese females of all ages tend to daub their faces with. You notice though that souveneir vendors and others in the tourist trade tend to get their prettiest young daughters decked out in very elaborate patterns usually in the shape of flowers to try and suck tourists in to buy their goods.

After the temple it was back to the hotel, where I arranged a taxi to take me to the famous U-Bein bridge for $12. The U-Bein Bridge is supposed to be the longest wooden bridge in the world. Built entirely of of teak in the 17th Century it is over a kilometre long and crosses Taungthaman Lake. It's a very narrow footbridge looking very rickety now and with a few sections replaced by white concrete sections but basically still intact. There were plenty of Burmese crossing it and a couple of other tourists around. I had a laugh when I saw a hi-so Burmese girl wearing high heals trying to cross, her shoes soon got stuck between the Teak slats and she had a problem extricating herself.

At the beginning of the bridge there was a cluster of vendors, including one guy with a unique scam. He had two cages. In one were 3 or 4 owls. In the other were a bunch of smaller song birds. The owls had just finished feasting on one of the songbirds which he had given them for their afternoon meal and there was just a bunch of feathers left. You could buy and free one of the songbirds for 2000 Kyatt and preserve it from a grisly fate at the hands of the owls, or you could do the same for one of the owls for 6000 Kyatt. Either way the guy got his money and won.

Next I asked my taxi to take me to the Ava Bridge. This giant Steel Bridge was the first bridge across the Irrawaddy when it was built by the British in 1936 and was one of the longest if not the longest in the British Empire when it was built. Sadly it was only open 6 years before the British blew 2 of its spans in 1942 in the face of the advancing Japanese and it was over a decade before it was repaired. Now its been supplanted by a new Chinese built bridge which handles most of the traffic, but its still an impressive piece of early twentieth century construction when seen from half a mile downriver. Sadly it was now too late in the day to visit any of the old royal capitals of Burma which litter this area including Ava, Amarapura and Sagaing, although I managed to get a look at Sagaing from across the river at a Pagoda.

With a parting look at Sagaing it was back to Mandalay and dinner. I had checked out my faithful lp and I liked the look of BBB, which was a modern air-con restaurant selling Western food. The guidebook recommemded the Barbecue chicken and it was indeed fantastic. After a satisfying feed it was back to the ET for an early night as my bus to Inle Lake tomorrow left at 6.00.

World's First Undersea Restaurant-Ithaa

Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa announces the arrival of Ithaa, the world's first aquarium-style undersea restaurant at the resort. Designed in New Zealand, constructed in Singapore using materials from the United States and then shipped to the Maldives, Ithaa will sit six meters below the waves of the Indian Ocean, surrounded by a vibrant coral reef and encased in clear acrylic offering diners 180-degrees of panoramic underwater views.

"We have used aquarium technology to put diners face-to-face with the stunning underwater environment of the Maldives", says Carsten Schieck, General Manager of Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa. "Our guests always comment on being blown away by the colour, clarity, and beauty of the underwater world in the Maldives, so it seemed the perfect idea to build a restaurant where diners can experience fine cuisine and take time to enjoy the views without ever getting their feet wet."

Created by MJ Murphy Ltd, a design consultancy based in New Zealand, Ithaa's distinctive feature is the use of curved transparent acrylic walls and roof, similar to those used in aquarium attractions including Sydney Aquarium, Ocean Park Shark Aquarium in Hong Kong, and the San Sebastian Aquarium in Spain.

"The fact that the entire restaurant except for the floor is made of plexi-glass makes this unique in the world," continues Schieck, "We are currently planting a coral garden on the reef to add to the spectacular view, and when the restaurant opens in early 2005, we will hold daily fish-feeding sessions to attract the rays, sharks and other fish to the reefs near the restaurant."

The five-metre by nine-metre transparent arch, which spans the entire room, provides a feeling of being completely at one with the underwater world while submerged beneath the surface of the ocean. Set with the resort's renowned house reef one side, and a clear lagoon on the other, diners enjoy their meal within Ithaa's translucent shell as the underwater drama unfolds on all sides.

Naturally the food will be as spectacular as the underwater setting, explains Schieck, "In such a unique restaurant we wanted to create a distinctive cuisine, which is why we've decided to offer 'contemporary Maldivian cuisine' as a theme. We take local spices and traditional flavours and give them a western twist to create a fusion cuisine that you could find in the best restaurants in London or New York. Nobody else has done this before and we're very excited about it. For a while we considered making Ithaa a seafood restaurant, but in the end we felt this was too predictable!"

While the cuisine is dedicated to the fine balance of western food items with a Maldivian flavour, the wine concept is equally exciting; offering diners the perfect opportunity to discover the wines of the prestigious Champagne house Louis Roederer.

Ithaa is reached by a wooden walkway from the nearby over-water Sunset Grill Restaurant. Diners begin their meal with drinks on a specially constructed deck over the ocean and then descend to the restaurant via a spiral staircase where the à la carte menu is served. Seating only 14 people, Ithaa offers one of the most intimate and exclusive dining experiences in the world.

This innovative restaurant is the first of its kind in the world, and is part of a $25 million re-build of Rangalifinolhu Island, one of the twin islands that make up Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa. This re-build includes the construction of 79 of the most luxurious Beach Villas in the country as well as the Spa Village, a self-contained, over-water 'resort-within-a-resort' consisting of a spa, restaurant and 21 villas.

Yoga Popular in Hong Kong

A 5,000-year-old tradition rooted in meditation might not seem the obvious leisure activity for Hong Kong’s high-octane big-spending population, but in the past five years yoga has taken the city by storm.

Yoga in Hong KongLocal company Pure Yoga last year opened what it believes is the world’s biggest yoga studio, and the city has just hosted Asia’s largest yoga conference, a four-day extravaganza with classes on everything from Thai massage to Sanskrit and a huge array of yoga equipment on sale.

Just a few years ago yoga in Hong Kong was the preserve of a handful of small independent studios owned and run by instructors with little business acumen.Now it is part of the mainstream, dominated by chains such as Pure Yoga and Yoga Planet, run by the flamboyant Indian yogi Master Kamal whose media appearances have turned him into something of a local celebrity.

For American yoga instructor Desiree Rumbaugh, a guest teacher at the weekend’s Evolution Asia conference, it is the fast pace of life in Hong Kong that has made yoga such a hit.“It’s amazing, it’s like 10 times the stress of New York,” she says. “The city has such a buzz to it. And people here are really committed, they are going to classes three or four times a week.”

Colin Grant, founder of Pure Yoga and the man behind Evolution Asia, estimates around two percent of Hong Kong’s six million people now practise yoga regularly, a renaissance he attributes to the new style of studio.“When we first opened I didn’t have a yogi head, I had a business head, so I applied what I thought would be good business sense to a yoga studio,” he said.

“We offered complimentary towels, we supplied mats and we had lockers. So someone working in a regular office could rock up and do a class and not have to drag a big bag into work.

“We made a million-dollar (740,000-euro) investment in our first studio and everyone thought we were mad. But it changed the model and within a month we had 450 people a day coming to classes, most of whom had never done a class in their lives.”

For Hong Kong’s image-conscious residents, yoga’s new-found popularity also goes hand-in-hand with the availability of fashionable gear.High-profile devotees such as Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sting have helped make the practice trendy, and even Louis Vuitton has its own yoga line.

Yoga mats, bags and clothes are big business for major brands such as Adidas and Nike, but even dedicated labels like the Vancouver-based Lululemon are now multi-million dollar concerns. Lululemon had revenues of nearly 150 million dollars last year, and in May announced plans for a stock market float to fund expansion.Yoga is now estimated to generate about 18 billion dollars annually worldwide.

The increasing involvement of mainstream brands keen to cash in on yogas popularity, combined with the growing perception of it as a way of keeping fit, has led to concern that the true meaning behind the ancient discipline is being lost.Conference-goer Elke Shuettler, a Hong Kong resident who began learning yoga in her native Germany, said there was a danger people learning now could miss out on the spiritual and mental benefits.

“Yoga is much more than gymnastics,” she said. “It is very important that there is more to it than the physical side.” Grant conceded there were concerns, particularly over a new breed of classes claiming to combine the discipline with such un-yogic activities as kick-boxing.But he said commercialisation would not necessarily harm yoga.

“Were not going to be offering fusion-combat-yoga, I can tell you that. But if people like it—no problem,” he said. “It’s what you make it. If I want to do a power class and have a good workout or do a deep meditation class, neither is more yogic or less yogic.”

Conference director Paveena Atipatha believes that while yoga’s popularity has probably peaked in the United States, Asia offers considerable growth opportunities.“In the US yoga is now a 3.5-billion-dollar industry. But Asia is where the US was five or even 10 years ago,” she said.

Yoga is already popular in Japan and growing rapidly in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Korea. Studio operators are now looking to Chinas growing middle class as the next major opportunity.

“Hong Kong is probably one of the more mature markets,” said Grant. “Quite a lot of our students have gone to China and set up studios there. It’s at the very early stages in China but we’re looking at opportunities there.”