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.