Min-Ga-La-Ba from Mandalay,Myanmar
Twenty five years go I walked across the border from Northern Thailand into Burma. They had a tall wire fence around an area equivalent to the size of a tennis court. You got your passport stamped, could shop at the stalls, buy Burmese Marlboro's then turn around and walk back into Thailand. That was the extent of how much a regular traveller could see. It has been slowly opening up to tourism over the past decade. The doors opened a little wider in 2013. The government still controls what you can see and where you can go.
Arrived at the Mandalay International Airport about 6:30 pm, just as it was getting dark. Interesting that in Thailand the monks on the flight got pre-boarding privileges and all sat in seats by themselves. They rode the bus to the plane alone, when we got here they had to mix with the masses.
Through customs and immigration, grabbed my bag and then the assault started. I met a women from Texas in the Chiang Mai airport lounge and we decided to share a cab into town as it is about a thirty five minute drive. We were hassled beyond belief - at one point we just said forget it and started walking towards the bus, finally we were able to negotiate a fair price and off we went. Seemed like a decent highway for the first 20 minutes then as we got closer to the city the road conditions deteriorated rapidly. I got dropped off first, the hotel had a hot facecloth and cold juice all ready! Got settled in and feel asleep.
This morning I was up early and out the door at 8 am. The noise, the dust, the dirt, the dogs, the people.....the place is ALIVE, a mass of humanity. All of lifes daily routine activities take place on the street - bathing included. Your senses come alive - the noise is constant. Horns honking, people talking, the "music" from the temple, dogs barking, furniture making, the music from the carts! My eyes could not keep up with everything that was happening around me, it is exhausting. I will let the pictures do the explaining. I had a few things that I wanted to see today, like all good plans you have to ad flexibility into the mix. My first goal was to walk over to the gold pounding area. Views from the hotel -
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| Mandalay Hill - behind the smog/smoke |
Out and about :
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| When I left I walked through here with the traffic and the other people. When I came back three hours later it was closed to traffic and they were working on the inside. |
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| Dirt/gravel road, not very busy yet! |
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| Furniture making. |
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| These kids were playing with stones and a beer bottle seeing who could throw the stones closest to the bottle. |
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| The women and men in Thailand cover there faces and here they have some sort of cream/paste on their faces to protect them from the sun. |
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| This is a garbage wagon/cart and the baby is along for the ride,pretty sad. |
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| Finally made it to the gold pounders - making gold leaf. Can't believe that it is all done by hand still ..... |
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| Local bus, fill it up then add ten more people! |
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| Need to find out about the rank of the monks here. |
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| Milk crates make great "tables" all around the world! |
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| ..and in the midst of it all lovely flowers |
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| Dueling carts, the music just blares out of them and they troll the streets, not sure if they are selling lottery tickets or knock off CD's? |
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| Birds getting a free meal. |
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| Sidewalk, what is that - open ditch, uneven surface, potholes,puddles,betel juice spit... |
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| I had just crossed through a busy intersection - no lights of course and was about to hop onto the sidewalk when the old guy waived and yelled. I realized it was wet cement just in time - went back and took his picture! Not my footprints! |
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| Mandalay's equivalent to TImbits |
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| construction zones are everywhere |
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| Fish for dinner? |
I walked back to my hotel and rested for an hour then headed back out to find some lunch. Nothing really looked that appealing and I happened across a grocery store --- so I bought some apples, oranges, bananas , a little bag of chips,.... I felt the need to replace some potassium and salt so I had chips and bananas for lunch! That's my excuse and I am sticking to it! As I was in the grocery store I took a few pictures until the security lady went a little berserk on me! Like I am going to sell them to Loblaws or something???
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| Lays chips, Spicy Nori Seaweed, Extra BBQ, Chili Squid, Ridget? |
These are all cashews! Looked like cooking ones, raw and unsalted.
After lunch I decided to walk to the Royal Palace - it looked a lot closer than it actually was. Foreigners have to enter through the furthest gate so I had to walk all the way around the moat to the furthest entrance! It is a city within a city and the housing in there looked like it had seen better days. The museum was closed!
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| Mandalay Hill this afternoon - beautiful! |
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| Japanese plane from WW11 - most of the palace was destroyed and has been rebuilt. |
I was kind of disappointed in the Palace, it is in desperate need of repair and it seems the pigeons are now the regular inhabitants.
At this point it was about 3:30, I was hot, thirsty and had walked 8 miles . So, I grabbed a cab to the Shwe Nandaw Kyaung Monastery and the Atu Mashi Monastery.
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| Built in 1880 - the carving is just amazing! |
Atu Mashi Monastery
Mandalay is amazing! I was going to go see the puppet show tonight but am too tired!
And have to wash my filthy feet! A little bit of a tan and a lot of dirt!
