Mandalay part 2

The afternoons pony trek visited a local island across the Irwawaddy. The island has few cars but 100 or so pony carts each owned by the families on the island and for £5 you get a trip around to visit the local sites - read temples, stuphas....

But the real fascination is always to see the local life .in many areas here you get plagued by street sellers. These are usually the young women who try to sell you hats t-shirts bracelets paintings you name it. And there are WAY too many of them for the number of tourists so once they get the sniff of blood they hunt you down.

We got approached by the girl in the photos below when we landed on the island trying to sell us bracelets. She was pleasant but persistent. Phrases such as ' lucky money' 'how much you pay' ' you come back' ' I remember you' . Anyway we smiled and said no thank you. She then preceded to cycle after us around on her bike. Ang felt sorry fo her so we gave her 1500 Kkyets - £1.25 rather than the 3,000 she wanted for the bracelet. AND we didn't take the bracelet as we didn't want it. It didn't make her happy.

They can be a real pain but they do it because they REALLY need the money for food and shelter so it's hard to be to hard faced.

It's now Thursday 3rd 6:50 am and we are now off to Kalaw 2 days, Lake Inle 2 days and hill tribes for 3 days so not much chance of any blogs as we expect no Internet.

Happy New Year from me and Ang!

 

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Mandalay

So NewYears Eve came and went. The BBC reported that Burma joined in the international celebrations for the first time. It was the first time they has open air public celebrations here for 50 years and it was live on Tv. Our NYE was spent in the sky bar of our hotel which had a lovely view if the Ayawaddy river (Irrawaddy in English). But having the schedule we did we were off and out the next day at 8am so no revelling by any of us!

New Years Days early morning excitement included

• A drive up Mandalay hill to survey the surroundings and visit the hilltop temple. Amazed to report it. Was gaudy and golden! It was the scene of a a WWII battle where the allies had to retake the hill to gain control of the local area.
• A trip to see the worlds biggest book at a temple. It wasn't a big book merely 728 inscribed stone slabs each in its own mini temple.
• An afternoon cruise down the Irawaddy to visit an ancient town. The ancient town was a bit 'same same ' with more stuphas and temples . But the cruise was excellent. Lovely top deck views in comfy seats. Nice cold drinks on the way back and watching the people live their lives. The picture is above as we now have slow Internet again. Mandalay seems to have more power cuts than anywhere else so at 6am I'm being woken up by clicking power outages

New years Day evening meal was a trip to a local restaurant . I haven't really commented on the food here as there's not a lot to say really. There are very few restaurants to visit - here in Mandalay with 1 million people there are only 10 or so that we could go to. Lots of local street cafes but as George our guide says ' not recommended'. The food is pain and healthy - lots of vegetables and fish - but uninspiring so nothing to blog home about . Ang isn't doing a cooking course!

 

January 2nds highlights included a visit to an old 1.2km teak bridge and a pony cart ride around an island.

 

The bridge was a lovely experience . The bridge itself was rickety and a health and safety nightmare but there was so much life going on around that I could have stayed there for hours. Lots of local fishermen farmers, rice growing, children, duck farming and cafes to watch the world go by. But no time for us as the next temple beckoned!

 

Anyway I can't get photos loaded so ill post this and quickly try a smaller post

 

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The road to Mandalay

We left Bagan early Saturday for the 2 hour boat trip up the Irawaddy river. As soon as we got off the bus Ang acquired new friends. These kids grabbed her arms and wanted to walk with her. I think they have never seen a blonde pale skin before.

We got on the boat for a very pleasant journey up river in the blazing sun! Amazing we had to keep reminding ourselves it was December 30th. As we pulled in to the jetty the female porters were ready to unload the boat - below. One lady crouched on the bank was still doing her washing and didn't move much when we docked. Mind you the river was very muddy if not a bit dirty too. But if its the best you've got.

It's quite poor here as its not very good for agriculture and it doesn't rain much. The road infrastructure is still pretty good but it doesn't mean much if you're poor.

We went to visit a local village to see how they made incense sticks . It was a dusty place with around 600 houses - pretty much all bamboo or wood. The kids were fascinated by western visitors and followed you round holding your hand. We were lucky that there was a novication ceremony about to take place. This is the ceremony when 6 or 7 young boys join the monastery for a short or long period. It's a big deal to the parents and all the village. The parents of the novices feed the village in a feast. We came across the ladies of the village who were sifting the rice for the feast. As you can see a real community event.

After that we drove another few hours, boat across the river then onto the back of a truck to visit some sandstone caves to see more Buddha statues. I wasn't too impressed as there was too much litter and it looked a bit sham olio . And then back in the dark to our hotel.

Up at 6:30 for the drive to Mandalay only stopping to see some temples and these 2 large Buddhas on the hillside. Honestly they have Buddha OCD - you have never seen so many statues. One temple today had 550,000 Buddha statues in it! How many is enough?

So now here in Mandalay for New Years Eve.

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Bagan

It's now Monday 31st and we've arrived in Mandalay. Back to the Internet . We've had more non stop days since last Friday. We arrived in Bagan the site if the thousand temples. Bagan is the number one tourist destination in Myanmar . It's certainly the most tourist favoured destination we've seen with plenty of hotels and restaurants catering for softy westerners

Friday night we went to the top of one of the temples to watch the sunset over the plain. Really amazing to see so many temples. There are over3,000 temples spread out over a 20 sq km area. We asked our guide why so many in such an area. Burmese people believe the greatest thing they can do in life is to build a temple - that's one reason. Secondly there were many kings living in this area from 9th to 16th century and they needed to build lots of temples to ' make merit' , to outdo the earlier kings and to atone for earlier sins. So judging by the number like lots of kings they killed a lot of people!

Oh and we also got to see a lovely moon rise

Saturday morning we visited 3 or 4 of the biggest temples. Many of the temples are small and solid but a few are larger with inner rooms with large Buddhas and painted murals which are very beautiful. But after 10 or so it becomes a bit much. So we left Saturday lunch to visit a lacquer factory and for Ang to get some new friends!

 

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Some photos

This is the missing photo from Christmas Day. Obviously a batch of Royal Mail pink elastic bands in production.

And below that a day to day taxi wandering around the countryside. This one isn't too full as there is further room up top. The suspension is reinforced to take the weight - even with all those people on board it's not bottomed out yet,

A typical stupha. They all seem to be covered in gold. Some government official must have the gold paint rights

These are the lorries we used to get up to the golden rock. The ride was an Alton towers deluxe ride - hang on to your hats

The Golden Rock above with a viewing platform just below it. And below a SMALL section of the crowd looking on. Most of these people were there for the night.

 

 

 

 

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Wednesday to Saturday - Bagan and more

We have 1990s Internet here. A page takes 30 seconds or so to load and getting photos on is not possible. So I think I'll save them and post them in Dubai.

After a different Christmas Day we set off back towards Yangon on the bus. The bus was a 40 sweater which had been recycled from another country I.e. old. We were heading to the Golden Rock - a famous Buddhist shrine. So the journey involved a 3 hour bus journey to the base of a hill. We then jumped in the back of tipper lorries - the kind which deliver 20 tonne loads of sand. There are 50 or so of these lorries with basic benches fitted in lines across the back. When full of Burmese there are 50 people jammed in the back of the lorry for the ride up the hill . We had our own truck - bit of an experience. It's a pretty steep hill, with bends and hairpins and they race up the hill with you hanging on for your life. No real elf'n'safety . Having survived this its another 45 minute walk to the top up a flipping steep road.

 

Our hotel was perched on the top with lovely views - or so everyone else told us! The hotel was full and we got the worst room ever - it was small , smelly , no view, the bed was rubbish , sheets smelled mouldy - easily the worst hotel room of the trip! So spoiled the experience somewhat and we had little sleep too...

 

The golden rock is just that - a rock perched precariously on the top of a mountain which is gold. It's gold because thousands of pilgrims come up the mountain to cover it with gold leaf. And all around it is a scene from Buddha does Disneyland , hundreds of people set up camp for the night paying respects and all of the paraphernalia that goes with it . Again too loud and garish for me but brilliant to watch the people.

Thursday back down the mountain in reverse and another long drive to Yangon stopping to visit some stuphas and temples on the way. Then up at 3:45 ,(yes 3:45) to leave the hotel at 4:30 for our 6:15 flight to Bagan where we are now. We're staying at the 'Amazing Bagan Resort' which is lovely. We've been out to see the temples over the last few days of which more later but have managed to catch up on sleep and washing which is great. We leave tomorrow for a boat journey on the Irrawaddy on the 'road to Mandalay' - this and the Bagan temples will be the next blog

 

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Christmas Day 2012

Only my second Christmas away from home and a memorable one - for the experience of seeing what these are made into:

 

Sadly blogger won't load photos in Myanmar - the Internet is painfully slow

 

 

Oh and I'm writing this on Friday 28th having just arrived in Bagan where we finally have wifi!!

Were now with our group of 16. We have 2 from NZ. 1 from the US and 13 English. A nice bunch of people but pretty homogenous. On these trips you tend to get sucked onto a roller coaster of tourism . Everyday breakfast at 7am, out at 8am onto a bus and away. It's a full day - back in at 6pm out again at 7:30 for a meal which takes ages as we are a) a big group and b) the Burmese are new to restaurants so food gets delayed, misserved and then the bills need sorting. So no real chance to rest or post blogs.

Anyway back to Christmas Day. We travelled south to Mawlamyine an old capital of Burma ( how many old capitals do countries have? I suppose London, Winchester, then other cities were capitals of various strains of England )

Christmas Day up early then onto a boat across and down the. River onto Bilyugin island - 32kms across so not really small then. We then got into the back of pickup trucks on benches and bumpily drove through the island to visit some homes and villages making a variety of things. Pipes - made using a wooden lathes and a variety of hand turning tools, walking sticks using the same lathes, bamboo hats made using bamboo leaves . That was interesting enough before rubber bands. The picture above is of rubber bands in the middle of the manufacturing process. The various coloured sheaves above are wrapped around a wooden pole - a bit like a coloured condom I suppose. They are then put out to dry, slipped of the pole and sliced into rubber bands. Amazing. There are thousands if the things bagged for export - a real cottage industry. And different farms / families make different thicknesses, colours or whatever. I suppose you think of them being made in some horrible sweatshop. And although its not fun or richly rewarding work it's not to bad outside in the sun, at home on the farm with your family isn't the worst thing in life.

Anyway 3 hours later then back on the truck 1 hour, then the boat 1 hour and up to the Khyaikthanian pagoda , built in 875AD, which overlooks the town and is a good place to watch the sunset. Our first site of Burmese pagodas and not that keen on them. They are big brash and loud. Burmese love gold paint and gilding and big statues which takes some getting used to. Apparently Kipling wrote his ' road to Mandalay' poem here.

So not a bad day with no real Christmassy things on the agenda.

Another thing which strikes you when you come to Asia is the dependence on the big rivers which flow through. They are hugely impressive and huge- 1 mile or so wide in places - and bringing water, food, transport and goods all in 1 go. I'm sure cars and lorries will take over one day for greater prosperity but not necessarily to improve the sense of community the rivers bring. It's a brilliant people watching experience to watch the world drift by on the river.

Anyway I'm going to try to post this blog with 1 photo to see if it will upload , as its really slow Internet, then i will try to post some other photos later.

 

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