We hopped off our smooth night bus at 6AM to a much chillier scene in Mandalay. It was a refreshing break though from the stifling day we had in Yangon the day before. The bus station was a mere converted scrap yard and buses were parked higgledy piggledy all around. It’s amazing the difference you see in the small things between countries of the developed and developing world (not being a poxy westerner but it is really is raw everything in Myanmar, it’s the real Asia. No polish. We were loving it!)
The below pretty much sums it up – once home to Myanmar’s Royal Capital, there is a pagoda and temple around every corner – a good high up view of the city shows you this below!
But first things first – the bus station and getting to our accommodation; the quieter, spartan nature of the “bus station” didn’t detract from the hoards of taxi men swarming the bus to get a chance at a potential fare though, they were still out in force!
Arriving so early and not having anywhere booked and starving for a dinner (always when I get off a night bus, I feel like it should be dinner time, the stop/start of the sleeping makes you feel like its just been a long afternoon of sleepy naps!) so we headed to one of the recommended tea houses – Mingalabar. 6AM and the place with no customers but the usual about 10 staff on duty! The nods, waves, smiles and desperation to please us was immediately noticeable. All boys (again all looked about 12) serving us off a seemingly newly converted menu to English. It read “Breakfast” but most of the things on it represented dinner time food for us. Perfect, ideal, just what we were looking for! We opted for some Shan noodles with Tofu and Chicken. It turns out the tofu is served as chickpea flour which is actually a yellowy gloopy soup kind of thing. The dish was delicious but so random!
We booked ourselves into the Myanmar version of a 4 star hotel for the night and were intrigued to check it out. Costing a bare 26 euro for the night (massive money for there) boy were we treated like celebrities! A welcome drink, welcome towel and non-stop fuss, ending with the Front Office Manager giving us his personal number and card for our time in Myanmar, “so we could report any issues or questions we may have while we are in his country”. They are just so nice like!
We just dropped bags and headed out. First to rent bikes and cycle around. Originally the plan was to get a ferry across the river (the river Mystinge breaks through Mandalay, a tiny bit of water separating many of the villages that tourists want to see, with Mandalay city) with bicycles and tp visit all the places by bike, cycling home (about 20km in total). Way, way too ambitious it would seem.
Firstly, the quality of bike. Both our bikes cost 1 euro for the day – not oustandingly below the price point for South East Asia but boy were these astonishingly crocked; the tyres were flat when we got them, requiring a few additional pumps before they were deemed road worthy; the saddles did not stop falling down; the gears didn’t work; there was a hole in the basket in the front.
Second, the route. Once we set off according to our guidebook instructions, going to the “tourist jetty” we learned of no ferry present. The locals spoke next to no English, we spoke sign language and pointed at our book. Alas, noone had heard of this mystical ferry.
Third – there was the issue that these bikes would more than likely not last 20km or else our knees, back and legs would be broken by the time we got home from the discomfort and non suitability in general of these bikes to long distance cycling. Eoghan being over 6foot was a prime issue also considering a bike for his height was more than a long shot!!
So we chose to just bike around the areas in close proximity! Essentially a temple hopping tour of the city!
So many temples and palace ruins are scattered around the city centre and you can just “pop” around to each of them – fairly open and deserted and each amongst the modern day local traffic.
It adds to the character and rawness. Old meets new. Heritage meets today.
Fairly fast and decided instead to head to Mandalay Hill, a much more manageable 5km each way on the bikes. We had wanted to cycle some bit of Mandalay as it is famous for its pancake flat landscape, the most prevalent place to view it being from atop of Mandalay Hill. It was great craic whizzing in and out of the mad, no rules traffic and driving the temperamental city bikes just outside the city bounds. Well worth getting them, if just for a much shorter distance and time!
The walk up Mandalay Hill is challenging. Non-stop steps which basically act as a pilgrimmage site for the locals.
A big Buddha is at the top, with the unusual positioning of it being standing and pointing in the direction of the Royal Palace – something about a legned that the buddha basically is pointing to where Mandalay ended up being set up ie. it was destiny.. something like that!
The view from the top is not very impressive as Mandalay is not known for its famous landmarks but rather the view was great to see the pancake flat of the land. A cute local guy was painting with his fingers with black charcoal some lovely paintings on white laminate of various scenes from Myanmar. Just black and white and really effective. So pretty and of course we had to buy when he was selling them three for less than 3 euro! Everything is so cheap in Myanmar its frightening! I would happily have given him 10 euro for the three of them but he quoted that price, madness hand painted by him like we saw him doing it and they are fabulous!
Back at base, we were treated to some weird festival or that’s what we thought it was anyway.
Carts of children, adults, boys, girls all decked out in makeup and Sunday best clothes, along with decorated cows and anything moving were doing some sort of parade around the Mandalay hill. Music was blaring and it was just gas to watch. No idea what was going on but the locals seemed to go mad for it! It seemed somewhat similar to what I would have consider the May procession to have been like in the most religious town in Ireland back when Catholicism ruled the country. But the Burmese were putting modern day celebrity to this festival also to top it off- with everyone dressed to the nines and the lipstick!!
We were starting to fade given our sleep deprived souls from the previous night on the bus so decided on a coffee. We thought it not too ambitious as en route to the bike shop earlier we had spotted some random bakeries and “coffee huts” and “coffee shop signs” all looking quite Western. We went to four places, the fourth place being able to come up with the goods.
The first place we entered was call “Koffie Korner”, the second and third with equally insinuations for all things coffee being sold there, however upon entering each one we were met with confusion and disarray and it was all just gas!
Mandalay is a city it is fair to say that is literally in its first year of serious international tourism or thereabouts, but is still getting accustomed to how we international tourists will present ourselves. One day. In the shop. Which you purvey to sell coffee. And we are happy to buy the coffee as you have marketed. No fuss. Instead we received typicaly pandemonium and confused staff teams and panicked as to how would they in fact serve the coffee and what would it look like and with or without sugar, what milk haha!! Baby steps, baby steps :D:D But there was always fuss, always a panic. I felt bad, they were all so eager to please.
Our cycle back involved a whizzing past all of the 3km stretch of the Royal Palace.
A well preserved wall surrounds the palace and a moat which makes for a very pictureque setting.
We gave the bikes back and switched for an Automatic Motobike instead.
Off we went then to Sagaing, an important religious and monastic centre just 20km outside of Manadalay. But first to reach it! A crossing of the Ayeyarwady River region! Done by a giant paddle board used to cross at the most narrow part of the river! The monks were happy out getting their shopping across the river and using said paddle boat to cross along with us – yep, this is Myanmar! Buddhism meets rush hour commute.
Entralling temples and beaming hot sun, and no tourists to be seen. It was like walking around a forgotten kingdom.
Myanmar is undiscovered tourism at its finest, go now while you still can have that!!
Next on our motobike tour of the outskirts was the U Bein Bridge – the longest teak bridge in the world. That was mobbed; we got there for sunset and all the local Mandalay people it seemed, monks, families, couples alike all gathered to walk the bridge and take in the sunset and the atmospheric setting. It was lovely to be a part of it.
How do you pronounce your name? 