By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me.
- Rudyard Kipling (who never visited Mandalay, btw)
We took from Bagan, not the road, but the ferry, to Mandalay. The fact that the ferry was at six in the morning, and that we had to wake up at an unearthly hour, was more than compensated by the sunrise we saw whilst on the Irrawaddy (Burma’s largest river). The ferry, covering around 120 miles, took a lazy 11 hours which were used to catch up on lost snoozing, reading, chatting, and watching the slow life amble by on the banks of the river - ox carts, villages, pagodas, children waving, and people bathing. The Irrawaddy is quite shallow and our ferry had to take a zig-zag route on the river to avoid running aground.
We got to Mandalay in the evening - the city, being the political and economic capital of Burma at one time, attracted immigrants from China and India which has lent the city an interesting people-scape. Mandalay probably evokes the name and image of Burma more than any other city. Rangoon comes across as a slightly anglicised version of Burma, but Mandalay is what an outsider thinks of as the real Burma. An interesting city by any standards, it has a very melting-pot feel to it. Even the foods and bars are very eclectic – There are a number of Chapati Stands (Indian naturally) which are one of the most popular roadside food stalls.
We ended up going to 'Mann' all three nights we were in Mandalay. Infact, on all the three occasions, we were the last patrons to leave. Mann bar (if it can be called that) had the most interesting atmosphere - locals and scruffy back-packers. By our second night there, the locals there accepted us as regulars and waved to us - we shared beers, Mandalay rum, cheroots, tiny tamarind tablets, bawdy jokes and tales with each other even though we didn't have a language in common - but then alcohol and a willingness to connect overcomes all linguistic barriers!
At Mandalay we visited the Maha Gandaryon Monastery where we saw Monks getting their main meal (breakfast) for the day. It was a riot of maroon as there were hundreds and hundreds of monks (of all ages) queueing up to get their meal. There were, however, far too many tourists and it seemed a bit choreographed for us visitors. As a monk I would have hated to find French / German (and Indian!) tourists poking their cameras in my face whilst I was trying to have my simple breakfast of bananas and rice in peace. But an interesting sight, nonetheless.
From there we visited Inwa and Sagaing Hill. The latter has a large number of Stupas (over 500!) and by now I was getting Stupa-fatigue but still went through the motions. The views from some of these temples of the other stupas dotting the hill were amazing. Our next stop was Inwa where we could only reach by by a small boat. After a nice (and expensive) meal at the only decent restaurant around, we took a horse cart to see the sights (a watch tower, some pagodas, and a lovely teak monastery). But the best part of the day was reserved for sunset when we went to U Bein Bridge (near Amarapura). This bridge, Burma’s most photographed site, was built in 1849 and is made of over 1,000 teak posts. The pedestrian bridge, across a lake, makes for a photographers delight as monks, children, and tourists criss-cross it – we took a boat from where we could see the silhouette of the bridge against the golden glow of the setting Sun. A stunning and surreal experience.
The next day we took an hour-long ferry to Mingun Island. This island is famous for the ‘world’s largest unfinished’ pagoda. All that remains of the unfinished pagoda (which is huge!) is a large brick base which is over 250 feet on each side. Construction of the pagoda, which has planned to be over 500 feet tall, began in the 1790s but stopped in 1819 when the patron king died. (he was told that he would die if the pagoda was completed!). Close by is the Mingun bell, a 90 tonne bell that apparently is the world’s largest hung, uncracked bell (the largest, though cracked, is in Moscow). Lots of superlatives in one day!
The rest of the day was spent sightseeing (on the back of a motorcycle taxi!) in Mandalay. We saw the Mandalay Palace (home of Thebaw, the last Burmese King before he was exiled to India in 1885), a couple of monasteries, and the ‘world’s largest book’. This ‘book’, in the form of 719 slabs (each of which is housed in a simple white stupa), contains the text of the Tripitaka (Buddhist scriptures). Apparently if someone read these slabs for 8 hours a day, it would take him/her 450 days to finish the ‘book’. Like I said, superlatives galore.
We started the trudge up Mandalay Hill to see the sunset from there but halfway through we found that the sky was pretty misty and expected to see a pretty ordinary sunset. So we turned back and went to a fancy coffee shop near the Palace Moat. This cafe seemed to be the place for the well-heeled Mandalayars (!) to be seen in. Obviously no one noticed the scruffy Indian tourist!
Next Post: Kalaw, Inle Lake.
Seen : almost all women use thanaka, a light coloured tree bark paste, on their faces which serves as both as a sunscreen and as a beauty aid.
Heard : at one of the payas we'd gone to, 3-4 souvenir vendors approached us and showed us their wares. Some of us started showing interest in what they were selling. One of the vendors was, however, totally ignored. Suddenly he piped up 'What about me?' in the most whining and self-pitying voice. It got all of us laughing.
