Birds Flyin' High...: The Road to Mandalay

The guidebooks don’t make much of Mandalay but I have to say I preferred it to Yangon. It just had a nicer feel somehow – big wide streets, a bit more developed – I guess it just had a bit more of a buzz about it.

On leaving the hotel on our first day, we wandered a few streets South to the gold-pounders' district where they hammer-pound gold to make gold leaf, which is then used to decorate things like the Golden Rock!

Gold-pounding!

From here we took a tri-shaw (an unusual kind of cyclo-rickshaw) to Setkyathiha temple where many of the young nuns were having lunch as we wandered around and we attracted many curious looks and giggles!

Young nuns having their lunch in the temple grounds

A little boy who wanted his photo taken. THIS is the thanakha make-up that many people wear here, to protect their skin from the sun

There was no suggested walking tour for Mandalay in the Lonely Planet (shock horror!) but there was a cycling tour around the quiet back-lanes in the West of the city, which sounded interesting, and which we decided we could easily do on foot.

We started at Eindawya Paya where in 1919, a group of Europeans had defied the Buddhist ban on wearing shoes within the temple, and were forcibly evicted by outraged monks, one of whom was jailed for life as a result. In the alleys leading to the monastery were lots of stalls selling clothing, and I was quite taken with a pair of red trousers... until I realised it was all clothing for monks!

Eindawya Paya

Monk Outfitters

The walk was really nice as it was through a very non-touristy part of town so we got a nice insight into the normal every-day lives of the locals without other tourists milling around – and they were also quite excited and curious to see us.

The more peaceful part of town

Cargo boats lined up on the harbour

One of the highlights was stopping in a tiny local café and trying their delicious coconut doughnuts, for about 7p each! In hindsight we should have stocked up as we were then craving them for the rest of the trip!

Coconut doughnut deliciousness

At the end of the walking tour we took motorbike taxis over to the Royal Palace/ Fort, but over a slightly late lunch we realised we didn't really have time to visit as we were keen to make it up to nearby Mandalay Hill for sunset. Not to worry though as the palace was a reconstruction anyway!

The climb up the hill was long and incredibly hot. We were accompanied by a young monk who was keen to practice his English.

In the temple at the top of Mandalay Hill

Looking out over Mandalay as the sun set

After a pleasant sunset we headed out to a rooftop restaurant for dinner, after which our young waiter gave us a lift home on his motorbike!

The next day we’d hired a driver to take us around some of the sights in the local countryside, including three former royal capitals: Amarapura, Sagaing and Inwa.

We started with a visit to a monastery in Amarapura, which is home to over 1000 monks and at 10am every day they line up in a long procession to enter the dining hall for breakfast. It would have been a nice moment, but there were just too many tourists there snapping pictures in their faces and getting in the way and it all felt quite intrusive.

Monks lining up for breakfast

A breakfasted monk...

Next we visited the area of Sagaing - a series of hillocks dotted with gold and white stupas. We visited two temples which were full of Buddha images, and offered impressive views.

Buddhas!

Views!

We then took a little boat over to the small backwater of Inwa, where we had lunch and then took a horse and cart to visit some of the local sites including a teak monastery, watchtower and more stupas.

On the horse and cart in Inwa

Inwa countryside

More stupas

Selfie

For sunset we visited U-Bein's Bridge (the world's longest teak footbridge!) and strolled back and forth along it with many villagers, monks, fishermen and very few foreigners.