Seat of Our Pants » Mandalay

No Loneliness at This Teak Bridge

Martin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:04:08 +0000

Oh the Lonely Planet! For those of you who don’t know, there’s only one guidebook in the whole world good enough to travel with, and that’s the Lonely Planet Guidebook. The others are either pale imitations, or they are geared towards other types of travel: travel with special interests in mind, or travel with a hefty budget. If you’re an Independent Traveler, you’re either traveling with an LP or you don’t travel with a guidebook at all. We’ve tried both, and while it is fun and good to be truly on your own, it can be pretty handy to have a map and the name of a hotel when you arrive at a new place.

There is a certain power that comes with the unique position the LP has carved out for itself. Since everyone’s toting the same guidebook around, travelers tend to end up in the same place.

This is an example of what the LP can do to a place: the latest edition of the Lonely Planet Myanmar has an image of a few monks walking across a teak bridge outside Mandalay. Because of this, a cottage industry has sprung up where fishermen take people out on the water to capture the same picture as the cover. The beach is choked by souvenir salespeople and beer stands. The other evening, we found ourselves in one of those boats, happily sloshing around together with probably 50% of the foreigners in Mandalay.

The sunset? It was beautiful. Almost like the cover of the Lonely Planet.

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An Inwa Daytrip

Martin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:57:57 +0000

For four hundred years, this dusty island was the capital of Burma. This was during the ‘dark ages’ of Burmese history, a period that very little is known about. Today, only a handful of structures remain, and farms and village life has replaced what must once have been a majestic city.

To get there, hail a taxi or a pick up and have it take you to a boat dock 30 minutes outside Mandalay. Here, a rickety old barge (one dollar return) takes you to a stand of horse carts. This is the best way of catching Inwa’s sights – for five dollars (or less if you’re good at bargaining) you are taken to four different sites: two pagodas, a watchtower and a teak monastery. At two of the places, officials check for your ticket: a 10 dollar multi-sight ticket that cover most things in the Mandalay region. If you don’t have the ticket, you can bribe your way in for a dollar (we did).

The two pagodas offered a few photo ops, and the decrepit old watch tower was thrilling to scramble around on. The real keeper was the beautiful teak monastery: a dark wooden structure nestled into the surrounding jungle. It was nice enough that Wifey now wants a teak home (never mind that the material cost for a hut sized home would run in the millions-of-dollars range).

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Sagaing

Martin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:56:21 +0000

A few weeks ago, while I was waiting in line at the Kathmandu Airport, I happened to strike up a conversation with an American part-time Buddhist monk. While the security people did their best to delay all the flights, we had time to exchange a few pleasantries and travel anecdotes. Upon hearing that we were headed for Burma, he said that the Sagaing Hills are well worth a visit if we made it to the Mandalay area.

Taking his advice, we decided to give the Sagaing Hills a whirl. Now, it doesn’t make sense to try to take in all of it – Sagaing is a conglomeration of 500 monasteries, stupas and pagodas, spread out over a hilly shelf above the Irrawaddy River. We opted to scale Sagaing Hill itself – a sweaty stroll up to the main temple of the area.

In contrast to Mandalay Hill, Sagaing Hill feels more like an active place of worship and religious study than a tourist attraction. Monks walk around side by side, engaged in conversations about Buddha-knows-what, and there are comparatively few people trying to sell you postcards, coca cola and souvenirs.

If we had more time and a burning interest in Theravada Buddhism, these hills would surely be a nice place to base ourselves. Some monasteries give Vipassna courses, and others offer to help arranging longer stays for the serious students. For us, it was a nice glimpse of the religious side of the country; because in Myanmar, Buddhism is bigger than anything else – except for English football.

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Mandalay!

Martin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:33:17 +0000

Say its name out loud – let it roll around in your mouth and savor it: Mandalay. It feels like it ought to be one of the world’s most exotic destinations, right?

The reality is that today’s Mandalay is pretty dusty. By Myanmar standards it is a modern city of 1.5 million people. Its main feature is the colossal palace grounds that sit in the middle of the city center, making navigation here more about ‘getting around the palace moat’ than getting from place to place.

Like any city, Mandalay has several layers to it. While we won’t stay here long enough to scrape just below the superficial veneer, we have been taken in by the charming gentleness of its people and the hassle free way they go about their daily lives.

There’s history here for sure, even though it was founded only 150 years ago. It is the place where the last Burmese kings made their stand against the British. In 1945, British Gurkha soldiers took Mandalay Hill back from the Japanese in a fierce battle. There are plenty of Buddhist monuments in the city and around it, and tourist agencies tout many intriguing day trip options in the area.

I guess if we had more time we would stay here longer, but we are booked on a train that will take us further north.

’til we meet again, Mandalay.

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