Vik Around The World: Ancient Cities around Mandalay; more Myanmar adventures

Jan 6 Ancient Cities

Mandalay itself has few sights and it is not a beautiful city as such. It is a great starting point though for excursions to surrounding villages. Today we rented an adventurous Blue Taxi to bring us first to the most famous of all temples in Mandalay the Mahamuni Paya. First off though is a halt to fill up gas, or let's say the plastic water gallon he has fixed underneath the dashboard that serves as the tank? That is really fascinating, how something so simple still works just fine. I also get why transport is so expensive. To fill up at a government operated gas station you require a license. Almost nobody gets this license. So while the better off can fill up for 3000-3700 K a gallon the worse off need to resolve to the black market where they pay 5000 K a gallon or more. Weird system that is.

Next off is a visit to a gold leaf factory where we could also stop and buy some gold leaf to decorate the Buddha with. Erm, No. But the process of how it's being made, all manually, is quite interesting. Essentially they hammer on a piece of gold for hours and days always separating it into smaller pieces to get it thinner and thinner, under a 3kg hammer.

What's extraordinary about the Mahamuni Paya beats me. Looks just like any other temple and the nation's most famous Buddha looks like other golden Buddhas. Yes, it's covered with plenty of gold leaf and shimmers brightly but once you've seen what feels like millions of Buddha... I can't help but not notice much difference. The gold leaf produced around is being stuck on the Buddha, only men are allowed to enter this sanctum. The Buddha is washed every day early morning and the run off is collected and sold as Holy Water.

To add to all that there are Buddha producing shops around everywhere. Making Buddhas out of stone, metal and whatever else there is. Many of them exported to Thailand as well. It's Buddha frenzy. We also stop by an Artisan shop with you guessed it... Buddhas. They have wall decorations pillowcases tribal masks, and typical for Mandalay, Marionettes. You can watch women make them, one stitch at a time.

Amarapura is on the way to the other village Sagaing, we will be coming back here for sunset and the famous U-Bein Teak Bridge. For now we are carted off, like all other tourists, to a silk weaving factory and... you guessed it, shop. The weaving is very intricate, some is easy for the men's Longyi and others are bridal wear on order wear practically every stitch is made by hand with countless different colors. Ladies, if you don't want to get married in white, consider one of these. They are simply stunning and definitely one of a kind.

Next stop on this trip is one of the Ancient Villages Sagaing. The driver drops us off at a free entrance stop to the 25 minute stairways hike up Sagaing Hill. We run into a chatty local on the way which explains everything about the trees and the sights and architecture, he studies architecture in Sagaing so loves to talk about it. And especially Udo has many questions he wants answered so the walk up takes more than double the time than anticipated. He also explains what the 'gold' color is locals wear on their face. It's called Tanaka, comes from a tree and bark of the wood is rubbed with water on a marble top to create the paste they use as beauty product on their faces. It has lots of other small medicinal purposes to. Udo and Mag give it a go, but on white skin it is barely recognizable, not such a pretty gold glow as on Burmese skin.

Once we make it up to Sagaing Hill we are rewarded with a fantastic view over the plain. Hundreds of Stupas in every direction. Hill over hill and the river running right through it. It's the picture postcard perfect of views. But see for yourself.

Better, yet we find a dessert lady that sells homemade Burmese desserts, I would call coconut cake in white and brown, undefinable paste filled thing and my personal favorite a boiled banana cake of some sort. I was so delicious it should be exported. Funny enough though it tasted more of berries than bananas but sweet and moist and fruity. Yum! Yum! Getting my mouth watery just by thinking about it.

Food in reverse order we stop by a Burmese restaurant for Lunch where we get the usual curries with many condiments and unlimited refills, accompanied with Myanmar Beer. Not as tasty as my friends place in Yangon but not bad, the taste. The repercussions this meal had we'll hear about later. But 2000K for as much food as you could never eat is very reasonable. Every time you nearly finish a bowl a new one magically appears. Food galore. I wonder what happens to all the leftovers, especially the condiments from each table? It must be heaps of food every day.

A short ride away is the 'ferry' stop to Innwa, the other Ancient City. The ferry to Innwa costs 1000K per person for both ways, is a wooden ramshackle boat and only takes a few minutes.

The way to get around in Innwa is by Horse-Buggy. The horses look slim and ill treated so we consider walking to the few sights. After they tell us it's 10km and we only have about an hour and a half time if we would like to make it to Amapura in time for sunset we begrudgingly opt for the horse cart. There are no motorized vehicles on the island. The horse cart takes you to the four main sites on the island, which is all we have time for anyway, for 5000K for the cart with two persons and 7500K for the three of us. Negotiating impossible. Hoppideehopp we go past rice paddies, Pagodas and temples to the four, not too impressive, sites on the island – Bagaya Monastery, Yadansinme Pagoda, Palace Watchtower, Maha Aung Monastery. Funniest thing of the day is the salesgirl and seemingly half her family following our horse cart on their bicycles as Udo expressed interest he may buy something. Even though he said many times he will not take it they keep pedaling after him in the hopes of convincing him otherwise. We were the last tourists to leave from this boat and it's quite late so it feels all their hopes for THE sale of the day rest on him. Unfortunately none of us is interested in a bronze bell or the like. A sweet surprise of another kind happens at the Watchtower though. Teenagers selling postcards and why not buy some, need to send them anyway, family obligations. And then the one girl refuses to sell me some, she just made a sale and now wants her friend / sister / cousin to be able to make some money as well. Wow, they still do look out for each other. What a sweet moment, that doesn't happen in our materialistic world where everyone's out for themselves. Let's just hope it stays that way I enjoyed that moment of cooperation.

Scenery is nice, but everything considered, the unimpressive sights (you have seen plenty same or similar Pagodas, Monasteries, Temples and Watchtowers elsewhere), the getting there by ferry and costs of transport and sad looking horses, this is a place you could skip. Or savor if you have many hours time to walk around maybe talk to some villagers. By the way, you also need the 10 USD entrance ticket here that we bought at Mandalay Palace. Same ticket is valid for up to a week at different sites.

Ferry ride back, this time with motorcycles loaded on the wooden boat. I love it how everything here just works without hassle.

Puppies everywhere

Last destination of the day is U-Bein bridge in Amarapura for sunset views. Cover page of the current Myanmar Lonely Planet and the longest Teak Bridge in (the world, country, the area....) don't know but it's stunning and a perfect view at sunset. Seemingly all tourists that have been in the Ancient City Area congregate here for sunset and you see many other white faces. Although, compared to other sights in Asia, it's nothing really. We set off for the free 1.2 km walk over the bridge, skipping the 4000K boat ride over. Crossing the bridge we see and chitchat to many people, get checked out by monks (wtf?) and enjoy the scenery.

As we lost Udo to a Burmese girl and it's almost pitch-dark already Mag and I settle for a quick boat ride back for 2000K (after all, sunset is over). We manage to collect him later and our amazing Blue Taxi brings us back to Mandalay. Our driver (embarrassingly I keep forgetting all the names :-( ) gets some tip on top of the negotiated 22000K and we meet an American and two French ladies. We all have a wonderful half-Indian, half-Burmese dinner together on the streets of Mandalay. Chapati for 150K, can't beat that price. Travel stories and tips are shared.