Day 5 Myanmar- Mandalay

We had to hire a driver for our second day in Mandalay since the outlying areas are quite far away. Before we headed out on the town, we stopped by the river so Adam could get a morning workout. Ha! 

On our drive, we passed many farms and pastures with huts that workers took refuge under once it got really hot. Seriously- it was almost unbearably hot on this particular day!

We had the opportunity to see some of the industries in the area, including marble carving and silk weaving. Nearly everything is done by hand or with very basic machinery. It was quite interesting to see. Most of the marble carvings are for temples, both in Myanmar and in other countries (such as China and Thailand). 

Some final products

Women weaving silk into various patterns for skirts, shirts, and scarves (many of them sold for special occasions such as weddings)

I liked that this girl decorated her area with pictures of famous movie stars

We also visited several temples, including one that was made entirely of teak wood. I cannot recall all the names of the temples that we visited, and plus it was incredibly hot so it was pretty tough for us to focus! Lol.

Remember the Buddha I mentioned that is covered in something like 6 inches of gold? This is the one! I couldn't get close to it (no women allowed in the area up close to the Buddha) but you can probably Google this and find a better quality photo!

Again, gorgeous views once we got to the top

I couldn't even count the number of figures!

Teak wood temple

We also took a boat across to see....more temples!

These are our "It's soooo hottttttt!" faces

Andy at one of the temples (photo courtesy of Andy)

We did ride on horsecarts again, but it was nothing like the leisurely ride in Bagan. The drivers were moving super fast, so I was holding on for dear life to not fall out. 

*photo taken by Andy

We then arrived at Ubein Bridge, which is the world's longest teak bridge. It is made of teak wood and stretches across the Taungthaman Lake. Andy got some awesome photographs at the U Bein Bridge that I'll post here. Andy, Tim and Shara also saw the sunset by taking a boat on the lake. Adam wasn't feeling like it, and I didn't want him to be alone, so I got photos of the sunset at the bridge from higher ground.

We were told by some locals that during the rainy season, sometimes even the trees are under water. I can't even imagine!

 Like kids in most countries, they aren't shy about shouting "Hello!!" and posing for a photo

Lots of ducks swimming in the lake

*photo taken by Andy

*photo taken by Andy

*photo taken by Andy

As with other places in Myanmar, we encountered some very nice people that were open to chatting with us. At the U Bein Bridge, a group of men (most of them monks) approached us to ask if we spoke English. They are studying English in their first year at one of the local universities and were looking for people to practice with. They were very friendly and accompanied us on almost the entire stretch of the bridge.

This might be the point where one of them thanked me profusely for being so nice!

*photo taken by Andy

 Andy, Adam and new friends. Note that Adam is holding hands with one of the monks (not uncommon but still took Adam by surprise) * Photo courtesy of Andy

Sunset on the U Bein Bridge

After sunset, we headed back into Mandalay for dinner. We attempted to go to another restaurant named "The Green Elephant" but it just seemed that destiny did not want us eating at any place called the Green Elephant because our driver took us to a Nepalese restaurant that we had mentioned prior to deciding finally to eat at the Green Elephant. It worked out though because the food was quite tasty.

Day 2 Myanmar- Bagan

Early the next morning we flew out to Bagan, a famous ancient city where the landscape is dotted with thousands of stupas/pagodas/temples (someone explained that stupas have no entrance, whereas pagodas and temples do...not sure how accurate that is). Some of the buildings are from the 11th century, but several of them are brand new or were in the process of being built.

We were flying a new airline called Asian Wings Airways and weren't sure what to expect. At the airport they gave us stickers that we had to wear indicating which of the airlines we were traveling on. We weren't sure how it would be, but it was just fine (a little loud as it was a prop plane) and they even served us a little breakfast. We arrived at our hotel without any problems and were impressed with the amazing views of the stupas that we had right form our hotel. There was a wedding party going on when we arrived, which was neat to see.

Relief from Andy to see that our plane wasn't some duct taped mess!

The wedding car!

After dropping off our things in the room, we immediately decided that we would take horsecarts to see the stupas and temples as that was the easiest way to get around and up close. We ended up taking 2 horsecarts  because jamming the 5 of us into one would have been near impossible! We spent the entire morning (almost 5 hours!) traveling around Bagan by horsecart. We were hit with one stunning view after another. We saw interesting frescoes, many images of Buddha, entered several temples and pagodas, saw teak doors that were hundreds of years old, climbed up to the top of some of the pagodas to witness amazing views of the landscape (albeit while practically burning the soles of my feet! walking on the hot bricks was like walking over coals!).

View of a temple from afar

Tim making some friends

View from atop the pagoda...pretty sure I was doing the "ouch hot hot hot" dance while taking this photo!

A cute little boy that I was playing peekaboo with before he ran off pretending he was a plane. In Myanmar, women and children wear a paste made of wood/bark/roots from a tree (thanaka) on their face to protect them from the sun and also as a form of makeup. Some women made designs out of the paste (such as leaves).

Woman selling mangos and other goods outside of the temple

During the ride we passed by farms where we saw farmers using the old style of plowing. I don't think we passed a single farm that had any kind of machinery.

 Tim and Shara politely admiring the artwork

Inside the Ananda temple- this is the south facing Buddha. Something interesting about this is that from up close, Buddha looks very serious and sad but as you step further away, his mouth turns into a smile. Andy has a video of this so perhaps I can get that up on the blog. You can see in the photo below that Buddha appears to be smiling.

Perspective so you can see how big it was.

Us with our horsecart driver

Afterwards we had a late lunch at the hotel before taking naps in the room. Andy, Shara and Tim decided to take the horsecart back out again to visit some of the pagodas we missed and to catch the sunset from on top of one of the pagodas. At this point, Adam began to feel more sick (he wasn't feeling well for most of the morning) so I decided to stay back at the hotel with him and just catch the sunset from on top of one of the buildings nearby.

Adam ended up taking a dip in the pool to try and feel better. I think it helped a little bit! The views just from sitting at the hotel were great and we ended up catching a very nice sunset. The only thing that detracted from the sunset was a few men that followed us up top of the building because they were trying to sell us their paintings. They were very nice (asking about our travels, etc.) but finally came out and told us that they were painters and could sell some of their work to us. In addition, there was an older gentleman that we had seen earlier in the morning at one of the sites who also tried to sell us some of his work. He ended up following us back to the hotel and appeared at sunset to see if we wanted to buy something. I don't blame them stalking us since it was low season and I really didn't see hardly any other travelers.

The sun was a beautiful blazing red color as it set

For dinner, we decided to give a Lonely Planet recommendation a try. We headed out to an Indian Restaurant and it turned out to be very good, very filling and with phenomenal service and nice ambiance. Everything from their mango lassi to their naan to the curries were good. Even Adam, who was a bit under the weather, filled up!

Lots of dipping sauces, including mango chutney

Seriously it was a feast. We had soup, bread, rice, curries, appetizers, etc. etc.

And clearly, with all that food in our bellies we were sufficiently tuckered out so we went to bed right away (plus we were waking up at 5am for the sunrise!).