Safely arrive in Mandalay at the hugest, emptiest, barest Airport i have ever been too! Quiet like a ghost building! Taxi in to town.
Be careful with the Airport taxi's they charged us for a share taxi, we had no choice they told us and then expected us to wait until the next flight for it to fill! I demanded my money back and a private taxi and we were off! With a driver a bit like a country and western singing bogan!
We are staying at the gorgeous Red Channal Hotel, its in alovely area and they have a free Happy Hour every day at 5pm and also free tea and coffee at 3pm! Are we in heaven (small things folks) As we arrived just in time for a swim in the little pool and the Happy Hour, too many cocktails see us having our dinner in the Hotel restaurant the Spice Garden, very nice Indian food.
Next day we decide to get to a camera store and see what we can purchase to finish our trip off! We were taken to a big shopping mall near 78th street, very modern and a nice coffee shop too! The morning was spent wandering around the Zeigyo market, which is HUGE and not a tourist thing in sight!! But everything Myanmar possible is sold here, awesome markets.
We head to Mandalay Palace and discover the Cafe City Restaurant which has to be one of the best places we have eaten in this whole trip, its out on the main road in front of the Palace. Our admission of $10 is paid for the Paslace to the machine gun weilding guards! We discover a huge walk way to be walked and jump on two guards moto's, they must have been on a break! So the equivilant of $1.50 was paid to them for the trip up and they waited and took us back down the hill!
I had been looking forward to the Palace after reading "The Glass Palace" and it did not disapoint me, as l walked around l could imagine King Thibaw and his Queen and children living here. Most of the origibnal palce was destroyed during WW11, but has been rebuilt, there are over 40 buildings and a watch tower, there are areas that tourists cannot get too. But l was pleased to have visited it and did my imagination well!
Back to the lovely Red canal for a swim and we walk to Green Elephant for dinner, it was ok, set in a gorgeous garden and an outside pavillion that you eat in. We stop off at Rocky Handicrafts and Bruce buys a very scary looking puppet!
