Early
morning, quick breakfast of the Mo Hin Ka soup, special spelling, and off we
go. Soup at Kandawgyi was much better and served with boiled eggs but the
buffet was impressive nevertheless. Off to the chartered boat at the jetty. Mrs
Evil was entertaining us with old folk tales about ancient kings and the 1 hour
boat ride passed quickly. She also told us about the lives of the “sand n*ggers”
living on the river islands during the dry period. Actually she said SAND
DIGGERS later but I bet she said the N-word a couple of times. Bear in mind
that this is an older upper class lady and she clearly showed what she felt
about the poor part of the “local people” J. Every attempt to sell us some
postcards or other “sheit” from the “boat lady” was stopped dead by Mrs Evil.
So,the SAND DIGGERS were digging sand for construction works in Mandalay. We arrived at Mingun, passing some meditation
centres along the way. The meditation centre just before Mingun is home to one
of the chief priest. He lives there and educates several thousands of monks.
Before we walked to the shore, we heard the stories about wise ministers and
the king building the biggest pagoda. The giant unfinished pagoda of Mingun in
the haze looks huge.
Mingun
itself is just a minimal farming village with the cracked huge rock/unfinished pagoda.
The Mingun bell and the paya are all along the river bank.
First stop
the pagoda by the river front. But before that I saw an old man in a ox cart
with a taxi sign :D. We both laughed and since we had the guide with us we just
avoided that means of transport. The villge is way to to hire an ox cart. You
walk through it in 15 minutes. We walked to the cracked pagoda and up the stairs.
GODDAMNIT it was HOT! I was sweating my ass off! 43C in the shade is not ideal
climbing weather with heavy photo equipment bag. A horde of kids waited for us
on the top, showing us where to go and where to take the best photo for a small
reward. Nothing for free of course. The wiev from the top is quite amazing with
the distant hills on the horizon, the village below and the palm trees across
the fields looked very nice. The Irrawady river is really one big river. Mandatory
beer stop after the climb. Exponsive beer! 4000 for 1 beer and 1 coke! There was a nice cool breeze
on the ground but pure hell on top. Strange really. It should have been windy
at the top. We went to the Myanmar "Taj Mahal" pagoda built by a king
for a loving wife that died prematurely. That was actually nicer then the
cracked one. After that we went to see the bell. That was the one huge bell! Impressive!
Myanmar local people sure know how to cast bronze bells! We walked on the streets
lined by aggressive salesmen. We would actually thinking of buying something
but if they just left us alone so we could look at their wares in peace. No
such chance so we were just annoyed and walked away. The walk to the ferry via
a retirement home for elderly people was interesting. Since there is no tax in
Myanmar many rich donate the cash for building homes for elders.
Back on
boat for a pleasant 2h cruise to Sagaing, the modern capital of Buddism in
Myanmar. A current Bagan. The whole area is littered with pagodas and more
pagodas and monasteries and nunneries. We visited the “cave Buddha”, burnt our
feet on the hot marble tiles. The area is so huge that it´s almost impossible
to cover it all in one day without a guide or a transports of some sort. We
spent several hours with a car driving us to the most important locations and
it was still a rush! The views from the hills over the river and the bridges are
amazing.
We ate
something at a Chinese/Myanmar food joint – Saging Hill restaurant. 13500 Chats
for food and drinks. Not tasty, not expensive and not worth visiting unless you
need to but very clean. Good toilet!
We drove
off in a car to U Bein bridge, or Aramapura. To road over the new bridge was
fast and smooth. Visited a silk factory while we waited for the sun to set in
Aramapura. Yet another silk factory, I know.......but the designs were
different here in Myanmar! U Bein bridge – here we come! Walked the bridge 1.5km to other side. Crowded
with tourists, some in more hurry then others, some sitting down, some running
to catch that Kodak moment with monks on the bridge. Many local people
tourists. A rowing boat was waiting for us on the other side, nr27! We saw that
on the straw helmet of the rowing gay! We hurried up on the bridge so that we
could avoid the 2 busses of Italians but it soon showed that they only had 15
minutes on the site :D so we were quickly eft alone with the locals and Myanmar
tourists. Many kids and tourist had vacation because of the water festival/hot
season. Since most of the sites are both famous and religious they also take to
opportunity to visit the sites. The boat was 4000 Chat and that was actually
NOTHING since a taxi i Mandalay costs at least 4000! More than twice the ride
cost in Yangon and you get the shitty blue Mazda pick up and not a real car
like in Yangon. Saw some guys trying to photograph the bridge from the land and
I bet you 1000 bucks you get a better pics from the boat at sunrise where you
can position yourself where you want. If you spend so much cash an effort of
coming to U Bain, fakk, pay the 4000 and make it worth the effort!
From Aramapura
we drove back to the hotel and went for a swim in the pool and then the Golden
duck chinese restaurant along the east side of the palace. Ate a steady meal
with fish and duck. GREAT PLACE! Could not make any pics since the battery died
on me!!!!! GRRRRR! I warmed the battery in my armpit for a while and managed to
squeze 2 photos out of it before it died. A meal half a duck cost around 10 000
but a normal dish is around 4000. The
place is great and you get a nice view over the moat and the palace wall.
