Our last
day in Mandalay. We packed our stuff and didn´t even had the energy to swim in
the pool. We were supposed to be picked up at 11:00 by our driver so we
finished the stash of beers and sat on the sofas and watched the Mandalay hill.
Thanking Gos we didn´t had to walk all the way up the hill again. We waved goodbye
to our guide/blue Mazda driver and off we went to Mandalay international
airport. Crazy traffic and crazy driving but we made in 1h, door to door. I got
tonns of laughs at the airport because of my t-shirt. I bought a t-shirt at the
Monsoon restaurant shop in yangon saying: Shin Lu Soe Gyi, Big Bad Man, but
since a girl says that (hence the shin) it menas NAUGHTY BOY J. We waited for the chaotic check in
where everybody seemd to be dragging our bags to different counters. It seems
like they didn´t believe we can hand over the ticket and pull our bags
ourselves. Since nothing in this world is free, the crew wanted a small
donation for dragging the bags back and fourth...so we gave them some money for
their HELP.
A short
flight. 25 min later we landed in Bagan! 10 USD entry fee and off we went to
our hotel. Red/white painted curbs and clean roads maintained for the visit of
No1 looked a bit out of place but what impressed me most was the sheer amount
of temples along the road to our hotel in Old Bagan. I mean...GODDAMIT! THOUSANDS of temples from
the size of a tall human to massive huge ones easily compared to the ones
around Angor Wat . Massive! I LOVED IT!!!
The drive to the Thiripyitsaya Sakura Hotel was quick.
The guide that picked us up with the car was a happy young man so we had tons
of laughs on Number 1´s cost J. Political leaders, always an easy target. We booked book
the guide for the next day to look at the temples and went for a swim at the
hotel pool. Nice river view, tranquil place with distant hills and pagodas on the
horizon. Than a horde of some bloody kids came running shouting in Dutch and
ruined the fun. So we deserted the pool and rented bicycles and went for a
short trip around Old Bagan. A short bike ride took us past some amazing
temples, a huge very closed archeological museum that looked misplaced, a small
local village close to the old palace site where a water festiwal stage was
being built and ... we were out on the other side. We crossed the Tarabha gate.
I remembered the kind old English teacher and his love poem about the lover at
the gate...Aww :D. So bloody romantic :D. Ah, the first encounter with the
horse carts in Bagan! They looked nice. It later showed that sitting in a horse
cart that has one axel is not that nice after all.
It was getting dark soon so we grabbed a meal at the Sarababab..or
something, just outside the gate. The food was OK but nothing special. At least
it was local – we comforted ourselves. The crispy duck was way too salt and the
green chili fish was ... too watery. Did not eat there anymore.
While we sat there and ate I read the romantic
description of the old gate in the LP guide. That no one passes without
offering something to the Nats (old gods) first and that the gate is respected
by all. I watched motorbikes wizzed through it like they were chased by the
police, I saw bicycles ride by spitting the red betel nut saliva close to it,
the horse carts just passed it like nothing happened, the trucks, busses and
pick ups just speed right through it. I guess times change quickly.
I found a lackerware shop on the LP guide map in the
village behind the restaurant so we tried to find it. We were soon followed by
very kind young kids wanting to help us .. kind of...or it showed....they
wanted to help us to buy their paintings. They were no so aggressive and we
weren´t interested in paintings so they got a nice bike ride and an English lesson
instead. We never found the lackerware shop in the end so we rode to the pagoda
on the river bank, the Bu pagoda, to look at the sunset. Bought beer and headed
back to the hotel. An empty pool to wash off the dust was exactly what we needed.
