With Myanmar having only really opened up to tourists properly recently, this country had been on Chris' hit list for a while. Since VISAs have become easier to get and wider areas of the country have opened up, there have been more tourists flocking to see this 'new' and 'trendy' destination. So we were keen to find out what all the fuss was about.
To save a return trip to Yangon, we decided to fly straight from Bangkok to Mandalay. Border control into Myanmar was a breeze with our e-visa letter in hand ($50 online). First impressions were of a partly deserted, but modern, airport (we were the only plane there) but with capacity to increase flights dramatically.
We grabbed some cash from the ATM - a vast change from what we had been warned by blogs and our Lonely Planet from 2 years ago when no ATMs existed at all. Our Halifax card did not work (but has worked well since) but Metro Bank did. There were 3 ATMs at the airport giving out up to 300,000 kyat plus a 5,000 kyat fee (CB bank charges 6,500). There were also about 5 money changers with long queues - it seems a lot of people were still bringing in lots of dollars. We would recommend a mix of local currency from ATMs and some dollars.
We were able to pick up a sim card easily for only 11,500 Kyat - with 1.35gb of internet and 3,000 minutes.
Ready to go we jumped into shared taxi into town (about an hour away) for 4,000 kyat each.
Instantly we liked the place. The people are lovely and have such beautiful smiles which instantly warm you to it. Even the taxi driver made a diversion so we could pick up and pay for our balloon flights in Bagan without a moan. And this friendliness and kindness continued throughout our time in Mandalay and indeed Myanmar as a whole.
Another thing to have changed in Myanmar (Burma) is that it is now a democracy of sorts and the Junta are no longer in absolute power. However, it was clear who the people love. When we purchased our sim card we got chatting to the sales girls and showed them a £5 note with the Queen. They instantly said "wait a minute I show you our queen" and uploaded a picture of Aung San Suu Kyi on her phone. WOW - this woman has had such a big impact on this country! There are images of her (and her father) everywhere. We have been told since that they feel much more confident about their future and freedom of speech.
We arrived at our hotel mid afternoon. We stayed just south of the palace in Hotel A1 (£25/night). Most hotels have their name lit up at night, which helps with navigating back after dark! The room was large, clean and had a well appointed bathroom with lots of things in packets, including; razer, soap, sowing kit, shower cap, ear buds, some white powder stuff (no idea...) and tooth brushes... there wasn't any room left for our own stuff! Generally, hotels in Myanmar also provide breakfast, which includes toast, egg, coffee, tea and a range of local breakfast options. You may even get a pancake or pastry! This was to be one of three places we stayed as we were not sure on our plans and other places kept on increasing in price on Agoda or got booked up.. Other hotels we stayed at were Tiger one (£21/night) - small room, but again well appointed - and Hotel G - Seven (£16/night) - cheapest and the best value for money. We were impressed with all three hotels we stayed at and would have been happy to spend the whole time we had in Mandalay at any of them.
Our first afternoon was spent planning using the rather good wifi and a quick cycle around the local area (free from hotel). There was a lot to see so this time was well spent and got us tuned into Myanmar.
We had one full day in Mandalay, one in the surrounding area and one on a bit of a road trip to find the world's largest free standing Buddha.
Mandalay
We caught the 9am boat (5,000 kyat) on the huge Ayeyarwady River to Mingun. After a bit of a kerfuffle with the tickets - the boat we were booked onto was privately hired for the day so the boat captain told us to jump on his bike and we motored off to find another boat. The boast takes abut an hour or so and was a lovely journey up the river.
The main attraction in Mingun was the world's largest un-cracked bell (there is a larger but cracked one in Russia), the largest but never finished pagoda (which looks like the huge pile of bricks) and a rather beautiful pagoda. The entrance fee was 5,000 kyat pp, which we were unable to dodge.
The bell is huge. You can even go inside and listen to it as various people hit it from the outside.
The Mingun Paya, aka pile of bricks, is also huge (this is becoming a trend). We walked to the top for super views of the surrounding countryside and river. No shoes are allowed so it is a little painful walking up the rubble, but well worth it. I am sure it would have been spectacular if it was finished.
The Hsinbyume Paya was a lovely, whitewashed bright white Pagoda, with interesting terraces. It was where we wished Sarah, (Chris' sister) a happy birthday with the help of a passing monk.
In the afternoon, we wandered through the flower market (highly recommended) and jumped on a jeep bus to take us to the main market.
This was a really interesting insight into Burmese day to day lives. Everything was sold from small stalls on the road including; vegetables, fruit, chilies, dried fish, meat... you name it it was there.
Having figured out the jeeps, we jumped on another to head to Mahamuni Paya to see one of the most revered Buddha images in the area, if not the whole country. The ladies on the jeep bus said in very excited happy tones "you go to see big Buddha", so we knew it was going to be worth the effort.
This Buddha image been around for a reported (by locals) 2,000 years and over the time has accumulated over 7in of gold from worshipers adding gold leaf. There were some nice little shops nearby so we bought a wooden Buddha to add to Chris' collection and a 'jade' (aka glass) bracelet for Julia.
Time was running short so Julia negotiated a taxi to take us straight to Mandalay Hill for sunset. Taxis are fairly easy to get in the city, but are considerably more expensive than the jeeps - cheapest journey we got was 3,000 Kyat.
We wanted the 'real' Mandalay Hill experience, which involved walking up a lot (like 1000s) of steps. After about 40 minutes of constant stepping, passing various stalls, Monks, pagodas and a memorial to the Royal Berkshire Regiment who re-took the hill from the Japanese in WW2, we finally reached the top. There is a super view of the city and sunset. Officially there is a 1,000 Kyat fee to go right to the top, but we managed to sneak past.
We had missed a few 'top' pagodas, in our hurry to reach the top, so headed down to see if we could catch them in the fading light. The first one is made of 1000s of little stupa, each with a stone manuscript inside of Buddha's teachings. There is an even bigger version nearby. Both were still open and quite mystical in the dark. We tried to see a teak pagoda as well, but by this time it was very dark an it was closed.
That evening, we wanted to eat street food so found a small, but busy (good sign) restaurant and had noodles and (another well deserved) beer!
*Note* we didn't go to the Palace as it isn't really 'the' palace as it was destroyed in WW2. But we didn't mind as there were better things to see in and around the city and we didn't have to pay the $10 combo ticket fee to the government.
Around Mandalay - the three cities
We arranged for a car to pick us up at 5:30am (there are a lot of early starts in this country!) to take us on a tour of the three ancient cities - Amarapura, Sagaing and Inwa. First was a stop at U Bein Bridge for sunrise and beat the crowds (a good decision it proved).
U Bein Bridge is the world's largest teak bridge, connecting Amarapura across Taungthamen Lake and is still used by people today. We arrived in the dark, so with Chris having a quick nap in the car (he had little sleep the night before) Julia found the small contingent of photographers. Having woken Chris from his slumber, we found our place on the bank of the lake to get the 'picture postcard' shot.
As the sun rose, we saw the full extent of the bridge - it was huge. Spanning over an kilometer across water and islands, the bridge had a ramshackle look. There was added interest with fishermen in their boats on the lake and wading through the shallows with nets. It was a magical experience. We wondered across the bridge, stopping to chat to monks and locals on the way, taking loads of pictures.
After the bridge, we stopped at a few pagodas (they all molded into one by the end) and headed to Saigon hill - a hill with tens if not hundreds of golden pagodas. The top picks being Soon U Ponya Shin Paya (with beautiful views across the hills) and Umin Thounzeh with its distinctive colonnade of 45 Buddha images.
Our final stop was at Inwa, the ancient royal capital of Myanmar. We parked up and jumped on the little ferry (1,000 kyat pp) with views back down the river to the British designed road and rail bridge. There wasn't too much to see, but we went on a rather fun horse carriage ride (10,000 kyat per cart) for a couple of hours around the main sites.
First up was Bagaya Kyaung; a beautiful teak 1834 monastery, followed by a ruined pagoda Yedanasini Paya (and Buddha), city wall, Nanmyin tower (last remaining part of the palace) and the Maha Aungmye Bonzan monastery. Again we dodged the $10 fee where we could!
Back on the road we wanted to capture U Bein by sunset and it turns out that decision to get up for sunrise was worth it.. The place was heaving with coach loads of tourists, predominately Chinese!
The bridge was rammed full, the lake was packed with tourist boats and the photo point for 'the shot' of sunset was chocker. Even so, the bridge still looked beautiful against the setting sun. Julia had spoken to a monk at sunrise, who said he didn't like it any more during the day as it was too busy with tourists and he even fell from the bridge, leaving him in hospital for 2 months...
One day they will either shut the bridge to tourists, charge for its use or, and more likely, put guard rails up. Whatever happens, and something will, it will ruin the bridge. If you do go... definitely go for sunrise while you can!
Further away... much further away from Mandalay
We were a bit ambitious and some would say too ambitious but we wanted to see the large Buddhas of Monywa - the tallest in the world at 424ft (about 2.5 x the height of Nelson's column). It was a good 3 hour drive, so we headed off early... again. However, we also had the chance to see the Jade market, cloth/silk weaving and gold pounding (for gold leaf) all of which were really interesting.
On the way we stopped by Kaunghmudaw Paya which was quite a unique pagoda. It's shape is very distinctive. The story goes that the King couldn't make up his mind on how to shape the stupa. To help him make his mind up, his queen ripped open her blouse and pointing to her breast said "make it like this"! One breast (including nipple) shaped pagoda!
However, the best was kept until last. The standing Buddha is simply gigantic! It is also surrounded by fields of 1000s of seated Buddha images, the second largest reclining Buddha (312ft), a new lying Buddha (on its back) which was equally gigantic (10ft fingers!) and under construction another huge seated Buddha. If you like to see big Buddha images, this is the place to go.
In the large standing Buddha there are various rooms, dedicated to different countries with rather interesting paintings of devils/monsters killing humans... (no idea).
The drive home was, well rather a roller coaster. Even though they drive on the right, they have imported Japanese cars so the driver is also on the right... this means over taking (and they do a lot of it) is rather risky. Plus with dodgy roads, cars driving with no lights and no road markings it made for an interesting journey (somehow Julia fell asleep for most of it).
It was a long day, but well worth it. A car for the day cost around $50, which seemed okay, as most were quoting $77. It is possible to travel by public bus but it takes quite a lot of time and would involve organising another taxi to see the sights at the other end anyway! We were also not sure on times.
Monywa is also a logical stopping point between Mandalay and Bagan, so if unlike us you don't want to take the boat from Mandalay to Bagan, this could be a great place to break the journey.
There are so many things to see and do in and around Mandalay. We actually liked the city. it was like an Indian city, but not as busy, dirty or messy. If you don't like busy cities, Mandalay may not be for you, but give it a chance.
There are lots of other things to do nearby and if we had time we would have gone further north to trek in the mountains around Hsipaw and visit the gardens at Pyin U Lwin, but time is ticking and we had heard it wasn't the best time of year to go.
Next up... Bagan.
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| I am not carrying you across this whole bridge! |
We grabbed some cash from the ATM - a vast change from what we had been warned by blogs and our Lonely Planet from 2 years ago when no ATMs existed at all. Our Halifax card did not work (but has worked well since) but Metro Bank did. There were 3 ATMs at the airport giving out up to 300,000 kyat plus a 5,000 kyat fee (CB bank charges 6,500). There were also about 5 money changers with long queues - it seems a lot of people were still bringing in lots of dollars. We would recommend a mix of local currency from ATMs and some dollars.
We were able to pick up a sim card easily for only 11,500 Kyat - with 1.35gb of internet and 3,000 minutes.
Ready to go we jumped into shared taxi into town (about an hour away) for 4,000 kyat each.
Instantly we liked the place. The people are lovely and have such beautiful smiles which instantly warm you to it. Even the taxi driver made a diversion so we could pick up and pay for our balloon flights in Bagan without a moan. And this friendliness and kindness continued throughout our time in Mandalay and indeed Myanmar as a whole.
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| Happy people |
We arrived at our hotel mid afternoon. We stayed just south of the palace in Hotel A1 (£25/night). Most hotels have their name lit up at night, which helps with navigating back after dark! The room was large, clean and had a well appointed bathroom with lots of things in packets, including; razer, soap, sowing kit, shower cap, ear buds, some white powder stuff (no idea...) and tooth brushes... there wasn't any room left for our own stuff! Generally, hotels in Myanmar also provide breakfast, which includes toast, egg, coffee, tea and a range of local breakfast options. You may even get a pancake or pastry! This was to be one of three places we stayed as we were not sure on our plans and other places kept on increasing in price on Agoda or got booked up.. Other hotels we stayed at were Tiger one (£21/night) - small room, but again well appointed - and Hotel G - Seven (£16/night) - cheapest and the best value for money. We were impressed with all three hotels we stayed at and would have been happy to spend the whole time we had in Mandalay at any of them.
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| Local transport - easy, simple and cheap! |
We had one full day in Mandalay, one in the surrounding area and one on a bit of a road trip to find the world's largest free standing Buddha.
Mandalay
We caught the 9am boat (5,000 kyat) on the huge Ayeyarwady River to Mingun. After a bit of a kerfuffle with the tickets - the boat we were booked onto was privately hired for the day so the boat captain told us to jump on his bike and we motored off to find another boat. The boast takes abut an hour or so and was a lovely journey up the river.
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| Boat trip up to Mingun |
The bell is huge. You can even go inside and listen to it as various people hit it from the outside.
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| That is one big bell... the largest (complete) bell in the world |
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| If only they finished it - Mingun Paya |
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| Happy birthday Sarah! |
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| The flower market |
Having figured out the jeeps, we jumped on another to head to Mahamuni Paya to see one of the most revered Buddha images in the area, if not the whole country. The ladies on the jeep bus said in very excited happy tones "you go to see big Buddha", so we knew it was going to be worth the effort.
 |
| Who ruined the picture of the locals |
Time was running short so Julia negotiated a taxi to take us straight to Mandalay Hill for sunset. Taxis are fairly easy to get in the city, but are considerably more expensive than the jeeps - cheapest journey we got was 3,000 Kyat.
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| Only 500 steps to go |
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| Nice view from Mandalay Hill |
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| Spooky |
*Note* we didn't go to the Palace as it isn't really 'the' palace as it was destroyed in WW2. But we didn't mind as there were better things to see in and around the city and we didn't have to pay the $10 combo ticket fee to the government.
Around Mandalay - the three cities
We arranged for a car to pick us up at 5:30am (there are a lot of early starts in this country!) to take us on a tour of the three ancient cities - Amarapura, Sagaing and Inwa. First was a stop at U Bein Bridge for sunrise and beat the crowds (a good decision it proved).
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| U Bein bridge in the morning |
As the sun rose, we saw the full extent of the bridge - it was huge. Spanning over an kilometer across water and islands, the bridge had a ramshackle look. There was added interest with fishermen in their boats on the lake and wading through the shallows with nets. It was a magical experience. We wondered across the bridge, stopping to chat to monks and locals on the way, taking loads of pictures.
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| Rush hour |
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| 1 Buddha, 2 Buddha... lots of Buddha |
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| Did someone order an Uber? |
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| Nice teak monastery |
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| That bridge again |
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| ...and again (spot the monk!) |
Further away... much further away from Mandalay
We were a bit ambitious and some would say too ambitious but we wanted to see the large Buddhas of Monywa - the tallest in the world at 424ft (about 2.5 x the height of Nelson's column). It was a good 3 hour drive, so we headed off early... again. However, we also had the chance to see the Jade market, cloth/silk weaving and gold pounding (for gold leaf) all of which were really interesting.
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| Gold, Jade and Silk - just down the local market |
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| Is it a pagoda or a nipple... you decide! |
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| Okay that's not one but two big Buddhas |
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| Don't mess with Buddha or a big spiky roller will come after you! |
It was a long day, but well worth it. A car for the day cost around $50, which seemed okay, as most were quoting $77. It is possible to travel by public bus but it takes quite a lot of time and would involve organising another taxi to see the sights at the other end anyway! We were also not sure on times.
Monywa is also a logical stopping point between Mandalay and Bagan, so if unlike us you don't want to take the boat from Mandalay to Bagan, this could be a great place to break the journey.
There are so many things to see and do in and around Mandalay. We actually liked the city. it was like an Indian city, but not as busy, dirty or messy. If you don't like busy cities, Mandalay may not be for you, but give it a chance.
There are lots of other things to do nearby and if we had time we would have gone further north to trek in the mountains around Hsipaw and visit the gardens at Pyin U Lwin, but time is ticking and we had heard it wasn't the best time of year to go.
Next up... Bagan.
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