After a lovely few days in Bangkok bagging some bargains and seeing a few sites we made our may to Mandalay in Myanmar. We arrived at the airport at lunch time and took the free Air Asia shuttle bus into town.

We arrived at our hotel which was basic but clean (expensive compared to the value we had got in other Asian countries) and had lunch on the top floor. After lunch we took a taxi around the huge Palace walls in the centre of the city. They measure 3km on each side and are surrounded by a huge moat of water.

We were dropped off near two temples with many small buildings contained within the outer walls. Each small building housed the page of a religious book on a huge stone. If the book was put together it would be the biggest, by size, book in the world. It was an amazing site to see all these building in orderly rows around the central pagoda. Next we walked bare footed to the top of the tallest hill in Mandalay where you can see the sunset from multiple pagodas. It was a lovely evening and the view was spectacular. Our feet were a little sore on the way down as we are not used to walking in bare feet!

In the evening we decided to eat at a very busy restaurant on a street corner. It was called Beer House and I was one of two women amongst many Burmese men all drinking beer and eating local food. The beer and the food were good but we were slightly put off by the bugs falling off the ceiling into our food so we didn't return the next evening. Two main courses, two plates of rice and three beers cost $10 so it was a cheap eat!

On Saturday we hired a taxi driver to take us around the small towns just outside Mandalay for the day. In the morning we saw men hammering gold into wafer thin (edible) pieces which they would then sell to Budhists to take to a pagoda where there is a huge 9 tonne golden Buddha. Here men can stick the gold pieces onto the Buddha and over the years the Buddha has increased in size by 6inches, all made up of gold leaf. It is a spectacular site and we saw before and after pictures of the Buddha which highlighted its growth.

Next we saw two pagodas and then a school for Buddhist male and female children. The children were lovely and not shy at all. They all wanted high fives or would shout 'hello' and wave. They all had shaved heads (even the girls) and wore different colour Buddhist robes. We spoke to the kindergarten teacher who taught to kids under a large tree in the playground.

We also stopped at a weaving workshop where there were women and men hand weaving material for skirts and dresses. They were using wooden machines and the whole process looked very technical. I bought a beautiful blue handwoven Myanmar skirt to wear to temples and around town. It seems women do not show their legs and shoulders in public here. Some wear beautiful tailored skirts and tops and they look very elegant.

We had lunch at a local restaurant and then took a boat across to an island where there are many ancient temples dating back over hundreds of years. It was wonderful to see the crumbling architecture and the local people were so friendly and would all smile and say hello. It was a hot afternoon but we walked a few kilometres around the island.

Our last stop was a ...km long, creaking, teak bridge. Apparently it is used by locals as a pedestrian commuter bridge to reach the other side of the lake. There are no fences to stop you falling off the side and apparently in dry season the bridge appears very high in contrast to the low water level. Here we watched sunset while many Burmese and Asian tourists walked past us staring and giggling.

People seem to be very interested in us here even though there are quite a few tourists. A group of girls also wanted to take my photo which never happens when I am with Esben the white Viking!

In the evening we had Thai food as there really weren't many options near the hotel. We had an early night as the next day we were meeting with Lærke and Emil at 6am for the start of our voyage to Bagan.

We are on the boat now and I will blog again soon.

Alice
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