Our journey to Mandalay from Bagan was long but pretty much uneventful. We had Anton in tow and had say goodbye to Pete our fluffy friend from New Zealand. The bus dropped us off mile outside of Mandalay which seems to be the normal thing in Burma purely so the bus companies don't have to pay the government fuel tax. We caught a local jeepney into Mandalay centre and quickly found the accommodation thanks to lonely planet. We opted for a triple room because it worked out cheaper than having 2 doubles. We went straight out to eat and found a noodle soup stand which was cheap and yummy. Mandalay seems a little grotty, no charm unlike Rangoon and very claustrophobic. We then wandered around for a bit before playing some cards and coming back out for some yummy extremely popular chapatis on the street with all the locals. Next day we had breakfast and Anton and I had our hair cuts which turned out really good for the price. We then wandered to the marketand Ellie had her hair cut again really cheap and done by mother and daughter. We then rented bikes and cycled to the longest bamboo bridge which was about 10km out of town. The ride was pretty scary as we literally flew through junctions narrowly missing cars but it was kinda fun. The bridge when we got to it was different to what I imagined and it had loads of monks crossing. There was a man with a performing monkey which was sad and cruel as he kept hitting it. We then cycled back waving at the locals who were too friendly for school. we decided to go back to the chapati place then found a bar to have a cheeky 31st birthday beer for Ellie however Ellie had a headache and we seemed ever so tired so we headed back and called it a night. Our farewells were said to Anton and we made the rather ridiculous 40km journey to Mandalay airport for our flight to Bangkok. The airport was dead and only seemed to open for certain flights like ours. So there we have it our Myanmar journey comes to an end - Myanmar was really amazing for the people, scenery, charm, fascination but we hated the whole government hold on the locals and tourists.