Day 203 - We managed to squeeze in breakfast before our 8:30am bus. The bus was air conditioned and only took about 7 hours so not too bad. We were dropped off in Mandalay at a bus station quite far out of the town centre. We hadn't booked any accommodation and there was a man advertising 'Fortune hotel' so we went with him, there was also a girl called Holly who came with us to the hotel. The hotel wasn't bad so we checked in and chilled out, the same man then sat us down for 20mins to tell us about his tour service around Mandalay, he seemed lovely but he was quoting really high prices and we didn't really want a tour. We wanted to go to Mandalay hill for sunset so tried to ask about taxi's, the prices the hotel was giving us were so expensive so we decided to walk instead. The walk took a lot longer than we expected. The city was very much like Yangon but it had a massive fort and a moat surrounding it bang in the centre of town, and was a lot bigger than we thought it was going to be. We powered on and made it to the bottom of the hill although there was no sun to be seen due to the cloud coverage. At the bottom a young lad tried to offer to take us up on his motorbike but we wanted to walk. We started our assent up the hill which was all stairs. We had read the climb was grueling and long so expected the worst. At the top of each section of stairs was a mini temple or statue to pray at and there was stalls all the way up. We made it up in half the time we expected and it was nowhere near as long as we anticipated, only about half an hour although we did have to do the whole thing bare foot. At the top was a massive temple covered in gold, beautiful. There were quite a few tourists about with the same idea but we were all let down as the sun was a no show come sunset but we enjoyed the atmosphere anyway. We swanned back down and the young lad with the bike was waiting for us, we were shattered so decided to get on, he was lovely and talked the whole way to practice his English. He dropped us off at the night market and before he left he also tried to sell us a tour for the next day. We went in search of food and found a stall selling Myanmar food, we filled up before heading back to our hostel.
Day 204 - We woke up to another lovely breakfast and we arranged with Holly to share a taxi to U-bein bridge. The man who had taken her to the hill the night before was waiting outside, he offered to take us at a decent price but not the best. I asked what time we would get back and he said sunset. It was 10am and it was only an hour away, I was so confused. I explained that was far too late as we wanted to spend some time at the market, he told me not to worry and that he would take us, all included in the price. Baffled we just decided to go with him. We were then confused as to why he had a mini van and a driver. It was soon to unfold that this was a city tour, everyone is a tour guide here, we only wanted to go to the bridge! After a short drive we arrived at the bridge and the Monks were lining up. Here the novice (young) monks march every morning collecting food (this is called alms) and praying. It was great to see this traditional ceremony being held. Afterwards one of the older monks came over to talk to the three of us, he mainly wanted to talk about the football but he told us a lot about what was going on in the monastery and the life of a monk. We then walked across the teak U-Bein bridge which is the longest in the world and very beautiful, it took about 20mins and gave great views across the river. At the other side we gave in to a sugar cane juice. They are amazing! The device they use squeezes all of the juice out of a sugar cane and they serve it cold with ice - so refreshing. We walked back and our man was waiting for us, he showed us around the monastery, and taught us loads about Buddhism that we didn't know which was great. Back in the van he offered to take us to Sagaing Hill so we agreed. We were greeted yet again with a lot of stairs which we were not prepared for but we powered up anyway and the top gave beautiful views over the city and the temple- Soon U Ponya Shin Paya, at the top. He then wanted to take us to another tourist sight but we weren't bothered so we asked him to take us to the market so we could buy some tapestries. He explained the market didn't sell them which we found strange. He told us the best place to go were the workshops so he took us to Aung Nan and Soe Hoe shops. In Aung Nan we bought Lloyd's mam a tapestry and in Soe Hoe we were able to see people making the tapestries. The guide then took us to Zeigyo market anyway so we could have a look around, he showed us a few traditional medicine stalls and a stall selling souvenirs from a local headhunter tribe. He eventually took us to the bus ticket office to buy our tickets to Hsipaw the next day then back to the hotel. That evening we bought some fried Indian food and watched Sunderland lose 1-0 to Man U over a few beers in a beer bar.