12th 15th April Mandalay

Appologies for anyone looking into website. Myanmar is imposssible for internet cafe's�

Our first stop was a flight from�Chaing Mai In Thailand to Mandalay�easiest way to travel to Myanmar rather than over land.

We stay for 4 days in Mandalay first impression and one that stuck with us throughout is, " Its very similar to Cambodia..""

The streets are all unsurfaced�with massive holes you could loose a car in easily..

After escaping the water festival in Thailand little did we realise it happens all over Asia. As we step from the taxi.. A lovely young boy stands with his dad and a bucket of water yeah right!!! Whoosh he throws the water from the bucket and laughs and waves. Hey great way to be�made welcome... The people here are very friendly they are just happy to see foreigners which are only a few..

�Day 2 we are prepared, we hire a taxi for the day which takes us too all the local sites. Starting at UBEIN Bridge which is the longest teak bridge in Asia it totals 1.4km long and sits on over 500 stilts.. The lake is very shallow as we walk over the bridge we have loads of local kids trying to sell anything from necklaces to postcards.. returning via boat ride which gave us the wonderful opportunity to�see the bridge in its entirity splendid.. Our taxi man takes us for chineese lunch.. he drinks the local whiskey and water he is surprised we declined and we wern't the ones driving.. after he finished 1/2 a bottle we move onto Inwa Island another boat ride the boats are just like a scalloped tree trunk but its effective,, the island is�in the middle of the river and only accessible by boat.. here we take a horse and carriage to see the oldest wooden temple here in Mandaly.. BAGAYA KYUANG.. Very beautiful and cool from 40c sun!!! Shoes off our feet are burning on the�ground!!�

Day 3 Our same man takes us to Mandalay Hill which is full of Pogada's temples & best decorated budhas we've seen so far.. the most famous one stands 8mtrs high weighing in at 900tonnes. To reach this fellow we have to climb over 285 steps bear footed again.. loads of locals making this pilgrimage. (our taxi man waits for us on the roadside aanother opportunity to sleep for a while..) we decide we can not do anymore temples, pagodas here today the town is just heaving and traffic is very slow...

day 4 was just the best. We went off to enjoy the water festival in all its glory,, I have adorned my snorkel and mask which goes down a wow with the kids.. Gives them something to aim at.. we join a local family on their jeep we sit on the bonnet and wait our turn to get soaked.. The traffic moves along very slowly  everyone is singing dancing and throwing water.. not neccesarily clean water by now the kids are retrieving it from drains rivers any puddle possible, lots of drinking and many drunk people now its only 11:00am our driver gets so drunk he cannot drive anymore I jump in his seat and take over much to everyones amusement,, honking horns and throwing water its crazy!!! We approach the stage there is a live band playing and people with hose pipes spraying all the vehicles, and passengers,, I am struggling to describe the caios.. however it was great fun!!!!!!!