The ride from Inle Lake to Mandalay threatened to be upended as soon as we boarded the bus. The bus attendant looked at us and immediately said something to the effect of us needing to get off the bus. Confused, we tried to inquire. She said someone inside the bus station would explain. She then walked away and obviously unsettled, we decided we would do the opposite and just stay in our ticketed, assigned seats. Another woman got on and told us we had been given the wrong tickets from our hotel and that we didn't actually have seats on the bus. For the next 30 minutes, a complete lack of understanding and (gentle) arguing ensued, until our hotel manager called us to explain that we were assigned unavailable seats, and we had to move to two different ones. Not caring about this detail at all, we moved and were on our way, but it was obvious that what had actually happened was that the bus had been overbooked, as determined by a local gentleman who volunteered to sit on a stool at the front of the bus to free up a seat. We quietly raged for a bit about the unnecessary stress of the ordeal, and then lulled ourselves to calm through podcasts and music for the 7.5 (but scheduled as 10 hour!) journey.

Our guidebook is really into outlining "colonial walks" in Myanmar and we are really into following them. So our first day in Mandalay was spent following a leisurely 3.5 km route along the waterfront of the Ayerwaddy River, over a teak bridge, past a colourful Chinese temple and through some atmospheric old monasteries. Later in the evening we ventured on foot up Mandalay Hill for some views of the city, and spent most of the time at the top talking with monks and local students who wanted to practice their English. They were so keen to fine-tune their questions that we actually had a difficult time extracting ourselves from the interactions to actually tour the site at the top, so we're not too sure about everything that is up there! Our other primary Mandalay activity was a visit to the Mandalay Marionettes Theatre to watch some Burmese stories acted out through puppetry, which was very impressive. Every once in awhile the curtain was lifted so you could see the performers and their intricate hand movements manipulating the puppets! It was thoroughly enjoyable, but we felt badly for the theatre group as there were only 4 people in the audience, and we were half of them. Keep going, local arts, we support you!

As we were getting pretty mentally tired of planning daily routes and activities, we hired a tuk tuk for one day to take us to the main sites just outside of the city of Mandalay, in Mingun, Sagaing, and Amarapura. Mingun is interestingly known for its unfinished stupa which is now classified as the biggest pile of bricks in the world (and has some eerie giant cracks from former earthquakes), the largest unfinished haunches of a guardian lion chinthe, and an enormous bell that you can duck under while someone bangs it from the outside. It was an incredibly long day and we had the kindest, most patient tuk tuk driver who really wanted to provide his services to us for the rest of our stay. There has been a sense travelling in Myanmar that people have been pleading for our business more so than some other countries we have been to in southeast Asia. We have often felt guilty for not buying things that we do not want or need. Of course just being in the country and supporting the local transportation and food businesses is helpful, but it never feels like enough. Many times, particularly in Bagan, people talked about how difficult life is during the off-season. In Inle Lake, you could tell how much potential income was not being earned by looking at all the huge, completely empty restaurants. We have loved our stay in Myanmar, have been completely captivated by our experiences, and will absolutely be encouraging other people to visit this country to support the local people, keeping in mind the amazing warmth and hospitality shown to us throughout the country.