#because if that money went to railways and trains and proper equipment where would the military get money from 😍

[starstuc]

i still can’t comprehend that i can track anything that i order with accuracy, but a whole company AND the government does not have the right equipment to track two trains is making me lose my mind

[slamabama]

Myanmar Adventure: Day 10: Mandalay

Today we decided to go see the U Bein bridge, we saw that there was a railway station near there so thought we’d see if we could get the train, so we walked to the train station. On the way there we walked past the fortress which has a huge Moat all the way around it. We stopped for a while to play on the gym equipment that was alongside it!

When we reached the train tracks there were washing lines up and the tracks were all grassy... I guess they don’t do trains here then! So we got a taxi instead, we tried to haggle as they charged us a lot, but we couldn’t be bothered to, so we paid 4000 each (£2.24). It doesn’t sound much but it’s not that far and taxis elsewhere were a lot cheaper, it seems in Mandalay they have caught on to the tourist trap!

We drove passed some interesting sights, such as a fruit market & an area where they were mainly making white stone statues by chipping away at the rocks.

When we arrived we had to walk past a load of tourist market stalls. Teri bought a traditional paper parasol to walk over the bridge with.

We walked down to the lakeside to look at the colourful boats and then headed onto the bridge itself. The bridge is the longest wooden walk bridge in the world. It’s just like a really long pier with people selling things along the way in spaced out shaded areas.

This is the first place we have really encountered begging, even little children were coming up to ask for money. But not too much, not constantly like in India.

We went to the bridge around 11am, it’s supposed to be amazing really early in the morning when the monks make their way to the monastery and the light is better. But when we were there there weren’t many tourists, so it was quite calm and a nice leisurely walk. After half an hour Sarah & Teri headed back to the market and I went on to the other side. I had to cross a section where they were repairing the bridge and they had created a thin bridge of planks over the gap which bounced as you walked on it!

At the other side there was a blanket of water lilies and fishermen walking in between them search for fish as well as boats rowing past.

While we were there the lake was quite low so the bridge stood really high. There was quite a lot of the lake bed showing. In the rainy season the water gets quite near the top of the bridge.

At the other side there were some restaurants, market stalls & a temple. I didn’t stay long, I decided to walk much quicker back as I thought we were out of time as we wanted to get to Mandalay Hill. But when I got back it turned out we had got the time wrong and we had another couple of hours still! So we sat in a cafe & had a coconut to drink the milk from. It didn’t seem very hygienic there, it smelt of toilets too, so we didn’t stick around for long.

When we decided to leave we asked how much for the tuk-tuk and they wanted 15000, we said no! They went down to twelve eventually but we had spotted a proper taxi and asked him how much? He said 8000, so we got in... as we pulled away the tuk-tuk crew started shouting at the taxi driver and the driver stopped and gave them 1000 after a bit of a ruckus! Crazy people!

We chilled out back at the hotel for a bit before me & Sarah walked all the way to Mandalay Hill. It took over an hour and most of it was walking alongside the never ending fortress! It’s the exactly same view all the way along, so you don’t feel like you’re making any progress!

When we got to the bottom of the hill we started walking up the winding road and a young monk came and chatted to us. The monks love English people as they are all learning the language and want to learn from English people. Most of the tourists here are French, German or Chinese, so when we say we are from England they all want to talk to us!

This monk was called Ashin sasana and ‘his dog’ was called Lucky! Ha ha, I think he made that up on the spot! So the four of us walked up the hill, we even followed Lucky up a shortcut on a bend. Then we left the little fella when he went into the monks monastery. Ashin shouted, “stay here Lucky!” As we walked off 😆 (just a note about the dogs here, they do just decide to follow you and Own you, so you could get a new friend for the day!)

As we walked up the hill some more, a Myanmar man stopped Ashin and asked for a photo... we thought he wanted a photo with a monk... but no, he wanted one with me & Sarah!! 😂 this happens quite a lot here!

I’m so glad that we had our own little tour guide, he was really lovely and told us all about the place as we went. It wasn’t a difficult walk up the winding road to the bottom of the steps.

We followed him up to various viewpoints and through many different temple areas all decorated beautifully. Many with different coloured glass & mirrors. Sarah said she saw some men working on making the glass shapes too.

We met our monks’ freind who was studying English for a scholarship to study in England, so he was very happy to meet us, also his English was excellent.

One section of stairs were crazily steep, almost vertical!

Whenever we thought we were at the top level we kept finding more stairs! When we finally made it to the top we paid 1000 Kyat (56p) and wandered into the mirrored paradise... we then noticed that we were surrounded by tourists who had all gotten taxis up the hill & then the lift to the top!!

Anyway, we had made it before sunset which was great. Ashin asked if he could have a photo with us so we obliged, he was so sweet!

The top level is just beautiful, the mirror mosaics glisten in the sunlight and later in the colour of the sunset. It got crazy busy for the sunset with everyone standing at the railings looking over the view of Mandalay. But me and Sarah were busy taking photos of the sunset reflecting off the mirrored walls.

As soon as the sun had gone down the tourists left and it was much calmer. We sat down and watched as they turned on lights to illuminate the buildings. By this point we were shattered and Ashin said goodbye as he was so tired. We decided that we would get the escalators down to the carpark and try and get a taxi.

It seemed quite difficult to get a taxi as we think people had taken taxis up and asked them to wait for them to take them back down again. One guy wanted to charge us a ridiculous amount so we walked away... but then realised we were sitting ducks, we would either have to pay it or walk and our feet couldn’t handle it! Just as we contemplated our situation, two lads on motorbikes came over and Sarah suggested we go with them... now Sarah has never ridden on a bike before and had made it clear the whole holiday that she had no intention of ever doing so! So I was quite shocked that she suggested it! The lads said it would only cost 5000 (£2.80) for both of us, so we said yes!

I was laughing because of Sarah doing this, so I took her photo and as we rode along I took some videos too! The guys were really nice lads, the one who took Sarah seemed to know she was scared and was very careful with her.

I loved every moment! We drove passed some temples that were lit up like fairgrounds and back past the fortress to reach our hotel.

After a quick rest we took Teri to meet our street restaurant owner & to have some more wonderful Indian food! It was equally as amazing as before! The guy we asking how Teri was doing because we had told him yesterday that she had been ill. So nice!

Such a great day, but absolutely shattered!!!