7/19 Mandalay

7/19/2013: My original plan had been to spend the day visiting Pyin Oo Lwin, recommended by Toki the Bucknellian in Yangon. Pyin Oo Lwin is an hour or two outside of Mandalay and apparently is where the British higher-ups lived during the colonial period. He said it's very pretty, still has residual British features, and is much cooler. However, I had read that there was recently a motorcycle bomb in Pyin Oo Lwin, and the article mentioned that a handful of other undetonated bombs had been found around town in the past few weeks. That was more than enough reason to not make the trek, so I stayed in Mandalay.

I had heard some mixed things about Mandalay during previous travels. Some people said there wasn't much to do and that it was dirty, and others said they liked it enough but it wasn't anything special. I had been traveling for around three weeks at this point and was running out of steam. I was ready to head home to cooler weather, cleaner bathrooms, faster internet, and English-speakers. Instead of bucking up and doing one more big touristy day, I decided to just rent a bike and cruise around and see what sort of interesting things I could find.

The bike I rented was possibly heavier than the one in Bagan, but luckily the area was mostly flat. I headed west to the Irrawaddy River, and pedaled along it for a few miles. There was a lot of activity along the river - lots of people loading up rickety little boats in preparation for (I assume) getting across the river to their smaller villages. There were also people that appeared to be living in little floating covered docks, too small even to stand up straight inside. As I continued on, I passed lots of little shanty towns along both sides of the road, which was still paralleling the river. Everybody I passed smiled and waved and shouted "hello!" but it was probably one of the poorest areas I've seen.

my trusty bike

I eventually curved away from the river, and headed east along the north side of the city. I could see "Mandalay Hill" on the east side of town, so I headed towards it, thinking I might hike up it or take the cable car up. I approached from the wrong side and didn't manage to find the path up or the cable car, but I found a nice shady area to cool down. Eventually I moved on and got back into the city.

Mandalay is one of the biggest cities in Myanmar, but it isn't very big. There are a few tall buildings, but I wouldn't call them skyscrapers. The downtown streets are in grid-form, but there are very few traffic lights and very few stop signs - the standard approach is to slow down a little at intersections, and gun it if you get there first. Once one person goes, everyone else heading that direction goes, until that flow peters out and the cross-traffic gets its opening to become the dominant direction in the intersection. Unlike Yangon, there are tons of motorbikes, but since it is still a poorer country, there are also lots of bicycles and even the occasional horse cart.

Horse cart carrying people and hay

Produce for sale in Mandalay market

I grabbed lunch at another Chinese restaurant, which was very tasty, then tried to find the Mandalay brewery, hoping that they'd have a tasting room or tour or something. It turned out to just be a nondescript building surrounded by barbed wire fence, and it was clear that tasting rooms are a Western phenomenon. I decided to start my search for gifts for family and friends, so I hit a few markets without much luck before deciding it was time to return the heavy bike and proceed on motorbike taxi.

I had a guy drive me to the mall, which was an odd experience, but I was able to find some good gifts. He picked me up an hour later, and drove me back to the hostel, where I decided I should go see the famous "teak bridge" before the sun went down. We agreed on a price and he raced through the unregulated intersections and got me to the long 1.3ish km bridge made entirely of teak wood. There were lots of tourists walking along it, and I enjoyed a beer while I strolled along it and felt it wobble from all the tourists. One Myanmar girl was watching a snake down below in the water, but I couldn't see it after sitting with her for five minutes trying to spot it.

After getting back to the hostel, I went to an Indian street food spot that was also highly rated in Trip Advisor and enjoyed some tasty curry with roti.