Asian backpacker

Next up on the popular Myanmar backpackers travelers route is Mandalay. The city itself has a handful things to see, such as Mandalay hill, the new palace and Mahamuni Paya. There’s also the teak monastary but I didn’t visit that one. I only spent 2 days in Mandalay, in and around Mandalay actually.

First day I rented a bike and went around Mandalay hill and Mahamuni Paya. At the end of the day when I tried visiting the teak monastary it was closed already. I heard Tosh and Emily went there though and they said it was amazing. It was nice simple walk up to Mandalay Hill and visit (of course) a temple there at the very top. It did offer a great view of Mandalay and the new palace.

The second day me and another traveler hired a tuk-tuk driver to visit the outer laying villages which are the true gems of the area. Most of the drivers around the city will offer you the same 3 village package so it’s just a matter of bargaining. At first I had planned to rent a motorcycle to go around at my own pace. But this woman/girl at my hostel talked to me at breakfast and asked if I wanted to join her. Since the prices for both were about the same and she asked kind of desperately, I figured I’d join her.

First we went to city of Sagain, famous for its stupa-studded hilltops that loom over the Ayeyarwady. With 500 stupas and monasteries galore, Sagain is where Burmeese Buddhists come to relax and meditate. The main attraction however was Sagaing Hill, which offers you a great view of some of the stupas spread over the hill.

Afterwards we went to Inwa to check out the Bagaya Kyaung, a teak monastery supported by 267 posts. You’ll need to get the $10 USD Mandalay tourist ticket if you want to visit this place. We being cheap, didn’t pay this, thus we didn’t get to see the inside. Cheap was part of the reason, but mainly, we were only planning to go sightseeing 1 day only and the ticket lasts for a week and for other touristic place. The only place we were going to need the ticket was this place, so we thought 10USD was kinda steep to visit 1 place. Anyway, we bumped into some people at the entrance and said it was quite beautiful inside and they had younger monk students praying and chanting in there. Plus, the ride over there was quite scenic too through the rice fields.

Finally we went to Amarapura to visit U Bein’s Bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world at 1,2km. The bridge itself was not exactly a great example of engineering but the walk itself was rather interesting. The bridge stretches over a huge lake and possible some flooded areas since we could see some trees and huts which were obviously submersed. There were plenty of people fishing and vendors selling the usual souvenirs and t-shirts and also the occassional monks with iPads…