Mandalay to Nyuanyshwe
12 October, Yadanarbon Hotel, Mandalay
We had planned a fairly adventurous trip for today, catching a local pick-up/taxi then a ferry to Inwa (Ava) to visit some ruined temples by horse cart. When we pulled back the curtains this morning, that plan quickly unravelled. The street below was knee-deep in muddy water and the rain was pelting down. None of this deterred the locals though. The street turns into a mini-market in the morning, with small vegetable stalls and a couple of fish and chicken sellers. The chicken lady was happily hacking into chicken carcasses with the water lapping just below her table. Bikes and cars sent wakes rolling within inches of the stock laid out for sale. Given the obvious lack of concern we figured that this was a fairly regular event in the monsoon season. The breakfast room on the top floor of the hotel was awash when we went up, but breakfast was served as normal.
The ride in the back of the pick-up was suddenly an extremely unattractive proposition. We had been approached by a taxi driver in the street yesterday afternoon so we found him or, more correctly, he found us and we arranged to hire his taxi for the day for $40 US. As it turned out we made the right call. Many roads around town were flooded and the intermittent rain would have drenched us on the back of the truck.
So we played tourist for the day, being driven from site to site in air-conditioned luxury. Even more to the point, we would never have been able to travel around the temples that dotted Sagaing Hill on foot as we had thought we would. We did get our dose of adventure, catching the ferry across to Ava and taking a two hour, bone-jarring ride in a horse cart through the quagmires that pass for roads on the island. Prices seem to be rising fairly quickly in Myanmar. Blogs that we read prior to this trip quoted 500 Kyats return for the ferry and 4000 Kyats for the horse cart. Today the ferry was 1400 Kyats and the cart, 10000 Kyats. (1400 Kyats equals US$1)
As we were only going to be in Mandalay for one day, we decided not to buy the multiple entry pass that covers the temples and other attractions in the district. Consequently, we weren’t able to go into some of the temples on Ava, not a great loss as we have seen more than our share of Buddhist Temples. We finished the day with a walk on U-Bein Bridge in Amarapura. This is obviously the cool thing to do for the younger set, as the bridge was crowded with hand-holding teens and 20-somethings. U-bein is the world’s longest teak footbridge, curving 1300 yards across a shallow lake. There are no railings and we wonder how many people fall or and nudged off the bridge in the high season.
Much of the area we travelled through today was dominated by Buddhist temples and monasteries. Buddhism is at the core of the culture of Myanmar, as it is in many other South-East Asian nations, so it is difficult to maintain respect for those cultures if you don’t respect their core tenets. However, we do wonder, respectfully, just how much of a drain the support of the millions of Buddhist monks and their monasteries, places on these developing nations. From what we have observed, over many years travelling in these countries, the life of a Buddhist monk is no picnic. Their monasteries are extremely basic at their best and downright squalid at their worst, so we definitely mean no disrespect to those who adopt the monastic life. However, whole villages, cities and towns have to support and maintain the monks and their extensive sites. Many of these communities struggle to support themselves, yet they willingly give daily to feed, clothe and accommodate the monks. Perhaps we are touching on one of the key differences between our cultures. They willingly give, while we expect to be given.
13 October, Wonderful Guesthouse, Thazi, Myanmar
Some respite from the rain today with clear, non-polluted blue skies for most of the day. The downside of the sunshine was, of course, the humidity, which had us doing the Asian shuffle as we plotted our way through the mud, puddles and traffic to fill-in the day, before we headed to the station to catch our 3pm train to Thazi.
By the time we arrived at the station it was steaming, but at least the rain had held off. The station was packed with many hundreds of interesting characters - soldiers heading off somewhere, families loaded up with what might well have been their worldly goods, young girls selling boxed snacks and scores of people just hanging around, charging their smart phones or sleeping in the shade of the station awnings. We had seats in an “Upper Class” carriage, which was comfortable enough for the journey, but, until the train got moving it was a hot box!
Thazi was a lot more hectic than we had imagined. Hundreds piled off the train and, since we were the only non-locals, we immediately drew the attention of the horse cart drivers. We gladly paid the 2000 kyats for the 5 minute ride to our guesthouse, rather than attempting to navigate the slushy streets. The same driver will pick us up at 6:00 am tomorrow to catch the train to Shwenyaung.
We had been a bit concerned about the Wonderful Guesthouse, as it was one of only two places to stay in what looked on the map to be a tiny rural village. As it turned out, it is a great little place, run by an extremely friendly and helpful family. Our room is small, but comfortable with air-conditioning and a clean bathroom with great hot water.
14 October, Royal Nyaung Shwe Hotel, Nuangshwe, Myanmar
Our “carriage” awaited us for an early start to catch the 7:00 am train to Shwenyuang this morning - the same driver and tired old pony that had brought us into town last night. The station platform was even more hectic than it was yesterday. We probably could have coped ourselves, but the son of the guesthouse owner was right behind us, ducking into the ticket office and organising our tickets. We were also provided with a breakfast box that was enough for our lunch as well. Great service.
Again, we had taken the “upper class” carriage and, though the standard was not as good as the mainline train we took yesterday, it was comfortable, if not terribly clean. We sat with an interesting German ex-pat and his daughter who is part-Burmese. He runs a travel company in Yangon that specialises in community- based home stay and trekking. His daughter was 18 but looked about 15. Her local language skills added to our enjoyment, as she was able to translate the comments of the locals that we normally simply smile and nod at.
Thazi to Shwenyuang is a good 10 hours, on the aptly named “slow train”, but it passed quickly with truly spectacular scenery mixed with some long and rambling conversations with fellow travellers. Early on we crawled through some fairly densely-populated, swampy, lowlands with rice fields, bananas and cattle standing up to their knees in water. As we climbed into the mountains, the jungle closed in to the extent that it became dangerous to sit too close to the open window as the branches whipped the sides of the carriage. We had been adopted by a little girl of about 4 or 5 who, to our horror, insisted on hanging out of the window with branches thrashing past her face. The train made many stops at villages where the locals thronged to the platform selling all sorts of food, drinks and snacks. Stations we stopped at around lunchtime had full instant kitchens set up on the platform to dispense hot food.
Past the 4000 foot mark, the jungle opened up to spectacular highland plains, with high mountains in the background. The little villages disappeared and large open fields of corn, vegetables, rice and even grapes took over. The area reminded us of the Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland. And best of all, the temperature dropped to the mid 20C mark. The fare for this fantastic day was 3000 Kyats, AUD$3 each. Interestingly, the 10km trip in a shared pick-up with three other travellers, from the station to our hotel, was 2000 Kyats, which gives some indication of the difference between tourist prices and what the locals pay.
15 October, Royal Nyuang Shwe Hotel, Nyuangshwe, Myanmar
What a difference a bit of altitude makes. Nyuangshwe is the stepping off point for Inle Lake, one of the big four of Myanmar tourism, the others being Yangon, Bagan and Mandalay. There isn’t a lot to see in the town itself, so we spent most of the day exploring the fairly basic Cultural Museum and yet another “unique” Buddhist Temple, this one having the only stepped stupa in Myanmar. We also managed to sort out our boat trip on the lake and our return to Mandalay. We don’t often use Travel Agents but, following a Lonely Planet tip, we sought out Thu Thu Travel in the main street. Having scoped out prices for both the boat and the return to Mandalay, we were happy with the agent’s prices and sorted it all out on the spot - AUD$24 for a whole day boat ride and AUD$26 for the 7 hour minibus ride to Mandalay for two.
The town is fairly laid back at the moment as it awaits the boom that follows the end of the wet season. Touts still hit on the few tourists wandering the streets, but we quickly learned that we are not as interesting a target when they discovered that we had a boat sorted already.
We had planned a fairly adventurous trip for today, catching a local pick-up/taxi then a ferry to Inwa (Ava) to visit some ruined temples by horse cart. When we pulled back the curtains this morning, that plan quickly unravelled. The street below was knee-deep in muddy water and the rain was pelting down. None of this deterred the locals though. The street turns into a mini-market in the morning, with small vegetable stalls and a couple of fish and chicken sellers. The chicken lady was happily hacking into chicken carcasses with the water lapping just below her table. Bikes and cars sent wakes rolling within inches of the stock laid out for sale. Given the obvious lack of concern we figured that this was a fairly regular event in the monsoon season. The breakfast room on the top floor of the hotel was awash when we went up, but breakfast was served as normal.
The ride in the back of the pick-up was suddenly an extremely unattractive proposition. We had been approached by a taxi driver in the street yesterday afternoon so we found him or, more correctly, he found us and we arranged to hire his taxi for the day for $40 US. As it turned out we made the right call. Many roads around town were flooded and the intermittent rain would have drenched us on the back of the truck.
So we played tourist for the day, being driven from site to site in air-conditioned luxury. Even more to the point, we would never have been able to travel around the temples that dotted Sagaing Hill on foot as we had thought we would. We did get our dose of adventure, catching the ferry across to Ava and taking a two hour, bone-jarring ride in a horse cart through the quagmires that pass for roads on the island. Prices seem to be rising fairly quickly in Myanmar. Blogs that we read prior to this trip quoted 500 Kyats return for the ferry and 4000 Kyats for the horse cart. Today the ferry was 1400 Kyats and the cart, 10000 Kyats. (1400 Kyats equals US$1)
As we were only going to be in Mandalay for one day, we decided not to buy the multiple entry pass that covers the temples and other attractions in the district. Consequently, we weren’t able to go into some of the temples on Ava, not a great loss as we have seen more than our share of Buddhist Temples. We finished the day with a walk on U-Bein Bridge in Amarapura. This is obviously the cool thing to do for the younger set, as the bridge was crowded with hand-holding teens and 20-somethings. U-bein is the world’s longest teak footbridge, curving 1300 yards across a shallow lake. There are no railings and we wonder how many people fall or and nudged off the bridge in the high season.
Much of the area we travelled through today was dominated by Buddhist temples and monasteries. Buddhism is at the core of the culture of Myanmar, as it is in many other South-East Asian nations, so it is difficult to maintain respect for those cultures if you don’t respect their core tenets. However, we do wonder, respectfully, just how much of a drain the support of the millions of Buddhist monks and their monasteries, places on these developing nations. From what we have observed, over many years travelling in these countries, the life of a Buddhist monk is no picnic. Their monasteries are extremely basic at their best and downright squalid at their worst, so we definitely mean no disrespect to those who adopt the monastic life. However, whole villages, cities and towns have to support and maintain the monks and their extensive sites. Many of these communities struggle to support themselves, yet they willingly give daily to feed, clothe and accommodate the monks. Perhaps we are touching on one of the key differences between our cultures. They willingly give, while we expect to be given.
13 October, Wonderful Guesthouse, Thazi, Myanmar
Some respite from the rain today with clear, non-polluted blue skies for most of the day. The downside of the sunshine was, of course, the humidity, which had us doing the Asian shuffle as we plotted our way through the mud, puddles and traffic to fill-in the day, before we headed to the station to catch our 3pm train to Thazi.
By the time we arrived at the station it was steaming, but at least the rain had held off. The station was packed with many hundreds of interesting characters - soldiers heading off somewhere, families loaded up with what might well have been their worldly goods, young girls selling boxed snacks and scores of people just hanging around, charging their smart phones or sleeping in the shade of the station awnings. We had seats in an “Upper Class” carriage, which was comfortable enough for the journey, but, until the train got moving it was a hot box!
Thazi was a lot more hectic than we had imagined. Hundreds piled off the train and, since we were the only non-locals, we immediately drew the attention of the horse cart drivers. We gladly paid the 2000 kyats for the 5 minute ride to our guesthouse, rather than attempting to navigate the slushy streets. The same driver will pick us up at 6:00 am tomorrow to catch the train to Shwenyaung.
We had been a bit concerned about the Wonderful Guesthouse, as it was one of only two places to stay in what looked on the map to be a tiny rural village. As it turned out, it is a great little place, run by an extremely friendly and helpful family. Our room is small, but comfortable with air-conditioning and a clean bathroom with great hot water.
14 October, Royal Nyaung Shwe Hotel, Nuangshwe, Myanmar
Our “carriage” awaited us for an early start to catch the 7:00 am train to Shwenyuang this morning - the same driver and tired old pony that had brought us into town last night. The station platform was even more hectic than it was yesterday. We probably could have coped ourselves, but the son of the guesthouse owner was right behind us, ducking into the ticket office and organising our tickets. We were also provided with a breakfast box that was enough for our lunch as well. Great service.
Again, we had taken the “upper class” carriage and, though the standard was not as good as the mainline train we took yesterday, it was comfortable, if not terribly clean. We sat with an interesting German ex-pat and his daughter who is part-Burmese. He runs a travel company in Yangon that specialises in community- based home stay and trekking. His daughter was 18 but looked about 15. Her local language skills added to our enjoyment, as she was able to translate the comments of the locals that we normally simply smile and nod at.
Thazi to Shwenyuang is a good 10 hours, on the aptly named “slow train”, but it passed quickly with truly spectacular scenery mixed with some long and rambling conversations with fellow travellers. Early on we crawled through some fairly densely-populated, swampy, lowlands with rice fields, bananas and cattle standing up to their knees in water. As we climbed into the mountains, the jungle closed in to the extent that it became dangerous to sit too close to the open window as the branches whipped the sides of the carriage. We had been adopted by a little girl of about 4 or 5 who, to our horror, insisted on hanging out of the window with branches thrashing past her face. The train made many stops at villages where the locals thronged to the platform selling all sorts of food, drinks and snacks. Stations we stopped at around lunchtime had full instant kitchens set up on the platform to dispense hot food.
Past the 4000 foot mark, the jungle opened up to spectacular highland plains, with high mountains in the background. The little villages disappeared and large open fields of corn, vegetables, rice and even grapes took over. The area reminded us of the Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland. And best of all, the temperature dropped to the mid 20C mark. The fare for this fantastic day was 3000 Kyats, AUD$3 each. Interestingly, the 10km trip in a shared pick-up with three other travellers, from the station to our hotel, was 2000 Kyats, which gives some indication of the difference between tourist prices and what the locals pay.
15 October, Royal Nyuang Shwe Hotel, Nyuangshwe, Myanmar
What a difference a bit of altitude makes. Nyuangshwe is the stepping off point for Inle Lake, one of the big four of Myanmar tourism, the others being Yangon, Bagan and Mandalay. There isn’t a lot to see in the town itself, so we spent most of the day exploring the fairly basic Cultural Museum and yet another “unique” Buddhist Temple, this one having the only stepped stupa in Myanmar. We also managed to sort out our boat trip on the lake and our return to Mandalay. We don’t often use Travel Agents but, following a Lonely Planet tip, we sought out Thu Thu Travel in the main street. Having scoped out prices for both the boat and the return to Mandalay, we were happy with the agent’s prices and sorted it all out on the spot - AUD$24 for a whole day boat ride and AUD$26 for the 7 hour minibus ride to Mandalay for two.
The town is fairly laid back at the moment as it awaits the boom that follows the end of the wet season. Touts still hit on the few tourists wandering the streets, but we quickly learned that we are not as interesting a target when they discovered that we had a boat sorted already.
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