Myanmar – Mandalay and Farewell

Kipling’s poem – Mandalay – is one of the reasons I wanted to visit Myanmar in general and Mandalay in particular.

“On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin’-fishes play,
An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ‘crost the Bay!

Although Kipling never visited Mandalay those words are evocative of a simple, peaceful journey on the mighty Irawaddy from Rangoon to Mandalay.  I had hoped to catch a boat from Bagan to Mandalay and to read the poem out loud at sunset on the prow.  Sadly for my plan, the boats do not operate in the monsoon season so Bobbie and me hit the road.  It was an interesting journey.  In the South I had seen green paddy fields and now, as I travelled northwards, the fields were golden with long grass, it is time to harvest.  I saw rice being threshed and laid out in the sun to dry.  It’s also chili harvesting time.  I cycled past huge swaths of cloth covered in tens of thousands of  drying chilies, the fumes are quite intense, my eyes would water and I’d have the catch of chili in the back of my throat.

Mandalay was a surprise, I’d say that Mandalay is to Yangon the way Cape Town is to Johannesburg.  It is a laid back city that looks as if it was built in the ‘sixties and nothing has changed ever since.

There is plenty do see and do.  I decided to hire the services of a Scooter Taxi Driver to take me around and be my guide.  I was fortunate to meet Fatty (yes that’s his name) because we got along well and he is very knowledgeable and speaks English pretty well.   He tells me he has only 2 years of schooling and learned English on the job.  He is a kind, friendly man, passionate about his city and keen to show off all aspects.

One thing on my list for Mandalay was to see the world’s biggest book.

We visited many pagodas.  One was built entirely of Teak with huge tree trunks supporting the building.  It is dilapidated as not much maintenance has happened over the years but the teak is as strong as ever.

At this monastery I had a lovely experience.  I was stopped by a group of young students (about 12 of them) who wanted to practice their English.   They took turns asking me questions and responding to my answers.  They were so full of energy and fun and when I used some of the phrases in Burmese that I learned from Zaw Zaw in Bagan, they were delighted.

We stopped at a school in a small village.  The school was started 14 years ago by concerned locals as there was no accessible government school for the local children.  Back then it had 4 teachers and 31 children.  Today it has 75 teachers and 2481 children.  The children attend for free, the school survives on donations.  I was impressed.

We visited the King Galon Gold Leaf factory which was an eye-opener.  There is a huge demand for gold leaf in Myanmar as many of the temples, pagodas and Buddha statues are covered in gold leaf.  One would think that there is a mechanised process for making gold leaf but in Mandalay it is made in the traditional method – entirely manually.  start by making bamboo paper – that takes 3 years as the bamboo is first soaked in lime-juice for that period.  Then melt a little gold, pour a thin circle and when it’s hard, place it between 2 sheets of bamboo paper and beat it, manually, for 6 hours until it is fine enough to process further.  every single sheet of gold leaf is made in this way.  On busy days they have 6 beaters but that still means only 6 sheets of gold leaf per day.

Beating Gold Leaf

Making each leaf exactly the same size

Packing Gold Leaf

Placing Gold Leaf on a Buddha

We visited a temple where they were having a ceremony for donors to the temple.  As we happened to be there we were invited to join them all for lunch.  It was an excellent repast.  Delicious fish and pork with rice and veggies with mango for dessert

After 9 hours sightseeing we finally stopped at the U Bein bridge to watch the sunset.  This bridge is made of teak and spans 1.2 kms across the Irawaddy river

Oh, in case you think I’m ignoring the food aspect.  I went to a traditional Burmese restaurant and ordered the Burmese Curry.

The dishes are (in order clockwise)

Tamarind soup, sweet gourd, potatoes with tomato, bitter gourd, fried peanuts, beans, shrimp paste, green chili, mutton curry.  The centre bowl has lettuce, aubergine, okra, mint, green beans, green leafy stuff, carrots,a different green leafy stuff, cucumber

And then they brought dessert!

Farewell Myanmar, I will always remember what a special time I had here and how absolutely kind, friendly, warm-hearted and generous your people are.  A very poor country, extremely rich in spirit.

Last few pics