Magnificent Mandalay

Posted onAuthorMandy and Glen Rees5 Comments

Mandy: 15th – 18th October

Mandalay is the second largest city in Burma, and the former capital. The city is the economic and religious hub of upper Myanmar and is centred around the Royal Palace which had a large moat around it…. and their army within it! We stayed in a non tourstist area with no street lighting, open sewer pavements with big broken flag stones on top (similar to Bali) and muddy roads, left from the rainy season I guess. Even the touristic part of the town was aimed at Asian tourists not us, which was good. Like I said when we arrived, it was different…. but we loved it.

Half of Burma’s monks reside in Mandalay and the surrounding areas and we saw them the minute we arrived until the minute we left. The female monks wore pink robes and the male monks wore burgundy robes. They range in age from toddlers to older and presumably wiser monks. (smile)

There were breathtaking views from Mandalay Hill and Sagaing Hill of the many Temples, Pagaodas, Stupas and Monasteries. Photos don’t really show how wonderful it was here but it was amazing. (I’ve been banned from putting them all on here anyway) The people in Mandalay were mostly poor but friendly and happy.

A female monk crossing the U Bain Bridge – the longest and oldest teak bridge in the world.

Male monks enjoying the view

Lost count at about 35 Buddhas inside of that semi circle!

Here are just a few of them, note the donation boxes all along the way!

Can’t believe Glen asked this Monk and the Burmese girl (Below) for their photos! Glad he did though (smile)

People ask us if they can take our photos here though so I don’t know why I am too shy to ask them.

Only men can go up the steps to see this Gold Buddha in The Mahamuni Paya and have the honour of adding a peice of gold leaf to it. It started out weighing six tons and now weighs over twelve tons because of the amount of gold leaf that has been added. Us mere women were pointed towards the mat to just look from afar! I watched as Glen went up the stairs with the other men!
We met a family who made gold leaf by the traditional hand method. The father was proud to introduce us to his sons who used 7 kilo hammers for eight hours a day to produce small squares of gold leaf. The gold leaf used by the worshipers who add it to the gold Buddah near by I am sure. There was no sales talk even though they had a shop near by, instead they let us use their toilet and were such friendly happy people.
Another Buddha, they are everywhere!!!

We visited a small weaving factory. The girls were making traditional silk and cotton material. Again no salesman there, we were just able to walk in around watching them work. Can you imagine that happening over in the UK! They wouldn’t even get in to our office toilet without a key fob and thumb scan lol!

I bet this girl was delighted to have us gauping at her as she worked!

(It was just us two walking around no one else)

She made me feel and look like a giant.

We crossed a river to see a village on an island with more Temples and Buddhas!
A young boy hitched a ride on our horse and cart as he followed us on his bycyle.
Villagers were ploughing the fields using Ox but this family (in front of us) had their harvest balanced on their motorbike along with their three children)
An old Teak Monastery in the village.

U Bain Teak bridge at sunset

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