on the road to mandalay

After 3 days in Inle I caught the night bus to Mandalay.
"Much better than the morning one" says the travel agent.

A pickup from Nyeungschwe to the crossroads cost 700kyats. I arrived an hour early (due to transport departing early in some cases) and then my bus was 90 minutes late. While waiting, several large European style coaches stopped to pick up people so I felt quite encouraged. My bus turned up: a rusting sardine can on 4 dodgy wheels. So this was the good bus. I'm very glad I didn't take the morning one

Once on board I'm sitting by the window, squashed up against the wall. To make things worse, there is a metal cage thingy screwed to the wall to hold 2 water bottles and this is digging into my knee. Then the local karaoke music starts loudly on the bus tv. Then the aircon blasts icy air right down the back of my neck whilst the driver leaves the bus doors wide open to add some dust to the atmosphere.

So while I develop leg cramps, backache and an icy neck the man across the aisle from me begins throwing up out of his window. Meanwhile the local next to me falls asleep and uses me as a pillow. Then his bony knee presses against my other knee (the only part of my body NOT suffering discomfort at that point). The dirt road I should add is a shocker, full of potholes, fiendishly busy and the air on the bus is full of diesel fumes and dust.

Then the bus breaks down.

At least I get a chance to get off and stretch my legs.

We get going again eventually and then shortly after 2 guys across the aisle leave so I spring over my sleeping neighbour like a startled gazelle and grab both seats. I keep these for the remaining 5 hours and this makes the rest of the 8 hour journey bearable.

Arriving at a Mandalay bus station 11 kms out of town I was lucky to run into a tout for the Royal Guest House which I was planning to book into, who organised me a share taxi for 3,000k. I arrive at the guest house at about 5am and I am allowed to stay in the aircon reception until there is a room available for me about 8am-ish.

My first room was on the ground floor. My single price was $13 A/C and fans. I got a very large room with three beds. I was also bitten quite a lot by something - not mozzies or bedbugs (as these leave a nasty bite on me), but something less severe and there were a lot of them and I don't know exactly what they were. (My second night I moved up a floor and had no further problems).

Mandalay was very hot and very big. I tried walking around the palace, and gave up halfway. Each side of the palace grounds extends for 2 kms. Too hot and too tired.


mandalay palace moat


back street temple

After a small siesta, I met Stephan a young German backpacker at the guest house and we decided to head off in the afternoon by pick-up to one of Mandalays biggest attractions - the U Bein Bridge in Amarapura, once the capital of Myanmar. U Bein Bridge is a 1.2 km wooden footbridge and the longest teak bridge in the world. It was built by the mayor U Bein from the unwanted teak columns removed from the old Amarapura palace during the move of the capital to Mandalay.

Just before sunset we hired a small boat to get a closer look at the bridge.























I hired a motorbike taxi to the wharf my second day and a 5,000k boat to Mingun. The boat needs a minimum of 4 people to operate. It Was looking dicey for a while. (I'm telling you - there was hardly any foreigners in the country!!) But finally there were 5 of us so we set off at 9am.


mandalay wharf scene









Mingun is about an hour up the Ayeyarwaddy river and is an enormous incomplete temple started in 1790 by King Bodawpaya and left unfinished because an astrologer predicted that if the temple was completed the king would die. Nearby is the Myatheindan Pagoda or white temple built by the grandson of King Bodawpaya.

Mingun is an easy half day trip from Mandalay - the boat which took us there takes us back at 1pm and the downstream trip takes 45 minutes to get back.


on the way to mingun






















lunch at my favourite mandalay local

The following morning I decide to head up into the hills north east of Mandalay to a town called Hsipaw.

inle outlay

The train rolled into the station town of Schwenyaung which is around 14kms from Nyaungschwe (you may have noticed a little Tokyo/Kyoto thing happening there) in the late afternoon.

At Schwenyaung there was no transport waiting. And no other foreigners on the train for me to share taxi costs with. And no taxi in sight. As I walked away from the station an unmarked car pulled up asking if I needed a taxi.

"Meter?" I enquired. No - "How much to Nyeungschwe?" 6,000. Hmm... 4,000 I offered. No. 6,000. So I walked away. 2 minutes later he drew up alongside and said 5,000 so I hopped in - I was busting for a loo and couldn't be buggered haggling further.

He was a bit of a mad bastard and drove like Michael Schumacher. First he almost ran down a dog, then an old woman, then a cow and then just before we arrived at Nyeungschwe gate he managed to run over a rooster. I swivelled round to see a mass of feathers fly up from behind the car. He chuckled somewhat and sped on.

He completely missed the $5 entry fee collector that you must stop for by the entry gate. The poor fellow arrived puffing at my hotel reception by bicycle 5 minutes later waving his receipt book.

I had a terrific stay at the Remember Inn. A $10 room, own bath with H/W, ceiling fan, excellent breakfast (thick banana pancakes were on offer) A humongous bed you could play a football match on. I was greeted at reception with a cup of tea and some bananas which was a nice gesture. Later when people asked where I was staying I had trouble recalling the hotels name.

The place was deserted (in terms of tourists) but luckily that evening I met two French backpackers Philippe and Baptiste and we agreed to share costs for a boat ride the next morning.


Philippe and Baptiste

There are two boat tours on Inle - a shorter and a longer one. The longer one includes a visit to Indein. We took the latter. It cost 15,000 for the boat.

We set off just after 8am and walked down to the harbour.

Inle lake is very big.






inle fishermens unique way of paddling with their feet





Across the lake we motored for quite a distance and our first stop was a local marketplace.

















After a stop for lunch at a lovely waterside restaurant (and waiting for the sudden downpour to stop) we then headed down a canal to Indein (or Inthein as it is sometimes called).

There is a temple here that is surrounded by many small stupas that range from freshly built'n'gilt to old and crumbling ruins. When we were there off season grasses and bushes had taken hold and filled a lot of the pathways. We heard that the following day there were literally hundreds of people at this site with machetes clearing the entire site of vegetation, ready I imagine for the tourist peak season which was to begin about 10 days later.











There are several villages that make their home on the lake. People must spend their whole lives on and in the water here. Even the agriculture has adapted to this aquatic environment. We saw many many rows of floating tomato beds, and at one point were able to climb out of our boat and stand on one. It was the strangest feeling - like walking on a grassy water bed!


floating tomato beds

Lastly we went to visit a woman who makes the local version of the cigar or cheroot as it is often referred to as here in Myanmar. We went into her home and sat and had tea whilst she deftly made around 15-20 cigars. Her children were as interested in us as we were in the production of cheroots.








elaborate gold house decoration


children adapt quickly to life on water

We returned to the harbour around 5pm and considering we spent a good deal of time sitting in a boat being motored around, it was quite a tiring day.


inle boats

a shocking rocking railway day

The train to Thazi left at 6am. I needed to be at the station by 05.30 so I caught a taxi. Even at this early hour the streets of Yangon were bustling with activity.

Thazi is a tiny town/village almost 3/4 the way from Yangon to Mandalay. It is a major rail intersection and I needed to get there to catch the 'slow train to Inle' which had a certain romantic ring to it! The only viable way of getting to Thazi was the train from Yangon.

The seats were very comfortable on the train when I boarded, wide and reclinable. The track however was from the fourth circle of Hell!!

It took 13 hours to Thazi and much of it was like being astride an epileptic race horse on a roller coaster track. I can't quite describe how violent the jumping of the train carriage was when the train got up to speed. It was incredible that the carriages managed to stay on the tracks. At one stage I needed to use the loo - but it was not only putrid inside, the rocking from side to side would have made squatting over the seat like trying to take a dump on a pogo stick. I gritted my teeth and held on!

I was VERY happy to get to my destination.

Someone recommended a guest house in Thazi. I found it easily enough (and I don't remember it's exact name) but I didn't stay there as they had no hot water and wanted $8 for a single room which I swear was originally the space under the staircase.

There was another place a couple of doors up (perhaps there being only two guest houses in town?) which did have hot water and my basic room was $7. The owners son also kindly gave me a lift on his scooter to a restaurant at the other end of the main street for dinner. I've heard Thazi referred to as a transit town which seems fair enough, and I couldn't see enough of it to make a real judgment. As it was I had to be up and back at the station by 04.30 the next morning for the slow train.

This next train took just over 11 hours, cost $7 and is a fraction of the distance to the previous ride. But it was really pleasant. It travels up into the mountains with several switchbacks, goes v-e-r-y slowly and therefore sways gently and stops a fair few times for 20 - 30 minutes - enough to get out, stretch the legs and buy some food if needed. The scenery is also very nice, the air cooler and I really enjoyed it.

One thing that struck me (or nearly struck me as it turns out) is the 'jungle' or vegetation either side of the train track which grows right up to the window edge of the train. It can be quite hazardous resting even your elbow outside the window lest it be thwacked by some razor grass or a thorny bush. On one of my train rides my open window was acting like hedge shears and I was slowly being covered by hedge clippings where I sat.









yangon to thazi train


















thazi to inle train


look closely: this is 'upper class' (ordinary class, 1st class then upper class)