Mandalay - 24 to 27 September - posted from Rebak

Travel from Bagan to Mandalay was by train.  Fortunately we were “Upper Class”, which meant we had large soft seats rather than the wooden ones in "Ordinary Class" essential for a 7-hour journey, except for Susan who always feels travel sick if not facing forward, as all the seats faced aft! When she arrived in Mandaley she was feeling pretty grim.  Mostly the scenery consisted of flat farmland interspersed with rural stations filled with people willing to sell food. The open windows provided air conditioning and the restaurant car facilities comprised numerous vendors walking up and down the train selling snacks or more substantial meals.  The ladies' skill in balancing a tray of food on their heads while walking down a swaying train was very impressive as we felt nauseous even trying to get to the loo!  On arrival at Mandalay trasnsport for the short distance to the hotel was by tuk-tuk.  In the evening we walked several blocks to a recommended restaurant, which was very smokey and the food barely eatable but the football was good.  The walk there, a few blocks, in the dusk was fairly exciting with numerous cross-roads with traffic from all directions but no traffic lights or, it seemed, traffic rules plus the enevitable pot holes. People was very helpful where there were no street signs and several trishaw drivers monitored our progress awaiting for our custom.

A one-hour river trip took us to Mingun - our transport was a substantial boat, capable of taking 50 or so - just us, our guide and the crew. A relaxing trip on the river.

Mingun Pagoda, unfinished as it was abandoned on the death of king Budawpaya in 1819, would when finished apparently have been the largest in the world rising to 500 feet, three times its present size. The base was only completed by thousands of slaves and prisoners of war.  It has subsequently suffered earthquake damage but the climb gave some great Ayeyarwady views.Our guide gave us tree branches to walk on as the ground was so hot. It is a mark of respect to even remove footwear before entering all religious sites in Myanmar so the feet could become quite tender.

Mingun also claims another "world's largest" - a bronze bell weighing about 90 tons.  This King Bodawpaya planned to go with his stupa. While it is about one third the size of the world's largest bell in Moscow, it is the largest uncracked bell in the world.  For pictures click here - our photos were not suitable.

Back in Mandalay for lunch we were guided in the mystique of Burmese cuisine, rice, curry side dishes of sauces and vegetables. Mostly too spicy and sour for our tastes. We are not lovers of loads peanut oil and mountains of shrimp paste but we always find a part to eat, occassionly only the rice.

It was to be a golden afternoon.  At the Mahamuni Paya, also originally built by King Budawpaya, there is a bronze Buddha statue that has, over the years, been so covered by gold leaf applied by devotees that its shape is totally unrecognisable.  Only the head is not so covered and is washed every morning by monks.

In keeping with custom only men are permitted to approach it and apply the gold leaf. At the same temple there are several bronze images of mainly Hindu dieties, originally looted from Angkor Wat (Cambodia) but successively looted from other resting places before ending up here.

Continuing the "golden" theme we visited a gold leaf workshop.  One ounce of gold is reduced by repeated hammering, between strips of deer skin,  to 3600 pieces of gold leaf each 1.5 inches square and apparently about 1 micrometre thick, each selling (we were told) for about 200 kyat (17 pence).  With gold at over USD 1600 per ounce the arithmetic doesn't work!

There are streets of crafts in Mandalay include marble working.  We admired and opted out of close inspection because of the dust.

The Royal Palace was destroyed during WWII but the main part was rebuilt not particularly well, and apparently using forced labour, in the 1990s for the forthcoming tourist boom of 1996.  About the only thing the reconstruction does is give an idea of the scale of the original.  The reconstruction itself seems rather a pointless use of resources.  The scale is also obvious from the moat and walls.  The road trip around the outside its 12 km.  Fortunately the "Lion Throne" which was in the palace had been removed to India by the British. and on independence was returned to the national Museum in Yangon.

Another claimed world's record was the "worlds largest book" - The entire Tripitaka are inscribed on 729 marble slabs,. Each in its own stupa in the Kuthodaw Paya. In 1900 a paper edition of the stoneorigional was printedin 38 volumes, each with 400 pages.

It is obligatory to take in the view from Mandalay Hill at sunset which would have been good, if it hadn't been for the smoke haze!

 It is expected that a boy will join a monestary for a month at about ten years old and again for a shorter while in his late teens.  The parents see this as an honour and a time of great celebration.
In Amapura, briefly the capital  before it moved to Mandaley, we visited a monastery housing 1,000 monks. . Rather than all 1000 descending on the local population with their alms bowls each morning the donors for that day come to the monastery and the monks form a queue, collect their food and other donations - toothpaste, soap etc - before eating in the refectory.

Another "world's largest" - the U Bein bridge across Taungthaman Lake- at 1300 yards the longest teak wood bridge with over 1,000 teak posts.  Somewhat restored in places with concrete footings but impressive nevertheless.  We walked across and took a boat back to savour the ambiance.

After a ferry trip across a tributary of the Ayeyarwady a horse-drawn cart along some pretty rough tracks took us to Ava and  Bagaya Kyaung, a old teak wood monastery, where monks were teaching young children in the cool dark interior.

In leafy green Sagaing where even more monasteries abound we visited a nunnery where it was apparent that Buddhist nuns are expected to do much more for themselves than are monks - they were busy preparing breakfast for the next day and are not constrained by the same amount of rules.

The Mustache brothers cabaret show is a Mandalay attraction - at least for foreign visitors.  We decided to walk the few blocks to it as taxi drivers were reluctant to take us. Half way a tuk tuk picked us up and promised to bring us back. You have the feeling that the locals know of the preformance in a front room at a certain time of day.  There are three brothers, of whom one speaks good English, together with their wives and sisters.  The show has an expected dated flavour comprises satire, song and dance and is based on traditional folk opera.

Myanmar style football

A local football game is played by two teams of three players; the objective being to keep the ball in the air, with judges scoring the efforts and a running commentary being made over a PA system.  We stopped to watch this one for a few minutes, until trucks got too impatient with the slight obstruction our car caused.

 

Bagan 21 to 24 September - posted from Rebak, Langkawi

With around 2600 monuments still standing of the 4400 that were constructed over a 250 year period in the 11^th to 13^th centuries AD it is difficult to do any justice to Bagan in a short blog page. Here are a few images to give a flavour.

View towards the river



Dhammayangi Temple



Gawdawpalin Temple

Thatbyinnyu Temple



Ananda Phaya



The monuments, stupas, temples and monasteries are spread over an area said to be the size of Manhattan Island, surrounded by the vast agricultural area of the ancient flood plain of the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy)River. The people are not now allowed to live in the monuments but still graze their cattle around them. In fact the government moved the people from Old Bagan to a peanut field in 1990 which became New Bagan.

 

Buddha image Ananda Phaya

A severe earthquake in 1976 damaged many of the structures, some of which have been partially restored, several with the help of UNESCO.  Nevertheless Bagan has not made it on to the list of World Heritage sites, possibly because some of the restorations not made with UNESCO help were inappropriate in choice of materials or an inaccurate representation of the original.  Many of the murals in the temples are very faded and, where they have been restored, photography is not allowed.  Many stuccos have been damaged or stolen over the centuries.  However, Buddha statues are everywhere, some quite stunning

Our visit crisscrossed the monument area, seeing many of the main sites, as well as local villages and markets. At a lacquer ware workshop we realised that that it is applied in layers up to 14, dried between, then engraved, we lashed out and purchased some coasters for Sea Bunny.  

Myoe Daung Monastery, Old Bagan

Cart by stupas (from postcard)

One of the most rememorable and enjoyable forms of transport was a horse-drawn cart that  took us on a route past some of the monuments not accessible by car and through small villages with their farms and monasteries.

Tractors are rare

The agriculture is largely carried out without mechanisation, using bullocks to pull ploughs and carts and with most activities done by manual labour.

Sorting plum stones - a year's work

In one farm we saw three women working with a huge pile of what we were told were sour plums.  Their task was to extract the stones, which are used in Chinese medicine.  While there was a machine to do the removal of much of the flesh, final processing involved passing the stones through a series of sieves of reducing mesh.  To process the whole pile would take these women a year, working 8 hours a day.

Yangon 19 to 21 September - posted from Rebak, Langkawi

On 19 September we flew from Langkawi to KL to Yangon at the start of a 2-week tour of Myanmar (Burma).

This post, and others that will follow, about our trip has had to be delayed until after our return to Malaysia as access to the Blogspot site to upload appears to be blocked in Myanmar.  Also blocked was access to our Gmail account using Outlook (but possible by logging in direct) and access to news from the UK Telegraph online site- but the BBC was OK.  The blocked sites just show a red banner “Access is Denied”. 

One of the first things we noticed at Yangon airport was that most people including officials smiled a lot.  This was especially true of the immigration officials - very rare!

Met at the airport by our guide and driven to the Yusana Garden Hotel, public rooms very musty, very dated but the staff very friendly and helpful.

Payphone kiosk - Yangon

Collected, when refreshed the next morning, we went on a short walking tour of the city centre. The two first things that we noticed was that the country has not been taken over by outside clothing influences, the longyi (sarong) is worn by all with either shirt or blouse and that ground tree bark was worn on the face of the women to protect anainst the sun.
There is a noticable amount of old colonial architecture, some restored but much of it very drab and in a poor state of repair like the roads. 
Most of the city excaped major structural damage from cyclone Nagis in 2008.

Street sellers abound, including telephone stands consisting of a kiosk or just a table with several telephones connected to a nearby building where, for a fee, you make your call.  Mobile telephones are very expensive, apparently about USD 2000 for the phone and USD 500 for the SIM card.

From the centre we went to the Botatung Pagoda, built to contain some strands of the Buddha’s hair.  All the internal walls and the stupa are covered in gold leaf.  In fact the amount of gold leaf used in Myanmar’s pagodas and temples is incredible. The Myanmar peoples prize gold. Gold paint, gold leaf and gold jewellery. 

Manual unloading of rice from the delta

At the riverside we noticed that the longtail boats used as cross-river ferries differ from the Thai version by having fixed engines and a rudder, as well as oars for close quarters manoeuvring.  There were several small ships used for transport in the delta.  Cargo, mostly rice, is offloaded on the backs of workers each carrying a stick that is placed in the counting pile on delivery to the truck.  Some of these boats also take passengers on the overnight trip.  Each passenger is allocated a marked-out area of deck – no seats.  Food is provided from a cooking area at the stern – rather like a street stall 

Street  market scene - trade gives way to traffic

A street market in a narrow road was visited.  Some of the sellers place their goods in the centre of the road, with cars and trucks passing over them.  The main, Scott’s, covered  market was more organised with some 2,000 stalls, with some excellent cane weaving, wood carving and lacquerwork on offer.  We decided to postpone any purchases until after visits to Bagan, where lacquerwork is a speciality and to Mandalay which is a centre for wood carving.

Shwe Dagon

A highlight was an evening visit to the Shwe Dagon –the most sacred of all Buddhist sites and visible from all parts of Yangon.  The gilded central stupa is spectacular and topped with jewellery donated by the faithful including a 76 carat diamond, all left high and open to the elements. Around this mighty stupa are a facinating assortment of smaller stupa, temples, shrines and pavillions. We sat for some time absorbing the atmosphere and active reverence of the people. The rain cleared in time for us to view the sunset light refracted through the diamond, all colours of the rainbow seen by moving a few inches.

The highlights of the national museum include the gilded Lion Throne from the Mandalay Palace, which survived WWII because the British had removed it to India from where it was returned on independence. It seemed  lacking until we realised that a throne in Asia is not a special chair but a raised seating platform.  The royal regalia on view, however, does not really live up to its Lonely Planet billing as being more spectacular than the British crown jewels or, indeed, the treasures recovered in Ayutthaya (Thailand). We suspect there must be a lot more that is not on general view.

Our onward trip to Bagan was somewhat longer than expected as a problem with the aircraft led to us boarding and disembarking twice before departing some four hours late on a different aircraft, leading to a late arrival in Bagan.

Back to Bangkok - posted from Yacht Haven, Phuket

The bus from Ayutthaya to Bangkok is airconditioned and takes about 1 1/2 hours.  You end up at the northern bus station from where you must take a tuk-tuk or taxi to the Skytrain station some 2 km away.  The tuk-tuk fare for this 2 km is, after haggling, the same as the bus fare for the previous 80 km.
We are in plenty of time to check into the hotel and to get to the Myanmar embassy at 1530 to pick up passports, which we have by 1531.  The rest of the day is spent relaxing after the travelling exertions.

Pak Khlong flower market

Our last day was OMCTG's day off and what to  visit on our last day is solved by a couple we meet in the Eat Me restaurant where we dined.  They suggest the vast weekend market at Chutuchak, followed by the flower market at Pak Khlong.
These suggestions are taken up and despite the size of the place we meet our advisors by chance at one of the coffee houses in Chatuchak market. 

Ayutthaya - posted from Yacht Haven, Phuket

Here the OMCTG (Oh mighty chief tour guide,S,) earned her brownie points. The route from Kanchanaburi to Ayutthaya involves two local buses - non-aircon and little legroom - with a lunch stop in Saphanaburi with all staff fussing to ensure that the farangs have eaten and gotton on the right bus even if found in the toilet!.  We were fortunate that they were not full so we both had two seats to ourselves - the locals generally seem to prefer not to crowd up against a farang - possibly because we are generally larger! Unfortunately on the way to Kanchanaburi bus station R had lost our new (April) smartphone, which was clipped to his belt.  Fortunately it only had the balance of 100 baht phone credit and 5 days data left on the local prepaid SIM card.  The password for our email account was rapidly changed. Continuing the losing streak R then managed to leave his sunglasses on the lunch table in Saphanaburi! On arrival at the chaotic bus station in Ayutthaya a tuk-tuk completed the journey to our "homestay" just inside the UNESCO historical park where we walked in the evenings.

Buddhas, Wat Na Phra Man

Tuk- tuk rates are 200 baht an hour, a bicycle 50 baht per day. The park is a fairly compact  7 km around island ( nicknamed the Venice of the east) to the side the town.  Between tuk-tuk and shank's pony we covered what the OMCTG considered the main sites starting at one of the buddhist monasteries that is still operating, where there is a large buddha image and some smaller ones covered in gold leaf applied by devotees. 

Wat Phra Si Samphet

The ruins of Wat Phra Si Sanphet were next, the audio guide was worth the 100 baht.  This temple was adjacent to the royal palace which was the base of the kings of Siam up to the late 18th century, when it was sacked by the Burmese.









The tuk-tuk left us at the museum in the historical park which, as well as many buddha images, has impressive golden objects retrieved from the crypts of some of the temples - after robbers had removed an estimated 75 kg of gold.

Wat Ratchaburana

The main treasures were found in the crypt of  Wat Ratchaburani but access is closed off.














Garuda - Wat Ratchaburana



Captured Buddha - Wat Matha That

Wat Matha That's main attraction is a buddha's head totally enclosed in tree roots.
While the ruins are many and impressive in their own way there are few of the impressive bas-reliefs that adorn the temples at Angkor or to a lesser extent Borobudur.
The site is well marked out and has what the other two sites lacked - many signs telling the locals not to climb on their heritage!

Kanchanaburi - Death Railwway and Bridge over the River Kwae



They used to do this on the Southern Region!



The train arrived in Kanchanaburi about and hour and a half late - as is apparently usual.  There seems to be a choice in 3rd class between slightly cushioned seats and wooden benches - we chose the slightly cushioned ones fo the four hour trip particularly as the superb scenery promised by Lonely Planet did not materialise.  The route is through flat intensely farmed land  - though not a palm oil plantation in sight, light industrial areas and towns. The beautiful mountainous scenery started at Kanchanaburi.



Ploy Guest House pool



At Kanchanaburi we were met by a motorcycle and sidecar from our guesthouse. The Ploy Guesthouse was a very pleasant surprise.  Set on the river, the room interiors are decorated in a traditional Thai style, despite being housed in a concrete building.  Our fully air-conditioned room had a small garden at the back and a communal garden in front.  The shower room was separated from the small garden by a screen door, so one effectively showered in the garden.  There is a pleasant bar area and a small swimming pool overlooking the river.  A light breakfast is included and there are more substantial options at additional cost.  Built and run by a very helpful brother and sister it was superb value. In the evening we ate at the Apple Guesthouse and cookery school - superb.

Hellfire Pass

As we only had one full day in Kanchanaburi and did not want to do most of the activities on the organised tours we got the guesthouse to organise a taxi for us and to explain to the driver (who had little English) what we wanted to do.  First we went to Hellfire Pass, about 80 km from Kanchanaburi - the site where the most difficult conditions were met during the construction of the Burma-Siam railway during WWII.  The concept of the horrendous conditions endured by the Allied POWs and Asian forced labour in excavating the Hellfire Pass and other cuttings on the route by hand in jungle conditions and on near-starvation diet is almost unimaginable.  The museum, established and run by the Office of Australian War Graves has moving descriptions and the audio/ two way radio /2.5 km walk, along the route of the railwaythrough a beautiful valley, brings it all home.

Wampo Viaduct - the train goes very slowly!

After picking us up at the end of the trail our driver took us to Namtok Station - the present end of the line - where we had lunch at a stall before catching the train back towards Kanchanaburi.  This is clearly the section Lonely Planet refer to as spectacular.  For some of the route the track is high above the river and passes over the sole remaining trestle bridge at the Wampo Viaduct.

The modern bridge

Next to the Bridge on the River Kwae of film fame.  This is accessed by a plethora of tourist sprawl and actually in Kanchanaburi town. Although in 1943 is was probably some way outside it. It is still used and there is no fee to walk across.

War cemetery

Our final stop was at the Death Railway Museum - there are two this one is beside one of the war cemeteries in the centre of town and we highly recommend it for more sobering displays.

Off to Bangkok - posted from Yacht Haven, Phuket

As we are planning a short trip to Myanmar (Burma) in September we had to get visas.  This can only be done in person at an embassy and takes 3 days, unless your departure is imminent when it may be possible to pay extra for a same-day service.  We therefore had a choice of going up to Bangkok while we are at Yacht Haven or to KL when back in Langkawi.  As we prefer Bangkok, we opted to do it  there and to bring forward a trip to other sites close to there - Kanchanaburi and Ayutthaya which we had planned as part of a later trip.

Last Sunday therefore saw us on Air Asia to Bangkok and Monday morning, bright and early, at the Visa Section of the Myanmar Embassy.  We had read on another traveller's blog that a copy shop 200 m down the road has the forms and will copy your passport and take your photograph in a form that is acceptable.  Armed with these we got from about 10th in the queue to third, as those before us had to get the forms and fill them in before being issued with a ticket.  After having our departure date checked, as the visa is only valid for entry within 28 days, we were told we could pick our passports up on Wednesday.  All very efficient.

Off then to HSBC - "the world's local bank".  Despite being the first commercial bank in Thailand HSBC has only one branch.  We had hoped that, as HSBC customers in the UK, we would be able to obtain the necessary pristine US dollar notes and pay for them directly from our UK account without incurring a double exchange rate hit.  No such luck - we would have to put our card into the ATM - draw out as much in Thai baht as the machinge would give us, take it to the counter and exchange to baht into USD.  This we could do at the airport.

Check out of the hotel, Skytrain to the river, river boat up to near the royal palace and tuk-tuk to Thonburi station for a 3rd class train to Kanchanaburi at 1355.