The Road to Mandalay

II: Traveling in Myanmar

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 19:31:27 -0800

To get into Myanmar you will need a visa. For you and me, who do not qualify for a diplomatic passport, this means a tourist visa. If you live in the USA, you mail in your passport, your multi-page visa application with multiple passport pictures and money order to the Myanmar Embassy in Washington, DC and hope for the best. Their website implied that you could expect your passport and visa back in a week or so and so you just wait. If you call them, you have the option of pressing 1 for English and pressing 2 for Burmese. You press 1 and you get a message telling you to leave a message after the beep. After that you get a second message saying that the inbox is full and cannot accept any more messages. You can also write them or fax them, but it all goes into a large black hole. You will not get a response. After 4 weeks we finally received our passports back. The visa was valid for three months, for one entry with a maximum stay of 4 weeks. Only recently the maximum stay was only 2 weeks. So that was progress. There were two sheets of documents to be given at the port of entry. And at Yangon airport there were more forms to fill out, which nobody looked at, as far as we can ascertain.
Part of the problem can be traced to the foreign policy of the USA, especially during the past few years. There is little goodwill in Asia left for the USA. Our traveling companions in Australia had some trouble also, since Australia is perceived as a staunch ally of the USA. Our travelers from Holland had much less problems applying for their visas in Germany.

And two of our traveling companions obtained their visas is less than a day in Singapore. They had “connections”.
Myanmar is surrounded by Thailand, Laos, China, India and Bangladesh. We entered the country through Yangon, the capital. It used to be called Rangoon and the three-letter airport abbreviation is still RGN, but the regime had changed the name of the city. The standard way to get there was by SQ, or Singapore Airlines via Singapore, which is somewhat of a detour, because you have to fly all the way south to Singapore and then all the way back north to Yangon with Silk Air, a subsidiary of SQ. Then you have to fly back south to Singapore before you catch your flight back to SFO. All this adds to a lot of extra hours in the air to save a few dollars. But Singapore Airlines makes it worthwhile by offering superb service in the air and a very attractive destination in Singapore Changi airport. There you can shop in the 160+ shops and eat in the 80+ eateries . And you can rent a room in a hotel inside the airport where you can take a shower, drink some tea and get a short rest on a real bed for which they charge you US$43 for a 6-hour block, double occupancy. But with increasing traffic through this place, this option is becoming so popular that you have to make reservations way in advance.
We found out later that a faster and less expensive way to get to Yangon is to fly to Bangkok. There are many airfare specials going to Bangkok from the USA. From there take an Air Asia flight to Yangon. Air Asia is a new discount airline with very competitive fares. Their fare from Bangkok International Airport to Mingalodon airport in Yangong, vv is only around $115 + tax. And if you are lucky, you may get an internet special. When we flew from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, we were able to purchase an internet special for less less than $1/ per person. That was amazing and we didn’t quite believe it until we were actually on the plane. With taxes and surcharges the total was still only about $20 for the 500 mile flight. They have new Boeing planes; their terminals are spartan, food on the plane is extra, just like the US airlines on domestic flights, and they adhere strictly to the maximum 20 lb/person checked baggage limit. Our excess luggage fees was around $15. And we believe we travel fairly light. A major part of their income is from excess luggage fees which about every other passenger seems to have to pay. They often have their own terminals away from the general terminal.
Touring Myanmar.
The country has a very large shoreline with the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Her neighbors are Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand, and a sliver of Laos. Although distances are not very large, as the crow flies, the roads are atrocious and to get anywhere more than 50 miles or so, it is better to fly.
To get around, we decided to purchase a 16-day tour through Avia Travel in Berkeley, California. They work with Santa Maria Travel and Tours, a Burmese travel agency in Yangon. There is presumably some advantages in this arrangement. If we had booked directly with a Burmese travel agent, we would have to pay our tour in advance by credit card and a chunk of it goes to the regime. With our arrangement we paid Santa Maria Travel in cash on arrival in Yangon. Avia Travel guarantees them our honest intentions, backed by local credit card guarantees. This way Santa Maria Travel avoids having to pay the steep credit card fees, and supposedly some of the savings are reflected in their price to us. We paid $1700 per person for the tour, for which we were supposed to receive the best accommodations available, and which also included 6 domestic flights within Myanmar. And it also included breakfasts, the services of an English-speaking guide throughout the trip, and local air-conditioned transport. But if transport was by oxcarts or by horse-driven carts, those come with natural air-conditioning.
Yangon
Yangon, formerly called Rangoon, is a bustling metropolis, somewhat like any other capital of a South-East Asian country. When we arrived there, the temperature was 33℃, but humidity was low, which makes the weather quite bearable. The cars we saw were rather old; and older. The houses do not create the impression of sustained prosperity. The stately old colonial buildings looked tired and despondent, wishfully thinking of the glorious colonial days of yore. The few large newer structures appear to have been designed by an unwitting junior bureaucrat who was surprised at getting this assignment. Gleaming, glass-encased, high-rent malls are not yet there. But the chaos and the horrendous traffic jams, which make driving in Jakarta or Bangkok a nightmare, are not present. Traffic flows quite freely and everybody seems to obey the traffic laws. We understand that many poor had been relocated out of the capital, so there were few beggars and slums to be seen. And it also improved traffic patterns.
Traffic here is on the right, which is contrary to most Asian countries, where traffic is on the left. Interestingly, most cars in Myanmar have the driver on the right, as befitting left hand traffic, so it is difficult to overtake because the driver is on the “wrong” side of the car and cannot easily see oncoming traffic. To make matters worse, people tend to drive closer to the center of the road, because the road deck is better there. So you grit your teeth and push down the accelerator as you go over the rough part of the road to overtake on the right. When I asked why the driver is on the wrong side, I get different answers. Some say it was a religious decree; another was that the government liked it that way. Maybe that was unintentionally tongue-in-cheek because the influence of the regime is pervasive. But I believe most of them didn’t know the answer, but did not want to admit that to a foreigner. The most logical reason is that in a poor country like Myanmar, only the top echelon can afford to buy new cars. Everybody else buys a second-hand car and these jalopies come from the adjacent countries where traffic is on the left.
The exchange rate for the Myanmar kyat (pronounced ‘chat’) changes drastically with time. When we were at the airport the rate at that time was something like 450 kyat/US$. On the streets you can get 1250-1300 kyat/US$ at that time.

left above: Back of a 500 kyat note.
left below: Front of a 1000 kyat note
The biggest denomination is only 1000 kyat. So people lug around briefcases and handbags full of 1000 kyat notes. The US$ is accepted freely as currency; that makes it easy because a US$100 bill certainly takes much less space than a stack of 125 1000-kyat notes. The locals happily accept a $1 bill for something costing 1000 kyat. The best place to exchange US$ into kyat is a jewelry store. These stores cater almost exclusively to foreigners, since the average income for a local is very little. And what better way to entice a foreign tourist into the store to look around, and perchance to buy? Offer them good rates of exchange, which will cost the store almost nothing in comparison to what they earn on their sales. As for the locals, it depends on where you live and what you do. If you are in the upper echelon, you probably earn as much as other rich people in other parts of the world. There is income from natural gas; from the gambling in the casinos, from smuggling from and through China, and from the many gemstones found in Burma. We were in a jewelry store one day and we saw stacks of US$100 bills in one of their display cases where they had stored it temporarily before transferring them to their safe in the evening. Or maybe they just left the money there to show how safe the place was. There is little crime there. If you live in the countryside, the Lonely Planet quoted a farmer as saying that he would be happy with 2000 kyat a day, so he would be able to feed his family. Well, as a rule of thumb we found out that living standard and stuff are roughly 5 times less expensive than in the USA.
In Yangon we first stayed at the Savoy Hotel, a top end boutique hotel efficiently managed by a young German woman. The hotel was built in a villa style, only two stories high, in a compound surrounded by a low wall. It was located downtown but it almost looked residential as there seemed to be nothing around in the neighborhood but nondescript private houses as you walked around. There were a few small stores and eating places which looked like they were there by accident. The hotel had a pool and a bar, which was very smoky on occasions, and a very small reception area, so there was little else we could do. But service was excellent.
We later moved to the Kandagwyi Palace, which was vastly superior to the Savoy. This hotel abuts a lake in Kandagwyi Park and the rear of our room is connected to a private patio adjacent to the water.
right: View of patio from our room.
That was very nice, except the patio was hot during the day and during the evenings we had to share the space with mosquitos and other tourist-unfriendly insects. But there are large shady areas in the garden abutting the lake where you can sit and enjoy the scenery. Also there was a nice swimming pool under the watchful eyes of a life-sized concrete dinosaur. The large rooms are in teak and wicker.
In the lake itself there are long wooden walkways, which is part of the park, entrance to which is 100 kyat for locals and 1000 kyat for foreigners. And a fee of another 400 kyat for taking pictures. It is hard to pass for a local, even if you are Asian. Trying to speak Burmese will trip you all the time.
left: The Kandagwyi Palace seen from the lake.
And across the lake is this huge concrete structure in the shape of an imperial boat (picture on top of page). This is now an entertainment complex cum restaurant. The hotel also has a large reception area, where you can have a drink and listen to live music in the evenings. In addition, there was a café and several good restaurants in and around the hotel, two of which were built partly over the water. The Kandagwyi Palace also had their own theater with local cultural shows in the evening. You can have a buffet dinner before and the total tab would be only $10 - $15/per person.
Food in Yangon
I don’t think one would specifically want to go to Myanmar for the food, even though well-prepared Bamar cuisine can be reasonably good, I personally feel you are better off with Chinese, Thai, or Penang cuisine, which are actually readily available in Myanmar. Yes, we would go to Penang in Malaysia just for the food. Not so for Myanmar. Food in Myanmar consists of a blend of mainly Chinese and Indian style cooking which can be rich because of the sometimes copious use of coconut milk, but is usually fairly mild. Except for soy and soy paste, there is minimal use of spices so there is little depth and sophistication in the taste. We always seem to need additional chili to spice up the food, which are often curries to start with. The staple is rice, usually eaten with chicken, mutton, or shellfish curries; beef and pork are less common because of religious considerations. They also have satays of pork, mutton, beef, and honeyed chicken, which are OK, but seldom exceptional. There is also a lot seafood. The fish is usually served as a curry or steamed with e.g., lime and garlic. As for the vegetables, some popular menu items are tempura and french fried potatoes. Yes, french fries. They will serve it to you as a complementary dish if you order a lot of other things and our Burmese guide loves them. The insidious beginning of obese posteriors.
Breakfast was always included in our trip and since we were always staying in the upper end establishments, breakfasts were always copious and good. Of course they served the standard European fare of custom-made omelette, meats, cheeses, fruits, cereals, etc., but sometimes you can also get the typical Myamar breakfast of mohinga or moat-hin-kar. This is a tasty rice noodle dish with a chicken or fish soup gravy.
For lunch and dinner the first few days we crossed the street from the Savoy Hotel to eat in small simple establishments where many locals seem to come and eat, as well as guests from the hotel, who wanted to eat the local fare and not pay the inflated prices associated with top end hotels. Dinner or lunch, with a bottle of beer and a bottle of water, would cost us around 8-10,000 kyat for the two of us, which was actually quite expensive for Myanmar, mostly because of the beer. The simple Bamar (another adjective for Myanmar) food itself is not very complicated and tasty, but it was easy to order the more savory Chinese or Thai dishes. The portions were large, because we eat very little, and they were quite reasonably well prepared.
We had dinner one evening at the White Rice Restaurant, which was on the lake about a mile from the Kandagwyi Palace, and presumably one of the best restaurants in town. Our dinner table was outdoors on a small wooded island outside the main restaurant building. There were surprisingly very few insects around. Our friend Khoon insisted on treating us to dinner and we also had Dr. Kyay Hmone Win and her husband, Mr. Zaw, as guests. They were obviously upper echelon as they came by to pick us up in a new, large, black Mercedes with the steering wheel on the left! . There were 10 of us and the Chinese cuisine food was superb, with unusual and very taste dishes of clams, crustaceans and other seafood which we had never seen before. Although the taste was not as sophisticated as the Chinese food we have been served in the top restaurants in Singapore, it was still extremely good. There were many dishes and the total bill was around US$100, which Khoon paid with a huge stack of 1000 kyat notes. It was very reasonably priced, because the clientele was almost all Burmese. The last time Khoon treated us to dinner in admittedly one of the best restaurants in Amsterdam, he paid that much per person. In the restaurants catering to tourists you would pay the same amount of money for vastly inferior food.
In the Kandagwyi Palace we also had lunch in their café. Prices are quoted in US$ and a simple one-dish lunch was around $5/per person. But if you ordered the ice tea, which came in a pretty 8 oz glass, they will charge you US$2.50 per glass. And one evening we had dinner at Sandy, highly recommended by the Lonely Planet and other travel books for their Myanmar cuisine. The place was next to the hotel, which you can reach through an inside corridor. It was also on the water, but since we did not have any reservations the good seats were reserved and gone. They have good food, especially their appetizer of duck egg, filled with minced prawns and then deep-fried in a thin tempura crust. To order, ask for their Be’ou-pazun-ahsar-thoor-gyaw. Their meat-filled clay pot was also worthy of mention. The restaurant also managed to get a nice chocolate birthday cake on short notice to celebrate Mimi’s 77th and my 74th birthdays, which were just one day apart.
Across the street from the hotel was the Yin Fong, a Chinese Seafood restaurant. The premises actually belong to the hotel. They had tanks and tanks of live fish. One evening we went there and we had the grilled octopus, the steamed fish, and the fried gailan for dinner. The food was very well prepared and also very nicely presented. This is a very good place for seafood. A little bit more expensive but still very reasonable for our standards.
Then there is the Green Elephant Restaurant, which is the place where the foreign tourist sooner or later gravitates to. The owner, Cherie Aung-Khin was born on a Wednesday afternoon, and so she named it the Green Elephant because the elephant is the sign of people born on Wednesday afternoons. And she likes green, presumably not because of the color of the dollar, but because of the lush garden atmosphere of the state. The curries, salads, meats and seafood are slightly Westernized and the surroundings are a little bit upscale, so this is where the foreign tour groups congregate. Dishes are 2500-5000 kyat each. For the 8 of us we would order rice and 6 - 8 dishes. But our group also likes to drink a lot of beer, and beer is 3000 kyat a bottle. The restaurant in Yangon is an open-air two-story structure. It is so successful that Cherie has now opened Green Elephant Restaurants in Bagan as well as in Mandalay, both of which we visited. We are tourists, after all, and our tour guide didn’t know any better.
For the more adventurous, one could go to the market and get some food from the stalls there. Outside Yangon there are many opportunities to get a taste what the locals eat.
right: Open-air food stall in a market

Buddhas, Big and Small.
Religion plays a major role in the country. Since almost everyone in the country is a Buddhist, there are statues of the Lord Buddha everywhere. In some locations there can be hundreds, even thousands of tiny Buddha figures, just a few inches high, close to each other. In other locations there are huge Buddhas more than 100 feet tall. The big one in Yangon is in the Chaukhtatgyi Paya..(a) Good thing the Buddha is resting, because if he was standing, he would be towering as if from the roof of a multistory building. You can see how big he is just from the size of his soles. On each of these soles are 108 sacred symbols. To take a picture of the whole Buddha you will need a camera with a good wide-angle lens.
left: The Buddha in Chaukhtatgyi Paya
This Buddha is in a large shed. Around the statue are many pilgrims, often whole families, who have come here to pray. They actually stay there for a few days, sleep on mats on the floor around the statue and spend the day praying and picnicking on the premises.
But if you think this Buddha is huge, just wait till you see the one in Bago.

The Shin Upagot Shrine.
There are dozens and dozens of other payas and shrines in the city. I like this one, different because it is a small floating shrine. It is located on the southern side of Kandagwyi Lake, connected to an island with a larger shrine dedicated to Upagot, a Bodhisattva saint said to protect human beings in moments of mortal danger. The minor saints in the adjacent paya all look very friendly and it is nice and quiet here.

Shwedagon Paya.
The Shwedagon Paya is to Yangon and Burma what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris and France. But this paya is not just a symbol to be viewed with awe by the tourist. The majority of the visitors to this temple are local pilgrims, because it is a deeply religious beacon. For the Myanmar Buddhist, it is the most sacred of the Buddhist sites in the country, a place where all Burmese hope to visit once in their lifetime. Rudyard Kipling called this place ‘a golden mystery ..... a beautifully winking wonder’.
The main stupa (b) is on a large platform on a hill 58 meter above sea level. In the middle is the mighty central zedi2. There is the great golden dome, completely solid, sparkling in the sun, rising 98 meters above its base, and visible from almost anywhere in the city. In the 15th century, Queen Shinsawbu provided her own weight, 40 kg, in gold, which was beaten into gold-leaf and used to gild the structure. Her son-in-law did better by providing four times the combined weight of him and his wife in gold to further gild the stupa. Walking around the sits, there is so much to see in a very narrow space. The gilt is overpowering, as well as the intricate structures of the buildings.
left: A bell-shaped zedi is seen in the background
The central stupa is now still regilded each year. The original stupa was built between the 6th and 10th century by the Mon people, originally to enshrine eight hairs of the Lord Buddha. But in earthquake-prone Myanmar, it has been rebuilt several times. The whole top of the zedi actually came tumbling down in the earthquake of 1768, but king Hsinbyushin had it rebuilt to the current configuration.

right: On the main walkway around Shwedagon Paya. The main zedi can be seen in the background
.
The base of the main zedi is square and halfway there is an octagonal section to transition into the round bell on top. On the very top is a vane made of gold and silver-plate and studded with 1100 diamonds totaling 278 carats. On the top is a hollow golden sphere studded with no less than 4351 diamonds, weighing a total of 1800 carats. Around the main stupa are some 64 smaller stupas. There is an incredible assortment of zedis, statues, temples, shrines, images and tazaungs(c) around the main zedi. And a stupendous amount of gold had been used in the construction.
To view the paya, you have to walk barefoot around the main zedi on the marble paving, which can become pretty hot in the sun. We had to walk barefoot a lot, as a token of respect to lord Buddha, whenever we visit a shrine or a paya where his likeness is present or deemed to be present. Some people walk in their socks, but this is frowned upon as not showing proper respect. It can be hard on your soles, if you are not used to this mode, especially if you step on the ever-present grit on the marble or stone floors. You could make a fortune by developing a covering for your soles which is not visible to other people around.
On eight locations around the stupa are prayer-stations for people born on the specific day of the week. Wednesday is split into a.m. and p.m. to make for the eight stations. You will find this same arrangement in most stupas and by recognizing the figure of the assigned animal in the pray station you can determine direction as well as the appropriate birthday. This was apparently a Hindu custom introduced into Buddhist lore.

To determine the status of a prayer station, you can read the sign, which is in Burmese. So that may create a problem. Or, you could look for the animal in the station.
The picture on the left shows a very simple pagoda in the city of Bago and most people would probably just walk by it, because of the large number of more impressive monuments around. But on this pagoda, the location of the prayer stations as shown by the assigned animals are clearly visible.
Counter-clockwise you can see at the far left end (a) the naga, or dragon serpent, on the southwest for people born on Saturdays (b) the rear of the tusked elephant on the south, for Wednesday mornings, (c) the lion in the middle of the picture, on the southeast, for Tuesdays, (d) the tiger, on the east of the pagoda, for people born on Mondays, and (e) the barely visible eagle-like garuda, on the northeast, for people born on Sundays.

The Gems Museum and Gems Market
This place, just north of Parami Road, is usually not on the standard tour, but we asked our guide to take us there. It is a small one-room museum on the fourth floor of the building, but what they display is impressive. They have the world’s largest sapphire. it didn’t look like anything special and I would have ignored it if I saw it lying on the ground. It is 17 cm large and weighs almost 12 kg, which somehow translates to 63,000 carats. The museum also boasts having the world’s largest imperial jade boulder, rough ruby, and star sapphire. The jewel quality rubies and star sapphire on display were impressive.
Below the museum are three floors of stalls selling precious and semi-precious gemstones, the quality getting better and the prices getting higher as you descend. Here you can buy rubies, sapphire, jade and semi-precious stones for much less money than in Europe or in the USA. Even then their markup must be huge, compared to what they pay the source of the stones. On the third floor you can get bracelets and necklaces for a few dollars each; on the bottom floor you can buy high-quality jewelry costing several thousand dollars and more. Dr. Kyay Hmong Win had recommended the stall of Dr. Onh. She was not there, but her husband and daughter (who is a student in the USA and was just there on vacation) were there and the Dutch contingent of our group purchased several thousand dollars worth of jewelry from them. In the jewelry stores we visited, the wife was often the “owner”. There must be a reason. Maybe women can be harder on bargaining than those softy men.
There are not many places in Myanmar where credit cards are accepted. Even the large hotels require cash payment for services rendered. And in the few places where credit cards are accepted, there is a steep additional fee. But some of the top-end jewelers have found a way around, because they do want to sell their expensive stuff and most people don’t carry thousands of dollars in cash. If you buy with a credit card, your card gets charged in Thai Bahts from an address in Bangkok. Pretty nifty, eh..

The Bogyoke Aung San Market.
The British called this sprawling complex of some 2000 shops “Scott’s Market” and it is also still known as such. They sell about everything here, from Burmese handicrafts, souvenirs, lacquer-ware, Shan shoulder bags, household essentials, and puppets. But in the main building every other shop is a jewelry shop. Surprisingly, there were not that many stalls with fast foods and drinks. It is an splendid place to practice the ancient art of haggling. This is also an excellent place to exchange your dollars into kyats.
right: The main hall of Scott’s Market.
And don’t underestimate the 14-year old girl shown below selling souvenirs. She can drive a hard bargain. On her cheeks is thanaka paste, which is a combination sunscreen and beauty lotion.

(a): Paya stands for temple or pagoda
A zedi or stupa is the traditional Buddhist religious monument consisting of a hemispheric or gently tapered cylindrical cone, topped with a variety of metal adornments, and often covered with jewels.
(c) Tazaungs are smaller pavilions used as auxiliary shrines around the main zedi.
(d) A garuda is an eagle-like being used by Vishnu as his mount. It is also the main creature in the Indonesian coat-of-arms, much like the eagle in the US.

III: Bago and Environs

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:21:13 -0800

Bago
Bago is the ancient capital of Burma and is located some 50 miles north of Yangon. It iwas close enough for a day trip to visit this city. The highway from Yangon to Bago was broad but not particularly smooth and we ended up well-shaken at our destination. The city was reputedly founded in 573 AD by two Mon princes who saw a female swan standing on the back of a male swan on an island in a huge lake. Taking this to be an propitious omen, they founded here the royal capital of Hanthawady. In the 13th - 15th century it was the capital of all southern Myanmar. Early European visitors frequently mention this city as Pegu, an important seaport. It declined in importance after the river changed its course and the city was cut off from the sea.

The Taukkyan War Cemetery
Halfway to Bago we stopped at the Taukkyan War Cemetery with the graves of 6374 Allied soldiers who were killed in the Burma and Assam campaigns of WW II. There is even a small area with graves of soldiers of WW I. In addition, there is also a memorial with the names of some 27,000 soldiers who died with no known grave. It is comforting to see how well-tended these rows and rows of graves were, but it is also sad to realize these young kids, now long forgotten, have fallen because of the megalomaniac ambitions of some far-away dictators, whose names are permanently inscribed in the pages of history.
right: View of the War Cemetery
As for these kids, one may have found the cure for cancer had he lived; then again, some of the others could have evolved into loud-mouthed rednecks vociferously claiming their right to own concealable machine guns capable of wiping whole schools of children in the batting of an eye. We’ll never know.

The Shwethalyaung Buddha.
This one is huge; much larger than the one in Yangon. It is 55 m long and 16 m high. The little finger alone is 3.05 m long. The Buddha looks relaxed with a hint of a smile. Maybe this is because his head, barely visible in the picture above, is resting on a big bunch of chests containing lots of treasures untold. Devotees are sitting on mats in front of the Buddha. They come here from their villages and stay here to picnic and to genuflect for days on end. This is how some Burmese spend their vacations.
The Shwethalyaung Buddha was originally built in 994 AD by the Mon King Migadepa II, but it was lost and overgrown in the jungle after the huge earthquake of 1757, which completely destroyed Bago. It was found in the 1880’s by an Indian contractor digging into a large mound for fill for a railway line for the British. It is now restored and placed in a huge iron and steel tazaung. But Bago has bigger plans. We drove by an area where they are building another reclining Buddha. And this one will be 65 - 70 meters long! Just consider; Michael Jordan is 6’6” tall. This 70 m long Buddha is equal to 35 Michael Jordans stacked on top of each other. He would have made a superb basketball player. Travel articles will tell you to take a camera with a good telelens, if you go on safari. But when visiting these Buddhas, it is good to take a camera along with a very wide angle lens. There is never enough space available to take a picture of the whole statue. Or you can “stitch” your pictures, if you are sufficiently adept.

Kyaik Pun Paya.
At least these four Buddhas are not reclining, but seated and regally gazing into the four directions. The picture on top of this section shows them, sitting together with their backs touching each other. Each of them is 30 m high, and they were originally built in 1476. According to legend, these Buddhas were built by four Mon sisters. Should one of them marry, one of the Buddhas would collapse. One of the Buddhas did disintegrate in the 1930 earthquake but has since been fully restored. Their shrine is about 1.5 km outside of Bago.

The Shwemawdaw Paya.
The Shwemawdaw paya is the major attraction of Bago. Its golden stupa rises 114 m in the air, which is a good 15 meter higher than the stupa of the Shwedagon Paya in Yangon. And like its counterpart, this paya is a visual feast of golden spires, intricate latticework. ethereal temples, brown-robed monks, colored figures of minor Buddhas, animals, flowers and abstract decorations. In the bright sunlight your senses are swamped by the colors and the architecture, the results of thousands of hours of artists celebrating and worshipping their spiritual ruler.
left: Part of the main zedi of Shwemawdaw Paya
The drawback is that it is difficult to capture all this on your camera. There is so much to cover and the strong light accentuates the difference between light and dark.
What you need is a wide-angle lens and a very strong fill-in flash to balance the exposure of the dark areas in the foreground with the sun-drenched vistas in the background. Unless you have professional equipment with you, it is just impossible to catch it all on film.
The Shwemawdaw paya is said to be over 1000 years old and originally built by the Mon people to enshrine two hairs of the Lord Buddha. At that time the spire was only 23 m high, but subsequent rulers have added more sacred relics to the collection and increased its height. And just as regularly, an earthquake would occur and destroy a portion of the paya. The one in 1930 was the biggest of all and it completely leveled the stupa. For 20 years it was just a large heap of rubble, but then it was again reconstructed. It was completed in 1954 when it reached its present height and configuration. At the northeastern corner of is a huge section of the hti(a), which had toppled in the 1917 earthquake, and which has now been imbedded in the structure, shown in the picture on the right.
right: The Monday prayer station and the old hti
Just as in the Shwedagon Paya, there are prayer stations located at the 8 cardinal corners of the stupa for people born on certain days. The picture on the right shows a little tiger under the altar, so it is the Monday prayer station.
Under a banyan tree we saw many round earthenware pots, about a gallon-size each, filled with water. There was a tin cup on each of them. If a visitor is thirsty, he or she just picks up a cup and dips into the jar for water to drink. The pots are inscribed with the names of the donors who see in their gift an added investment for their afterlife.
Surprisingly, bathrooms are far and few between, and some of them are locked and only accessible to foreigners for a tip. We often wonder where these people go to heed the call of nature. Nature must have gifted this race with huge bladders or a fortitude much superior to those of those rich, coddled tourists. As in many large stupas, this temple complex is reached by walking through a covered walkway lined with stalls. Here, besides the usual tourist stuff, they have also interesting collections of antique-looking odds and ends, mostly little statues.

The Kanbawzathadi Palace.
This palace was once located in a huge square city, surrounded by walls measuring 1.8 km along each side. King Bayinnaung lived in Kanbawzathadi palace from 1553 to 1599. The original palace has been completely destroyed but parts of it have recently been completely rebuilt. It has a seven-level roof, two levels higher than the one in Mandalay, and they say it was topped with solid gold tiles. The king’s apartments and the pillars and ceilings of the audience halls are marvelously decorated with marble and glass tiles.
left: A huge, empty hall in the Kanbawzathadi Palace
The Government has made this palace a showpiece of sorts because King Bayinnaung reigned over a huge area of Southeast Asia. At that time Burmese control of its neighbors was the largest in Burmese history. They were at the apex of their power.

IV: Sittwe and Mrauk U

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:02:57 -0800

To get to Mrauk U, you have to fly first to Sittwe and then take a boat to Mrauk U. If you drive to Mrauk U. it will cost you half of your remaining life-span. The roads are said to be worse than terrible and even James Bond would have trouble getting through, even with his jet-powered Aston Martin The flight from Yangon to Sittwe took about 75 minutes in a Fokker turboprop. At Sittwe we rushed through town, stopping briefly to pick up some take-out food, and drove to the harbor. Our boat was waiting for us, a 60’ long motorized barge covered with a roof of sorts. We were in a hurry because we were going to go upstream and did not want to be caught when the tide was turning.
As we puffed up the Kaladan River and then the Ambassador River to our destination we saw fishermen who were obviously making a subsistence living by catching fish and shrimp. Men and women were holding and walking with large nets in front of them to scoop up these crustaceans. And along the banks of the river they lived in simple, thatched houses. The river was several hundred feet wide at this point. The estimated travel time was 5 hours; but our vessel was loaded down with our stuff, and soon daylight faded away and was replaced by the gorgeous hues of the setting sun. The picture above shows Venus in the red-hued skies. And it was a good 8 hours later before we reached Mrauk U in the pitch dark night. By then the river was only 30-40 feet wide.
In Mrauk U, electricity is generated by the local power company. But supply is erratic and at night power is shut off to conserve fuel. The Mrauk U hotel, like almost all hotels, had its own generator, which starts at 6 p.m. in the evening and cuts out at midnight. In the morning it kicks back in for an hour between 6 and 7 a.m. The Mrauk U Hotel was obviously Government-owned. Our luggage was carried from the bus to our rooms by young women; two women would carry one bag between them each time. When I showed them that one person could move two bags by just using the rollers; they looked surprised and somewhat distrustful. The hot water tank was about 5 gallons large and was heated electrically. So there was just enough water for one shower, unless you did not mind a cold shower. And this was supposedly the best hotel around. We did have a suite, but it was sparsely furnished and the TV had only two channels, both of them covering Burmese cultural stuff most of the time.
Mrauk U is a small community of some 50,000 inhabitants. Most of the roads are not paved and the atmosphere is that of a sleepy forgotten provincial town. But it did not used to be this way. From 1430 - 1784 this town was known as Arrakan, and it was the capital of the great Rakhaing kingdom, ruled by the Mrauk U dynasty. The kings were powerful and even hired Japanese samurai for protection against assassination.
Tall, long walls and ramparts protected the harbor. They built temples everywhere. The city was a free port trading with the Middle East, Asia, Holland, Portugal, and Spain. At that time there was also better access to the sea.
left: old print of Arrakan Harbor, 1676.
The travel logs of the Dutch East Indies Company (The VOC) describe the richness of the city, one even calling it the richest city in Asia, comparable to London or Amsterdam. The print shown was dated 1676, showing the many galleons in the harbor. At Mrauk U’s peak, King Min Bin had at his disposal a naval fleet of some 10,000 war boats, which dominated the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Martaban.
But over the years, access to the seas silted over and what was left of the huge harbor is now just a small creek.
right: Arrakan, now Mrauk U Harbor, 2007,
The river is now very narrow and shallow and there is no place for a galleon, unless it was a toy galleon. The boat at the dock is the one we took to get here from Sittwe and back.

The Shittaung Temple Paya.
This temple complex was built by King Min Bin, the most powerful of the Rakhaing’s kings, in 1535. There are stupas everywhere, with 26 larger one surrounding the central stupa. Shittaung means the “Shrine of the 80,000 Images”, a reference to the number of holy images inside the complex. The tally is closer to 84,000, even though many of these have been stolen.
left: The Shittaung Paya.
In comparison to the Payas in Yangon and in Bago, these temple complexes are built in red brick and grey sandstone. Inside the complex are long dark hallways, actually two parallel passageways. The first passageway is almost 100 meter long, adorned with thousands of sculptures of dancers, acrobats, animals, both existing and mythical, flowers, beasts of burden, birds, and a myriad of fantasy figures. There was also a large statue of king Minbin and his wife. . There are small windows, so one can see the sculptures, some of them still covered with the original paints. There is another passageway deeper in the bowls of the stupa, lined with dozens of Buddhas in niches. In the outer hallways are dozens of Jatakas, scenes from Buddha’s past 550 lives.
right: An instructional painting on the wisdom of rejecting amorous advances.
They are there to instruct and to enlighten. The picture on the right shows a traveler being seduced by a prostitute. If he succumbs to her blandishments, the waiting ogre outside the window will pounce on him and that will be the end of him and this instructive lesson. And yes, we had to walk barefoot on the cold stone floors. That was not very pleasant.
Outside Shittaung there were more temple complexes. There were pagodas, big or small everywhere; and almost on every hilltop there was a pagoda. Just northeast of Shittaung is the Andawthain Ordination Hall. The stupas here look like the ones in Borobudur, except these were windowless, but there was still a Buddha image in each of them. A bit further away is the more massive Ratanabon Ceti, ringed by 24 smaller stupas, built in 1612 by king Min Khamong and his queen Shin Htwe. And across the street was Dukkanthein Paya, built by king Min Phalaung in 1571. Those were troubled times and the temple was built as a “backbone” of the kingdom. In the interior was a spiral passageway lined with buddhas and bas-reliefs of common people with their wives showing off the many traditional Mrauk U hair styles. Further up was a small building used as storage of reference scripts written on pandan leaves. We stopped at an image of a 20’ high Buddha, built by a princess with intricate carvings on the lotus leaf he was sitting on, and we drove by Laungbanpyauk Paya, built in 1525, where the walls were adorned with glazed tiles of many colors. And there were many others. At the end of the day we caught the sun setting behind Dukkanthein Paya. You get to see a lot of stupas in Myanmar.
To get around Mrauk U, we were driven around in a small bus over the mostly bumpy dirt roads. There are few other motorized vehicles around, and none for private use, as far as we can see. You can get around in a horse-driven cart, a motorized tri-shaw or you can also rent a bicycle to get around. We saw a couple on bicycles at Shittang; they were from Switzerland and he was 84 years old, looking wiry and trim. She was a bit younger.

Kothaung Temple.
This temple is one of Mrauk U’s highlights. As we drive up to the complex located several km out of town, we see the huge structure in the distance, covered with hundreds of cupolas. It is reminiscent of the huge temple of Borobodur in Central Java, which was constructed in the same period. Kothaung Temple shows 1553 as the date of construction; it was built by king Mintaikkha, a son of king Minbin. Kothaung means “shrine of 90,000 images”, so he outdid his pop by some 10,000 images.
left: Kothaung Temple, with its thousands of spires, in the distance
On closer look the whole complex is in a state of disrepair and restoration is underway of a number of sections. To get to this 90,000 images the inner passageways of the temple are lined thousands of bas-reliefs of Buddha images.
In Mrauk U we also visited a primary school which had around 250 students from grades 1- 5. The school had just won a competition at the provincial level and they would like to present part of the performance which won them the prize. Here were some 6 kids, 9-11 years old, presenting a story of the adventures of a lion, a mouse, and sundry other animals; in English. Not in Burmese; yes, in English. English is the second language taught in school. It was a bit difficult to understand, but I am sure that it was considerably better than our Burmese.
right: Children in a primary school welcoming us.
We stayed two nights in Mrauk U and then went back on the boat to motor to Sittwe. After about 45 minutes the motor conked out and the crew had to change the engine head gasket. Which took about 45 minutes and nobody looked concerned. We thought going down-river would be fast, but our boat was heavily loaded with 8 tourists, their luggage, and some family members and friends of the crew. So it was only 7 hours later that we arrived in Sittwe.
In Sittwe we first drove to the park on the peninsular promontory jutting out into the sea to watch the sun set. They charge 1000 kyat for a photo permit, but the views and the sunset were very nice, especially from the top of a watchtower. The Sittwe Hotel was large and obviously run by the government from the discombobulated way they run things. Here too there would be two women carrying one suitcase between them. And here too they looked surprised when we showed them how to use the built-in rollers of the suitcases, which would allow one person to transport two suitcases. But they ignored our advise and stayed with the way they operated earlier. I actually suspect that by carrying the suitcases they create the impression of doing more work, and hence meriting a larger tip. Because now there are four women transporting two suitcases, instead of one pulling two suitcases on their rollers. Suddenly you have created jobs for four times as many women. We all got a suite for $60/night. That was a good thing because the air-conditioning in one room did not work. Neither did the TV, but there wouldn’t be very much to see anyway.
In the downtown area we found a hotel of similar quality, privately owned, with doubles for $16-20/night. There the rooms would have working a/c and tv, I suspect. We spoke with the owner, who looked like Orson Welles, and who also ran the River Valley Restaurant. And there we had a scrumptious meal of deep-fried soft-shelled crab, shrimp curry, fish head soup and a number of other seafood dishes for a grand total of 53,000 kyat for the 8 of us.
A lot of stingrays are for sale in the fish market in Sittwe
We stayed one night in Sittwe. The next morning we stopped to look at the market. There were hundreds of stalls selling vegetables, meats, cakes, pastry, sundries, frogs, and what-have-you-not. There is a large section selling freshly caught fish, since the market abuts the Bay of Bengal and the fishermen would unload on the beach and take their catch immediately to the market. They seem to catch a lot of stingrays, which they stack on top of each other. There were turtle eggs for sale, since they have not heard about endangered species yet.
The next stop was the Bhaddanta Wannita Museum, housed in an old merchant mansion, and which also doubles as a monastery. They had several rooms with religious artifacts and their prize possession is a 10” high Buddha presumably from the 6th century. Since the captions were all in Burmese, there is little to report here.
From there we drove to the Laukananda Paya, a pagoda started in 1997 and not quite completed yet. This temple is unusual because the inside space is one huge half-dome, so there is a smooth transition from wall to ceiling. But they still had many pillars and everything is either covered in gold leaf, adorned with red and black decorative motifs. Most of the zedis we visited earlier had a solid core because of the weight of the huge stupa cone above it. In this paya, the half-dome allows a more even distribution of the weight of the stupa above it, but the pillars were still required for additional strength. It is here that the name of the ousted prime minister Khin Nyunt, earlier prominently displayed on many pillars as a benefactor of this temple, had been erased by Than Shwe, the current man in power.
right: Inside the Laukananda Paya
On the platform around the pagoda we saw this drinking station for the thirsty visitor. The earthenware jars are slightly porous and the evaporation keeps the water cool. Take the cup provided to dip in the jar to get a cool refreshing drink.
left: Water jars for the thirsty
That afternoon we flew back to Yangon to overnight at the Hotel Savoy again. Dinner was at the Green Elephant and the bill for the 8 of us was 62,000 kyats.

V: Bagan

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:14:46 -0800

In the Savoy Hotel in Yangon we woke up at 4:15 a.m. in the morning. We had to catch the 6:15 a.m. flight to Bagan. If you look at the map you can see that our destination is very close to Sittwe, where we just came from. But we had to fly to Yangon first because there was no direct connection between Sittwe and Bagan.
Even though it was still early when we reached Bagan, the bus took us to the Aureum Palace Hotel, because our rooms were ready. This was one hell of a luxurious hotel. You walk up a long entrance past sculptures and goldfish stacked ponds to the high-ceilinged open main reception hall. Guests stay in villas spread our over a large area and you are driven around in 6-8 persons electric carts. Our accommodation was half of a two-story two-unit villa. The ground floor had the entrance hall, a sitting room, an antechamber to a bathroom, and a bathroom. Upstairs is a large bedroom with a huge LCD TV, connected to an open air balcony on one side and a covered pavilion connected by a short bridge. Next to the bedroom is a room with washbasins, then a hall with separate rooms for the wc and for the shower, and at the end a larger room with a jacuzzi. The unit must be around 1500 sq feet large. There was 24 hour electricity, which sounds common to us, but is a big deal there.
Bagan is an amazing place. In the area called the Bagan Archeological Zone, which was only about 16 square miles large, there are 4000+ temples, of which half have been named and numbered. The temples range from the big, ornate payas to simple structures built up by locals who wished to ensure a more desirable section in their afterlife resort. There are temples and pagodas everywhere. And in most of the area there is nothing else, no private houses, hotels, cafes, stores, gas stations, discos. Nothing but temples and a few trees. Most of these temples and pagodas were built in a period of only 233 years, from 1044 to 1287. The architecture is that of the Mon, but the influence of India is also visible. The area rivals Angkor Wat in terms of scope and mind-blowing spectacularity. It is just an amazing place.
left: In Bagan there are temples as far as the eye can see.
Although the first king in Bagan founded the dynasty is 108 AD, Bagan’s prime began with the ascent of the Bamar king Anawrahta in 1044. He conquered the neighboring state of Thaton in 1057 and brought back to his capital the Theravada scriptures in Pali, as well as a large number of Buddhist monks, artists, and craftsmen. With them he started a huge program of building and some of the greatest edifices were built during his reign. Bagan was abandoned in 1287 by king Narathihapati, also known as king Toyoke Pye, or “the king who ran away from the Mongols”. If he had yielded and offered his allegiance, the Mongol Khan would probably have left the kingdom alone except for the annual tribute he would expect to get. But when the emissaries from the Khan came to demand allegiance and tribute, he had them killed. His reason was that they did not show him proper respect by not appearing barefoot before him. This rather incensed the Mongol ruler who then sent his armies to punish this upstart king. So, choosing caution over valor, the king fled. I am not sure who the Mongol Khan was at that time, because the great Genghis Khan died in 1227.
The Temples of Bagan.
Of course it would be impossible to visit all the temples, there were just too many for the number of years left in our life. We started at the Dhamma Ya Zikka pagoda, unusual because it is 5-sided, and which seemed to be quite popular with the tourists. There were dozens of souvenir stalls at the entrance and we were mobbed by post-card selling hawkers. One dollar for 10 postcards. Not expensive, but there were just too many hawkers. We climbed 3/4 up on the outside of the temple and had a good view of the surroundings. Yes, as far as you can see, there are temples everywhere. And some trees; not much else.
When the state archeology department made an official photograph of this temple at dusk, a hazy warrior in ancient garb was seen on the picture at the left of the entrance. He seems to have appeared on some other photographs as well and the belief is that he is the spiritual guardian of the temple, happy that his temple is now well taken care off. Very interesting place, but hard to get around on the required bare feet. Our feet are just too coddled.
Our next stop was the Shwegugyi temple, which for some unclear reason is also called the Golden Cave Temple. From here you can see perfectly framed the highest pagoda in the area, the That Byinyu. Also close by was a temple built in the Indian style, the Mahabodhi Temple, and a bit further away the golden-tipped Ananda Paya. That was also our next destination; and inside this Paya were huge heavily-gilded Buddhas, 10-12 m high, standing on each of the four sides of the temple.
right: The golden dome of Laokananda Paya.
In the afternoon we visited the Laokananda Paya, built high on the banks of the broad Ayeyarwady, the stream previously known as the Irrawady river. It was a relatively quiet place with not many tourist on the large flagstone terrace, but yet there were quite a number of tourist stalls and hawkers outside. I suspect we were just there in a lull of the traffic. The golden spire of the Laokananda Paya looks nice and regal from the distance. Our eyes were already starting to glaze over as our bus took us to the Manuha Paya. There was a very strong Indian influence in the architecture. The Mon king built this temple around 1067 AD, when he was a captive. And adjacent to this temple is the Nan-Hpaya, another 11th century edifice with many bas-reliefs of Brahma. But we were not through. The last temple we sleepwalked through was Gubyauk Gyi temple. Here too there were many frescoes in dark hallways. If I didn’t make notes, I would not even have remembered how many temples we saw today.
Shwezigon Paya.
The next day we drove to Nyaung U, one of the towns in the area built against ancient castle walls. There we visited the Shwezigon Zedi, an opulent 11th century temple complex. The Paya is somewhat similar in layout to the Shwedagon complex in Yangon, Shwezigon Paya is even more opulent in the amount of use of gold leaf and the number of towers. There were a lot of monks here, a few of them shamelessly begging for money. The entrance complex was built in the 15th century, also opulently decorated with abstract and realistic figures of humans, animals, both real and mythical.
left: There is an incredible amount of gold in Shwezigon Paya.
The stupa’s graceful bell shape became the prototype for almost all stupas built later in Myanmar. It is set on three rising terraces. There are plaques in enamel around the base of the zedi with scenes from the Jataka, the lives of Buddha. At the cardinal points are four shrines, each housing a 4 m high standing Buddha, cast in bronze in 1102. It is difficult to comprehend and appreciate the beauty and architecture of this temple, because we had seen so many already in the last few weeks. We had temple-overload syndrome.
Adjacent to the temple is a smaller structure housing images of the 37 “Nats”. or spirits. It was here that these pre-Buddha spirits were officially endorsed by the Bamar monarchy. Except for the stone figure of Thagyamin, the king of the Nats, all others are copies. The originals have been stolen, supposedly by an enterprising Italian tourist.

More Temples
If you think it is boring to read the list of the temples we visited that afternoon, imagine what it is if you had to slog through all this personally. On bare feet, no less. They are amazing structures, but your senses are dulled by the sheer amount of sights to be processed. What you need is the ability to just absorb everything and ruminate and enjoy later.
The Kyan Zit Thau Min “caves” is a pagoda with walls adorned with frescoes from the 13th and 14th century. Some of them depict Mongols, because in this period the Mongol Khan’s empire stretched over this area. The hallways were quite dark and a woman stood at the entrance offering flashlights for better viewing. Not everybody tipped her when the flashlight was returned, assuming that was part of the service. With a little bit of thought it was obvious that she was an entrepreneur trying to make some money. But like most Burmese, she was self-effacing and polite. What she should have done is to put up a sign stating “Flashlights for rent, 1000 kyat”. I note that Americans tip the most; Europeans tip much less, and Israeli tour groups never tip. They compensate by being the loudest.
The Htilo Minlo Temple, dating from 1218, was the abode of a king who had several sons. To let the gods determine succession, he had his sons sit in a circle around a white umbrella. After some time the umbrella fell in the direction of the youngest son, who became the next king. He was obviously the most intelligent of the lot, being able to determine in advance in what direction the umbrella would fall. On the Khemingha temple we climbed on the roof to get a view of the surroundings. Yes, just temples everywhere and some scrawny trees. We also saw a bullock cart. The next-to-last temple was the Paya Thonzu consisting of 3 interconnected stupas. Some of the walls are decorated with hundreds of 3-4” high bas-reliefs of Buddha. To the right is a picture of the interior. Because of the low lighting and contrast, it is a bit difficult to see the bas-reliefs of the Buddhas on the walls. But they are there.
right: Interior of the Paya Thonzu
The last temple of the day was the 13th century Tayoke Pye Paya. By now I forgot why we went there, but we did climb on the roof for a good view of the surroundings. We had seen enough temples to last us several lifetimes.Or at least for that day.

VI: The Road to Mandalay

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 22:46:13 -0800

Mandalay
There is something magical in the name, because every time I hear it, the words remind me of Rudyard Kipling’s lovely poem.

Yes. And now we were in Mandalay. From Bagan we could have taken a leisurely boat trip on the Ayeyarwady river and reach Mandalay in 8-10 hours. If we had felt the need for penance, we could also drive over atrocious roads to get there, also in 8-10 hours. But we opted to fly. The flying time between the two cities was only 25 minutes.
Like many things which we have imagined for so long, reality is always a let-down. Mandalay is a large provincial city. Downtown is a huge square palace area in the middle guarded by a wide moat and impressive walls. The air was dusty and the leaves of the trees on the sides of the road were all covered with a layer of grime. It must not have been the case in Kipling’s time, but I was glad when we left the city a few days later, because the dust was seriously affecting my respiration. On the outskirts, however, there are some beautiful suburbs, such as Sagaing, and after visiting them one can imagine how many people love to live here. If it were not for the dust!

The Maha Ganayon Kyaung Monastery
Our guide was in a hurry to get to this monastery, which was home to several thousands of young monks. At 10:15 a.m. they are given their daily and only meal and tourists flock here by the hundreds to see them getting their food. Tourists jostle for position outside the enclosure for better camera angles, and some climb on the balconies of the adjacent building for better views. It is actually embarrassing, as if we were watching animals in a zoo being fed. But tourists are tourists and some of these insensitive clods will even walk into the enclosure to stick their cameras right in the faces of the monks. The monks keep silent.
right: Monks silently line up for their daily bowl of food. In the middle there is the group of givers for todays food.
A giver will gain considerable merit in Heaven by feeding these monks. A small group of donors, very nicely dressed, were standing there in the courtyard ladling the rice and the accompaniments they have brought, into the lacquered rice bowls of the monks as they patiently queue and wait their turn. The tourists then rush to the dining halls to make pictures of the rows and rows of monks silently partaking their food. It borders on the repulsive.

The Thein Nyo Weaving Shop.
In a hall women were busily weaving on rather outdated weaving machines. I suspect they were paid not more than 1000 kyat per day. But this does not prevent the owners of the shop to charge prices commonly seen in upscale department stores in Beverly Hills. They do have nice shawls, tablecloths, etc. And just a few hundred miles away, the Chinese are also weaving, using state-of-the-art computer-controlled weaving machines, able to produce ten times as much per employee. I wonder whether many of the products they sell in this shop were not produced elsewhere, such as in these Chinese factories. At the slow leisurely pace the women were producing the weaved products, it seemed it would be difficult to cover the demand of the hordes of tourist ready to part with good money for high-quality “local” artifacts.

Inwa (Ava)
This ancient city was the capital of the Burmese kingdom for some 400 years. It is on a promontory, but the Myittha Canal has been dug to connect the Myitnge and the Ayeryawady rivers, so now Inwa is an island.
.left: This cart has a very good-looking driver
As soon as we stepped out of our bus, we had to run a gauntlet of persistent postcard and souvenir-wielding vendors before we were able to board the ferry. It was just an open barge, but we needed it to get to the island. It is a bit touristy there. Motorized vehicles are not allowed and to get around one has to use a horse-driven cart; two to three passengers per cart.
Which is rather fun anyway and it helps the economy. The island is too big to explore by foot. Note, that to keep the roads clean, the horses are provided with bags below their tails, so the island is not littered with horse-dung and the associated flies and smell. It should be made mandatory in more tourist places in the world. It is certainly more pleasant to walk around without having to watch out where you put down your feet.
The Bagaya Kyaung Monastery.
This is one of Inwe’s finest attractions, a monastery built entirely out of teak and supported by 267 teak posts, the largest measuring 50 feet in height and 3 feet in diameter. The building dates from 1834, is still in good shape, and luckily is has not been renovated. So the old charm is still there. It is a one-level structure, with the wooden floors a few feet above the ground. Inside we saw a group of very cute and very well-behaved 3-7 year old orphans playing peacefully together. The monastery was not only an abode for priests, but it also doubles as an orphanage. Like most monasteries in Myanmar, the furnishings are sparse.
right: Monks studying in the Bagaya Kyaung monastery

Nanmyin
This 90 feet high masonry watchtower is all what remains of a palace built by king Bagyidaw. In the earthquake of 1834 most for the palace was reduced to ruins and the tower took a rather precarious tilt, so it is now called the “Leaning Tower of Inwe”. We climbed to the top to obtain a nice view of the surroundings. In the USA, attorneys of the owner would not have allowed us to climb this edifice because of the “liability” involved. You could feel the tilt of the building as you walk up, and some of the steps are not in very good shape anymore. Well, one of these days somebody will probably slip and fall down these stairs.

The Maha Aungmye Bonzan.
This unusual brick and stucco monastery, shown on the left, was built in 1822 by Meh Nu, the number one queen of king Bagyidaw, for her abbot, U Bok. Monasteries in those days were built of wood, so this structure is rather unusual. It did withstand the ravages of time much better. Now it is a somber and uninhabited building and they say it is haunted, because the queen was apparently assassinated here. But next to this somber edifice is the Maha Aungme Bonzan Paya, a much more cheerful white-washed temple complex, complete with a white, gold-trimmed zedi in the center.
right: The cheerful Maha Aungme Bonzan Paya
From Inwe we took the ferry back to the other side of the Myitnge river, and then we had to fight our way again through the horde of hawkers to our waiting bus. Our next destination was Sagaing, so we crossed the 16-span Ava bridge, built in 1934 by the British. Until 1998, when a Chinese-engineered bridge was completed at Pyay, the Ava Bridge was the only bridge to cross the Ayeyarwady river. The British demolished two spans in 1942 to deny passage to the advancing Japanese army and it was not until 1954 when the spans were repaired and the bridge put back in operation. The Ava bridge was heavily patrolled by soldiers and all vehicles were inspected prior to entering the bridge. Photography of the bridge or from the bridge is not allowed.
Because of time constraints, we unfortunately did not spend much time in Sagaing, which is actually one of the loveliest suburbs of Mandalay. Here are some 500 stupas, monasteries, nunneries. We did go to the Kaunghmudaw Paya, also known under its Pali name as the Rajamanisula Temple. This edifice has as centerpiece an enormous white dome rising some 140 feet in the air. It was modeled after the Mahaceti (Great Stupa) in Sri Lanka, although legend says that it was modeled after the breast of a Myanmar queen.
left: The Sri Lanka style Rajamanisula Temple.
The temple was built in 1636 to commemorate the establishment of Inwe as the capital of Burma. Around the base are some 120 niches with images of “Nats”(a) In the temple itself there is abundant use of mirrored glass tiles on the columns and walls of the temple.

right: Vendors in temple courtyard. The women use thanaka paste on their faces
On the large inside courtyard around the great globe were vendors selling food, toys, thanaka logs, and a variety of items for the local visitors to the temple. Note the cages in the foreground. Inside them are small birds for sale. The woman has a small baby owl in her hand. You buy these birds and then release them, thereby gaining merit in heaven. In some other stalls you can find doves and little turtles, all for the same goal.
Note also that the woman vendor and the man in the back have white paste on their cheeks. This is a quite common sight everywhere in Myanmar, maybe not so much in the big cities. This whitish stuff is thanaka paste, which acts as a combination of moisturizer, sunscreen, and it has a fragrance somewhat similar to sandalwood. It helps remove acne and promotes smooth skin. It also has anti-fungal properties. For over 2000 years it has been the acknowledged beauty secret of Myanmar women. Some women smear it over their whole body at night. It is made from the ground bark of the thanaka tree, (Murraya paniculata). which grow abundantly in central Myanmar. Thanaka trees are perennials and a tree must be at least 35 years old to yield good-quality cuttings.
We stopped at a silversmith shop, which was a waste of time, but which seems to be a standard procedure if you let the guides have their way. Artisans were showing the simple tools they used to imprint intricate bas-reliefs on silver cups, boxes, etc. So it was late dusk when we reached U Bein’s bridge, which the guide would have skipped had I not insisted on going there. This is a remarkable 1.2 km long foot bridge leading across the shallows of Thaungthaman(b) Lake. The bridge, which has 1060 posts, is made completely out of teak and after 200 years of service it is still in very good shape. It is the longest teak bridge in the world. There are several shaded areas on the bridge and many food stalls at the start of the bridge and there was a lot of traffic on it when we were there.
Below: U Bein’s Bridge, the longest bridge in the world made of teak.
Dinner was at the Green Elephant Restaurant and we stayed at the Mandalay Sedona Hotel. As befitting a 5 star establishment, they charge $11/min for telephone calls to the USA and internet access was $5 for 30 minutes. They also provided only two small bottles of water for drinking. You have to pay if you want more. Drinking water out of the tap is not recommended in all of Myanmar, unless you are sure your stomach is lined with lead; or better yet, with gold.

Mingun
We left in the morning to catch a boat on the Ayeryawady River to go to Mingun, about 11 km upstream on the opposite side of the river. It was a very pleasant boat ride on the deck of a covered barge. Our first destination was Mingun Paya, the world’s largest pile of man-made rubble. King Bodawpaya had in mind to build a pagoda which would reach the base of Heaven. It would be 450 feet high, or three times the height of the present ruins. Construction started in 1790 using thousands of slaves and stopped when the king died in 1819. In 1838 an earthquake caused two large fissures to appear in the face of the monument. We walked the 200+ steps to the top of this dilapidated rubble heap, on our bare feet perforce, because there are still figures of Buddha in the paya. As we nursed our sore feet we did enjoy from the top the fine view of the river, the village and the surrounding temples.
right: The ruins of Mingun Paya. To get impression of size, see the man in the lower left corner.
To get to the other sights from Mingun Paya, the furthest one about 500 feet away, some of our group took an oxcart. It was very touristy, and it supported the local economy. That way one would also miss walking by the rows ands rows of shops selling snacks, souvenirs and assorted knick-knacks. Our first stop was at the Mingun Bell, the largest hanging, uncracked bell in the world.(c) King Bodawpaya had decided to also cast the largest bronze bell in the world to go with his stupendous paya. The bell weighs 90 tons, is about 12 feet high and is about 15 feet across the lip.
Hsinbyume Paya.
This white-washed stucco temple, also known as Myatheindam, shown on the left, is one of the most beautiful payas on our tour. It was built by king Bagydaw in 1816 in memory of his late senior wife, the Hsinbyume princess. The temple represents Sulamani Paya, which stands on the top of Mt. Meru, the mountain which, according to the Buddhist scheme of things, stands at the center of the universe. Around the temple are seven wavy terraces, symbolizing the seven mountain ranges around the mountain. Everything was white. The structure was also badly damaged in the huge 1838 earthquake, but it was restored in 1874 by king Mindon.
The picture on the top of this page shows the frontal view of this Paya.

Other Mandalay Stuff
We took our barge back to Mandalay and had lunch at Nandar Restaurant, close to the jetty. They had a nice open-air pavilion built high on the banks of the Ayeryawady river with wonderful views. After lunch we drove to the Royal Palace, which was in this huge, 4 by 4 km large walled compound. The palace itself looked suspiciously like all the previous palaces we have seen, but this one maybe a little larger. This is a good example of the saying: “once you have seen one, you have seen it all ... “. Lots of crimson and gold, curved roofs, but the style is similar. As Norma remarked: “I have seen this place before .... “. King Thibaw used to live here when the British forces seized the city and sent the king to India in exile. The British then used the palace as the colony’s Government House and British Club. Major portions of the original palace were destroyed in WWII and what we now see is the reconstructed version.

The Shwe In Bin Kyaung Monastery.
Our next stop was the Shwe In Bin Kyaung monastery, built completely out of teak, which had been commissioned by a pair of wealthy Chinese jade merchants. It was built in 1895 and the locals call it the “teak monastery”. The doors, walls, balustrades and the roof cornices are covered with detailed engravings. King Thibaw apparently used this place occasionally as a royal apartment.
right: The ornately carved walls of the “Teak Monastery”.

The Kuthodaw Paya.
Also known as the Maha Lawka Marazein Paya, the site bills itself as having the world’s largest book. In 1860 the entire 15 books of the Tripitaka were chiseled on some 729 marble slabs, each about 2’ feet and 3’ tall and each housed in its own small stupa. The project took 8 years to complete. The Tripitaka(c) is the collection of the Buddhist canon of scriptures, applying to both the Theravada and the Mahayana schools. The scriptures were handed down orally, then written down around the third century BC. The first “basket” contains the 5 books of the Vinaya Pitaka, or the code of ethics, to be obeyed by the sangha, the monastic community, and by the monks and the nuns. The second collection comprises of the 3 books of the Sutra Pitaka, an account of the teachings of Lord Buddha. The third “basket” contains the Abhidharma Pitaka, a collection of songs, poetry, and stories of Buddha and his past lives. It also contains many philosophical texts, in which the underlying principles presented in the Sutra Pitaka have been reworked and reorganized into a systematic framework. There appears to be two versions of this third basket. What is inscribed here in this Paya are the seven books of the Pali Canon. (d)
left: Part of the Kuthodaw Paya. Each of the small white stupas to the left houses a slab of the Tripitaka.
In 544 BC the first Buddhist Synod was held, just 3 months after the demise of lord Buddha. And it was more than 2400 years later, that King Mindon convened the 5th Buddhist Synod at his palace in Mandalay. That was in 1871 and at that time a team of 2500 Sayadaw monks from five Buddhist countries recited and edited the Tripitaka treatises in a non-stop relay lasting 6 months.
The temple complex covers 13 acres of land to contain the main and auxiliary zedis, as well as the 729 small white stupas. The main gilded pagoda itself is quite large and stands 188 feet high. Inside the buildings the decorations are opulent. King Mindon had this complex built starting in 1859.
Right: One of the hallways in the temple complex, awash in red and gold decorations.

Mandalay Hill.
Our bus took us to the base of Mandalay Hill, where we were transferred into pickup trucks with two parallel wooden benches in the back. These trucks are the only vehicles allowed to go up the steep, narrow switchback road to the top. The other choice is to walk up the 700 feet high hill, which is apparently not too bad, except that you have to do that on your bare feet. That was the real challenge. The pickup trucks scream up the hill and stop at the top; well, almost. You still have to take off your shoes and enter an elevator which takes you to the platform on the real top.
Below: The temple on the top of Mandalay Hill.
There is a temple, lavishly adorned with glass tiles, and an open air-platform to enjoy the view, which was, as expected, rather hazy. We have come to expect most views in the Far East to be hazy because of pollution and smog in the air. It was still a popular place to watch the sunset, and there were throngs of people doing just that. We decided to skip 15 minutes early to avoid the the crush of departing tourists.

(a): Nats are spirits, which have been revered since pre-Buddha times.
(b): Thaungthaman was an ogre who was looking for the lord Buddha.
(c): The largest bell is in Moscou, but that one is cracked.
(d): The three pitakas (baskets) possibly refer to three baskets holding the set of palm leaves on which the texts were originally written.