Day # 8 The Road to Mandalay and Inwa

Day #8 The Road to Mandalay and Inwa

 January 11

While Kipling and the word Mandalay, the ancient capital of Burma, evoke images of something traditional and timeless, our entry to this city is one of roads choked with cars and motorcycles and lined by concrete buildings with Chinese-looking architecture. There is no evidence of British Colonial buildings such as we saw in Yangon. Oo Myint our guide tells us that this city of 2 million people was destroyed in the war and has been completely rebuilt with funding from China.  One-third of the city people are Chinese. 

Inwa Village 

Driver of our boat 

We begin the day by visiting the sights outside the city, which are the main attraction and more like Kipling’s images, although quite touristy. We take a local ferry to Inwa (Ava), the former capital located on an island between two rivers. It feels very authentic, yet is clearly a tourist destination as it is teaming with horse carts. 

Lucy with her driver 

John and I board one of these carts which holds two persons per cart ~ one in front with driver and one behind.  

We pass by ruined pagodas sprinkled in amongst rice fields and embroidered with palm trees. Occasionally a large cart filled with palm branches and pulled by oxen goes by us. 

We pass by some monasteries and a 90-foot leaning Watch Tower no longer open for climbing to the top because of a recent earthquake. By now I’ve stopped trying to memorize the names of all these temples, pagodas and stupas because I realize I already can’t remember those from Bagan the day before (even though I only saw a fraction of the 4000 available to see).  Al, one of our group members, tells me I have become stupefied. Indeed… I am overloaded with amazing images. 

This was a particularly beautiful monastery. 

Our guide Oo tells us that the last monastery we see on this island is an entirely teak built, simple but elegant monastery dating from 1834 AD. 

We view two monks writing and reading on the floor with limited light available from the sun streaming through the window. I am concerned about their eyesight and think about the solar powered flashlights we saw the day before in the well-manicured and clean village on Tune Thiri Island.

Monk Teachers at Work 

Monk School (no electricity)

We have lunch outside at a beautiful restaurant having our usual Burmese meal with a focus on fish and chicken and then take the ferry back to modern city life.

John's discovery

John decides to take a break from the tour and hires a taxi back to check into the hotel.  Little do we know he is about to have a magical experience. His cab driver is excited when they come across a “coming of age” celebration for young children (ages 7-20) that includes families elegantly dressed including several elephants. They park to watch this colorful parade and the driver tells John this is clearly a rich family because it is so elaborate.  Once back at the hotel John is immersed with these pictures so he can show me when I return. 

Meanwhile back with the tour group we take a brief stop at a silver factory. We see how the silver is being made and etched and pass by a display of beautiful necklaces. Virginia, Nicole, Avis and I try some of these on. I am attracted by a four string black jade necklace with silver balls and know this is something I have never worn before. The other women tell me how wonderful it looks and I think about buying it but don’t want to bargain. My coaches ask the price and then offer less. The vendor comes down partway but not as far as they are suggesting. So they recommend we walk out of the store and we do so.  However, the vendor does not come running after me to accept our price. I decide that with such positive feedback from these women that I should buy it ~ a spur of the moment decision and I’m not sure what got into me.

We visit another stupa that we all like because of its simplicity. 

However, I seem to be more entranced by the beauty of the 
people themselves. 

Nunnery School

Nuns studying - no electricity and no glasses 

School Director 

Next we go to visit a nunnery school. We talk to the director and view children studying ~ again with no desks as we observe them sitting and writing on the floor with lighting from the open door. They are wearing pink and orange num garments and Virginia comments she would rather be a monk because she likes the saffron color better than pink and orange.  There are approximately 300 nunneries in Burma and the founder of this school started when she was 7 years old and is now 95 years.  Maybe she should meet my 95-year-old father!

Wants a picture of us! 

U-Bein Teak Bridge

We end the day by going to the U-Bein teak bridge built in 1851. It is 3,200 feet long, has no hand rails, the floor boards are uneven with nails protruding and would not come close to passing any American code regulations for safety.



Yet there are hundreds of people walking the bridge and waiting for the sun to set, as this is one of the most photographed bridges in Asia. 

Sitting on the bridge 

Our group all decides we are too tired to wait for the sun to set for picture taking. David the semi-professional photographer in our group tells us we can make our pictures look like a sunset with Photoshop so why wait.  He shows me a magnificent picture he has taken of the bridge. Mine will not be nearly as good but hopefully good enough.  Nothing can really capture the magic of this place.