MANDALAY

The city itself is a huge flat sprawl. In the centre is the former royal palace, now largely given over to an army camp. It’s about 3km square and bounded by a high crenellated wall inside a moat about 150 yards wide. There no way across it for traffic so everything must go around it.

We had two full days there – the first day we arranged for a car and driver to take us to three separate places outside the main city. These were Sagaing, Inwa and Amarapura – all former capital cities going back many centuries. On the way the driver stopped unasked at the Mahamuni pagoda which was a real treat because there were several groups engaged in the process of children becoming monks – all dressed up and decorated. It was a really big deal for them. 

Behind the boys is the base of a large buddha - it's bobbly because of people continually adding gold leaf as part of their devotions.....

After that we stopped at a huge monastery just as it was time for the monks to have their lunch – long lines of them filing past groups of ladies doling out rice and curry into their bowls. We were able to have a look into the kitchens – quite frankly I think they would have been condemned in Europe in the middle ages. Inside was a big stone structure with two fires near the bottom and several holes set in the surface to hold enormous woks. The cook was stirring it with a long paddle. No work surfaces in sight, no running water to be seen and everything looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. I wouldn’t want to clean my car in there, never mind cook a meal.

A group of people were washing chickens outside in a huge vat of water which had turned a dirty red colour. 

Then we crossed the Irawaddy on one of two bridges to visit Sagaing – a collection of many monuments , temples and monasteries set on a range of low hills overlooking the river.

After lunch it was back across the river on the other bridge to be dropped off at a point where a little ferry took us to Inwa, which is a huge site and we needed a horse and buggy for a couple of hours to take us around.

On the way back into town we stopped in Amarapura – the main item of interest here is an old bridge nearly a mile long and made solely of teak, going across a lake. At the time we were there it was about 15 feet down to the water but apparently in the wet season the water is lapping around the walkway.

And while we were on the bridge Pam made some new friends...........

Next day we decided to wander around on our own. The first stop was an area where various small workshops make gold leaf for use in offerings at Buddhist monuments. Fascinating watch as they put tiny quantities of gold between bits of paper until they had something that resembled a block of post-it notes. They then secured the bundle and hit it repeatedly with a three pound hammer. They told us it would take about an hour of this to get the leaf to the required degree of fineness. Hard work.

Then the leaf was given over to a group of ladies who handled it with tweezers and a sharp tool made from water buffalo horn to form it into evenly-shaped squares.

After that we had a long walk through various areas where there were all sorts of small scale commercial activity going on – stone cutting, jewellery making etc.

A short cab ride took us to the walls of the royal palace. There are four entrances, NESW, but “foreigners” are only allowed to enter through the eastern gateway. It was quite a long walk from the wall to the centre where the palace buildings are and, because of the army presence, we were not allowed to deviate from the direct route. Not a huge amount to see there  - replica buildings replacing originals which had been taken over by the british during their occupation and later destroyed during WWII, but there was a tower to climb which gave a great vantage point to get a good idea of the sheer scale of the area within the walls and moat. It’s vast.

On crossing back over the moat we asked a taxi to take us to Mandalay Hill – it seemed like a good place to watch the sunset. We agreed a price with the driver – about a fiver – and once we were moving he offered to stop at a couple of other places on the way – for the same price. We were a bit tired by then so not very enthusiastic but he was quite keen that we see so we agreed. The first was a temple which had “the biggest book in the world” – line upon line of stupas (729 in total) each housing a marble slab with writings from a Buddhist text on them. Quite something to see.

The second was an old monastery made entirely of teak which had originally been in the royal palace but moved and so escaped the destruction. Again, lovely to see with fine carved doors and roof panels.

After this our driver offered to wait for us at the top of the hill and then take us to yet another monastery which was “special”. Of course this involved an increase in the price  - to about £9 – so we negotiated that he would also take us back to the hotel (we were going to need that anyway) so we were both happy.

It turned out that Mandalay Hill was OK but not great – the views were limited by haze – so we were quite please that he had the alternative for us. It turned out that the monastery was the one where he had done his bit many years ago so he knew it well. He showed us the kitchens – again mediaeval – and a fairly new building which was a lovely library.

Mainly burmese texts but there were small sections for other languages. We had a look at the English language sections – a number of dictionaries and some encyclopaedias, some books about various aspects of Buddhism and even a few airport-style novels – John Grisham etc. Fair enough. But what really surprised me was a US Army Field Operations Manual and, even more unexpected, a copy of Mein Kampf.

While we were walking around there were many young monks engaged in sweeping leaves – our driver told us that it was a daily task for them at this time to make sure the entire area was tidy. Our thought, not expressed to him, was – sod the leaves, get them to clean the bloody kitchens

At six o’clock a drum was sounded and the monks silently formed up in long lines in what looked like order of seniority, and then processed, chanting, to the prayer hall where they took their places for what was going to be an hour or more of chanting/praying. On the walk to the prayer hall all were very serious, intent on their prayers,

except for one little boy at the very back who was otherwise engaged………well, what do they expect at that age?