Mandalay

I've spent the last two days wandering around Mandalay, a lovely city with tons to do and see. We arrived bright and early on the morning of the 5th after a long night bus journey. The bus seats were very cramped and to give ourselves some laughs, we tried to picture Scott and Matt fitting into them. I'm not sure they would have. 

Danna and I spent our first day in Mandalay walking, climbing stairs and taking in the sights. Our first stop was at the Royal Palace and Fort. The fort is still used and restricted to foreigners. There was a sign with very specific routes and places for foreigners to walk along and visit. The Palace portion was very interesting but empty. It was destroyed during WWII but rebuilt for historical purposes in the years after the war. Most of the buildings were completely empty except the main pagoda and royal chambers. Even these didn't have that much in them, only a sign or two explaining the significance and a couple of artifacts. My favorite spot in the palace was a watch tower of sorts that we were able to go up in and get a great aerial view of the palace and surrounding fort.

Standing Buddha

Our last spot of the day was at Mandalay Hill. Apparently, you can climb this in 45 minutes if you're ambitious but Danna and I got way too distracted by the amazing views of the city and all the different pagodas and alters we found on the way up. As legend has it, many centuries ago, Buddha climbed the hill and prophesied that in the 1800s a city would be built at the base of the hill. To enshrine this prophesy, a huge Standing Buddha statue, pointing towards Mandalay, was placed about halfway up the hill. In all there was to see along the way, this statue was my favorite. The statue itself was incredibly impressive and the area itself was quiet, giving a certain peace that I found lacking at the top.



What a view! The top of Mandalay Hill is truly spectacular. It is set at the edge of the city so half the view is of rice paddies and the surrounding mountains while the other half is of the city. The view of the city was better than what I was expecting because there are so many trees, especially in the Royal Palace and Fort that most of it doesn't look Iike a typical city. While up here I did learn an interesting fact about the bells that are located everywhere around the pagodas. I've always wondered why the Burmese rang them with seemingly no rhyme or reason, but it is to drive away ghosts. The Burmese believe the ghosts don't like the noise of the bell so the sound drives them higher and farther away from the pagoda.

Day two in Mandalay, we rented bicycles to visit a few different areas. The first spot was Shwenandaw Kyang, the only part of the original Royal Palace that survived the bombing. As history has it, the building was disassembled and moved outside the palace walls following King Mindon's death because his successor couldn't deal with the ghosts inside it. The building itself is this intricately carved building that I found so amazing. No detail was spared on any part of it. If Mandalay Hill was my favorite spot, this place was easily my second favorite. 

Next, we went to the impressive World's Biggest Book, also known as Kuthodaw Paya. It houses hundreds of small white buildings. Each building houses a stone tablet that has the different 'pages' of the books on either side of them. It housed at least three complete books and one that tells of the making of Kuthodaw Paya. It was awesome to see and left me in awe of someone's ambition to have this place created.

The last adventure of the day was biking to a completely different part of the city to see some handcraft shops and a gold leaf pounding workshop. The gold leaf pounding was astonishing and brought new meaning to the term labor intensive! I don't remember all the details but know that there are three different pounding sessions that take place. They include a first 30 minute session, followed by an hour long session and it is all finished with a 5 hour long session. Each session is continuous. The way they are seated also looks extremely uncomfortable. The workers sit on benches but are bent at the waist to pound the gold leaf which is located at their feet.

In all, Mandalay has been amazing and I am looking forward to seeing what the surrounding areas have to offer.