THE TATTERED PASSPORT: Mandalay, Myanmar

THE ROAD TO MANDALAY
The road from Yangon to Mandalay is about 700km long. When we bought our tickets we were told that the journey would take about 13 hours, maybe a little more depending on traffic. The trip took us 19 hours stopping a few times for food and once for a flat tire but on hearing stories from other travelers I considered us very fortunate. Two days later we met an English bloke whose journey took 27 hours with numerous stops for mechanical repairs including one where considerable welding was involved. I'll take the flat tire any day.

The moat in front of the Royal Palace at Mandalay

The covered walkway on Mandalay Hill

Like Yangon the Mandalay long distance bus station is a long way from the centre of town - even the airport is closer. I had heard that they had been moved recently in order to create more income for the local taxi drivers but I'm not sure of this is true or not. There were certainly plenty of taxi and trishaw drivers about but the competition is likely to keep the prices very low.
Unlike Yangon we found that there were many motorbikes in Mandalay. We didn't notice at first but it was a peculiar difference that I never figured out. Mandalay is very flat, apart from Mandalay Hill so maybe that had something to so with it.

Htilaingshin Paya at Inwa

For two days we hit the tourists sights - the Royal Palace, the clichéd Mandalay hill at sunset which was overcrowded with bus loads of tour groups, the nearby towns of Sagaing, Inwa and Amarapura crawling with monks but excellent at sunset. One of the most memorable attractions was the Moustache Brothers comedy show. Only two of the brothers have moustaches but I guess that is one of their jokes. They are a jovial lot, light on the comedy side but rich in ethnic dancing and very interested in talking to travelers and explaining their story. The oldest brother, Par Par Lay spent seven years in prison for telling anti government jokes back in 1995. He is a free man now and he laughs and smiles and speaks a little English but the years of hard labour tell on his face. The middle brother runs the show and has a great time boasting that while his brother was in jail he was number one, but now he's number two again. The profile they receive from Amnesty International means that it is unlikely that any of them would ever be arrested again but they are confined to performing in the front room of their modest house for tourists only. Afterwards we chatted with them briefly but promised to return again during the day when we could talk candidly about their history in greater detail.

Sunset at Amarapura