Walking Tour

Mandalay, Myanmar
March 12, 2009

We are greeted at the bus station by a driver who will take us to the hotel we have selected. Tun Tun also joins us to try to sell us his tour services. The taxi this time is a small truck with a covered bed and wooden benches. There was just enough room for our bags, Bill, Tun Tun and I in the back.

Bill liked the look of the room at Royal City Hotel and we checked in. The young lady at the desk provided us with some tea and was able to book our boat ride (15 hours again) to Bagan and our flights to Inle Lake and Yangon.

We met Bob Truant from Alaska in the lobby. He is teaching English here. He gave us some great advice on restaurants - To To Myanmar, Marie Min and Ko's Kitchen.

We were able to have some eggs, bananas, juice, toast, jam and tea at the hotel for breakfast for $1.50

After a short nap we decided to do the 2.3K walking tour. We turned it into a 4 or 5K walk though! I am not sure how we managed, but both Bill and I got us turned around a couple of times!

We walked by the Cultural Museum, but skipped it because we can get a $10 pass at the Palace which includes entry here too. We stopped at Shwekyimyint Paya which was founded in 1167 by the exiled Prince Minshinzaw. It contains the Buddha that the Prince originally dedicated there during the Bagan period. There are several other Buddha images in gold and silver.

We stopped as the tour indicated at Nylon Ice Cream Bar. We shared a strawberry ice cream because they were out of vanilla for Bill.

We walked by the clock tower and walked through the Zeigyo Market. It is in a three story building and has everything - clothes, fabric, food, flowers, jewelry, house hold goods, toiletries,... It is like a mall. 

We found Eindawya Paya which has a Buddha with Naga protecting him and a large gold leaf zedi. Once again the camera is a big hit with some boys who were playing with pretend swords there.

Nearby there is a couple of shops were monks can purchase the items they need. That was really neat, we had not seen that before. We also passed by several streets that had huge baskets of garlic, ginger and onions. That street made Bill sneeze a lot. We could not find the recommended Paya - Sethyathiha, so maybe another day. We stopped for tea and water and then walked back to our room to freshen up.

On our way out a young man with a trishaw (a bike with 2 seats - one faces back and the other faces the same way as the biker) offered to take us to Mandalay Hill for 2000 kyat ($2 US). So, we hopped on. The poor kid! I can not believe he offered to wait and take us back. I wouldn't have!

It took us 1/2 an hour in bare feed on dirty stone and tile to climb to the top on Mandalay Hill. Along the way there were many shrines and Buddhas. One of the shrines was Peshawar Relics - 3 of Buddhas bones. Another shrine was a standing image of the Buddha pointing toward the palace. The legend states that Buddha climbed the hill and predicted 2400 years later that this spot would one day be a city and that was fulfiled in 1857 by King Mindon Min. We tried to give some kids dollar store bubbles, but they did not work very well. The glow sticks were pretty good though

The very top has a great panoramic view of the city. Sadly it has clouded over and our view is limited.

We were given a trishaw ride to To To and sampled Myanmar food again. It was very good. We tried several veggie dishes - mushrooms and greens, corn, lentil soup, ect., plus prawns and chicken. It was all very good again!

We are just relaxing now and are probably going to have an early night. Bill's tummy was rumbling today, so he is back on track for weight loss! LOL!