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The Boat Trip

A recurring theme throughout my Myanmar entries are the epics than getting from A to B turned out to be, and the trip from Bagan to Mandalay didn't really turn out any different. 5:30am was the scheduled departure time for what seemed like quite a luxurious boat. I found a row to myself, curled up and caught 40 winks. It took me a couple of hours to figure out that there was something not quite right. The fact that we hadn't moved was a clue!

It turned out that there were 'technical difficulties' and they were waiting on an engineer to come and save the day. The boat was a government run affair and the boss stood by the shore with his mobile permanently to his ear. It was the first mobile I had seen in the country in two weeks. The government have made owning a mobile out of reach for the peasants. The boss wanted to load us onto a bus to make the trip, but a local university teacher that was onboard insisted that his students were there to make a boat trip and that's what they were going to get. The engineering magician turned up at 9:40am, and by some miracle once his foot touched the boat it started to move. Nobody could quite figure what was going on. There were a couple of theories: the engineer was the boss' buddy and he wouldn't leave without him or that he just wouldn't leave without an engineer onboard and made up that the boat was broken.

Due to our late start, we didn't make it to Mandalay before dark. Low water levels mean that it's very easy to get any kind of boat stuck on a sand bank, so we stopped. Our friendly boss efficiently loaded us into two pickups for the final hour's trip to Mandalay.

Mandalay

Idan and myself had planned to head north for Bhamo by boat, but an early morning trip to the inland waterways office put and end to that. The departures for the three day boat trip would mean that we'd miss the festival in Myitkyna that we were headed for. The train was the only option. On the way back from the inland waterways office, I took a brave decision and visited one of the local barbers for a haircut.

My only way of communicating the haircut that I wanted was from quite an old Westlife poster that was hanging on the wall. The barber was only too delighted to give it a go. By this time I had gathered a small passing audience. Two monks were sitting watching attentively with one of their friends standing behind. As would happen in all good movies, there was a English teacher that had his classroom behind the barber shop. He had heard that I was in the neighborhood and came for a look. After some small talk, he ran back to his classroom to get his camera and take a snap. (see photo of my own)

By the time we got to Mandalay, Idan and myself had been through a hectic two weeks of travel. We took it a little easy on 'the sights' and wandered the local areas instead. One of Mandalay's attraction that we did take in are the famous Moustache Brothers. The comedy trio are famed for their bold satire of the government. Two of the guys have spent five years in prison and hard labour as punishment for their unwelcome jokes. We were really looking forward to the show, but what we got was more than a little bit of a let down. We expected the comic heroes to put on a true comedy show to entertain the tourists that turned out. What it actually turned out to be was more of a routine that they go through every night to make quite a bit of money off the guests to their house. Because they are banned from public performances, they hold the show in their house and have a 'donation' as payment. Nothing negotiable about this steep donation though! Sure I feel sorry for the guys with what they went through and all, but if they put on a comedy show it's not too much to expect something funny thrown in.

My shopping in Mandalay consisted of one purchase, a local Bamar longyi, the local 'dress'. Ok, so I might look a bit funny in something that looks like a straight skirt, but with the upcoming festival in the north a special effort was in order. If I had seen the Chriatiano Ronaldo Man Utd longyi in time, it might just have swayed me! (see photo) I wondered how much Christiano got from this particular branding campaign!

Amarapura Teak Bridge

On the outskirts of Mandalay, the Amarapura Teak Bridge is billed as the longest teak bridge in the world. I'm not too sure what the competition consists of, but Idan and myself chartered one of the little Mazda taxis buzzing about Mandalay to made the trip one afternoon. We had to make sure that we would dodge the government entry fee (putting money into the wrong hands and all that). The taxi drivers all know the drill and I still don't actually know where the ticket check was.

My first mission on the bridge was to gain some good karma or merit for what's up next. Locals sit by the start of the bridge with cages of birds. Releasing a bird from the torture of being held in a cage is supposed to bring good merit to the kind soul and it's a lot quicker and cheaper than building a stupa! I'm not sure how much merit is gained from bargaining hard to release just one of the small birds that they had, but is has to be better than nothing? (see photo)

The bridge itself was a very nice trip. Locals crossed for their final destination of the day coming up to sunset. The bridge itself is over 2km long with the mandatory betel nut stands and other bits and pieces along the way. Locals sat cooling off enjoying ice-cream (ok, so I did as well) while the tourists rowed out to 'sunset point' on the lake. Sunset wasn't half bad sitting relaxing on the bridge either! (see photo).

The most popular form of local taxi is what the locals call a tri-shaw, basically a push bike with a side car bolted on that can take two passengers. I had seen them in every city we had been in so far and was anxious to try one out. Headed for the train station, Idan and myself chartered one. The first thing that I noticed (apart from the fact that the poor skinny little guy wasn't used to two foreigners on his bike) was that where brake pads usually press against the wheel to slow, there was .......... nothing? Dodging anything that might pose a risk involved cycling parallel to it first and then slowly moving across it. When we were getting close to our destination, I got a bit curious and stopped our driver. I signalled him to sit into my seat and I hopped up on the saddle. It actually move along quite easily. A foreigner driving a trishaw with two passengers on board in the middle of Mandalay caused more than a little bit of a stir with the locals, a chorus of hysterical laughter and cheering with every doorway that I passed!