Mandalay – pierreo.com – Join me on my journey

We did sooooooo much in Mandalay and saw sooooo many memorable things that I forgot one visit in the previous post.

Near Amanapura, another old Burmese Capital, there is a shallow lake crossed by a rickety teak bridge – U Bein (the bridge was named after the mayor of Amanapura) Bridge was built over 200 years old and is still the longest Teak span in the world – and it is spectacular.

The views around the lake from the bridge were not bad either. This fishermen in his narrow boat seemed to attract water fowl.

I was fascinated by this dead tree and the fisherman standing nearby

Row boats were used to shuttle us back. As we crossed the bridge, they were slowly getting into position to get our business.

From the water, the bridge looks even more spectacular and light – one wanders how it stayed up there so long

Continue reading “Myanmar 3 – Mandalay and then Bagan” →

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After Yangon, we flew to Mandalay, the last capital of the Burmese Kingdom before the British invasion.

The royal palace complex is a huge square (2 km by 2 km) surrounded by a very wide moat.

As soon as you cross the moat and enter through one of the many gates (however only one that can be used by foreigners), the hustle and bustle of the city disappears, but not the people. The military occupies most of the space with living quarters and training areas.

The palace complex is surrounded by its own fortifications with interesting ancient watch towers.

The palace itself was completely destroyed at the end of WWII and rebuilt out of concrete instead of wood. However it still possible to imagine what life was like in the time before the British took over.

Mandalay itself is a much smaller town than Yangon and felt even more like a return back in time.

I found this old post card

Continue reading “Myanmar 2 – Mandalay” →

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