The Road to (and from) Mandalay

13 February 2017

The night bus from Inle Lake arrived to Mandalay early this morning (4am). We were able to find a guest house that allowed us to check in early and we crashed for a while. Once we were back in the land of the living we headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. The breakfast was all laid out in bain-maries - but they weren't hot. Given the gastro experience was still fresh in our minds we went with the safe option for breakfast.

Safe breakfast - complete with cup of hot water as Mark couldn't work the tea machine.

Mark was keen to hire motorbikes so that we could explore further afield than just on foot around Mandalay city. He had found an ex-pat American chicken farmer / motorbike rental shop so we headed there. We were able to get two semi-automatic motorbikes together with helmets and lots of great advice about places to visit, including the four ancient capitals outside of Mandalay.

We then drove back through the morning traffic to our hotel. It was horrible. Within about two minutes of leaving the rental store there was a head on collision between two scooters and one of the drivers ended up lying on the road. There are traffic lights which are generally adhered to but if you want to get from A to B and it is easier to just drive straight down the oncoming lane so be it. Mark and I seemed to be the only ones using indicators - everyone else signalled by coming up behind someone and then honking the horn until the other vehicle pulled over to the side of the road to let them pass. Once we were back at the hotel Mark asked me how the ride was - fucking awful. He very sensibly agreed that there was a bit more traffic than he had anticipated when he suggested that we should hire motorbikes.

We dumped the bikes and headed around the corner to a roadside stall to get Mohinga (a noodle soup) for breakfast. We had a great chat with the next door stall owner about our trip around Myanmar and how we were enjoying it. There was then some frantic chat between our new friend and the owner of the store we were eating at - the price of our breakfast dropped by a third. We must have said the right things!

Revived after our breakfast it was time to give the motorbikes another chance. The first stop on our ancient capitals tour was Sagaing Hill. From the temple on the top of the hill there were views over the Irrawaddy river, a whole bunch of stupas and back towards Mandalay itself.

Giant Buddha complete with flashing LED's

These young monks got in trouble from the temple keeper for being too boisterous

School's out for the young Buddhist nuns as we head away from Sagaing Hill.

Our next capital was Amarapura - it is the home of the world's longest teak bridge. It was a very long teak bridge. There were many many people who wanted to see the large teak bridge. We stayed to watch some of the sunset and then decided our time was better spent by making sure we had finished our ride and were back at the hotel before it was dark.

The large teak bridge

[So large - M]

On the drive back to the hotel Mark and I got separated as he nipped across a railway crossing and I got stuck behind the barriers. This did provide Mark with the perfect opportunity to get a sweet photo of the volume of traffic we rode in - much to the amusement of the crowd around me.

Where's Frank?

We made it back to the hotel safely and utterly exhausted. After dumping the bikes we headed out for dinner at a local restaurant. As seems to be the Burmese way although we ordered just a curry each by the time all of the various accompaniments arrived we had a small feast.

So much delicious food....

14 February 2017

Valentines day was the perfect day for more motorbike adventures. The motorbike rental company had suggested a circular route that took us from Mandalay to the Anisakan Falls and then back to Mandalay over the course of a day.

Vroom vroom

The ride to Anisakan Falls was about an hour and a half and then the walk down to the falls itself was about half an hour down a fully formed path. But once we got to the falls - wow. Pools of crystal clear water and a large waterfall. We jumped in for what was a very refreshing swim. The mild hypothermia helped us with the walk back up the hill though.

Anisakan Falls - complete with random other tourist

We left the falls and continued on the circular loop back towards the city. The route recommended by the rental store had us on back roads that took us through small villages and crop plantations. The only other people we saw for much of the ride were the children from the villages who waved to us as we whizzed by. At one point when we stopped for a break on the side of the road Mark asked how I was enjoying the ride. I had to admit that I had had a bit of an epiphany - I loved travelling by motorbike!

15 February 2017
Today was the end of our time in Myanmar as we were catching a flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. We got up early as we had heard that the sunrise from Mandalay Hill - the highpoint of the city - was worth seeing. We paid the 20 cents so that we could drive our bikes up the hill, rather than having to walk up, like the many people getting their morning exercise.

We wandered around the temple at the top of Mandalay Hill as we waited (and waited) for the sun to rise. Unfortunately due to all of the smog you weren't actually able to tell that the sun had risen until it was well up in the sky.

Mark made his own fun at the temple

Later that evening we arrived to Siem Reap. The visa on arrival process was bureaucracy at its finest. You handed your passport and cash to the official. Your passport then went along a line of nine more officials who made some small important handwritten change to the visa sticker or stamped the sticker officiously. Despite the many pairs of hands the visa process was remarkably efficient. The same could not be said for the immigration officials. We dutifully stood in a queue which then just randomly closed and then another counter opened - causing a flurry of tourists to run to the newly opened counter. This happened multiple times. [over the course of the better part of a friggin' hour we spent in a queue that was only like 10 people long. -M]

From Mandalay we had changed planes at Bangkok en route to Siem Reap. Unfortunately the quick turnaround was not long enough for our bags to make it onto the plane with us. We stared forlornly at the baggage claim for a while before giving up and heading to lost and found. We then had the best introduction to our time in Cambodia.

The man managing the lost and found counter at Siem Reap airport welcomed us into his office. He promised that the bags were on the next flight from Bangkok - an hour away. We could stay at his office or have the bags sent to our guest house later tonight. As we didn't yet have a guest house we elected to wait. He then made it his mission to help us book a guest house. Mark and I would randomly call out phone numbers of guest houses as we located them and he would telephone the various options speaking to them in Khmer for us. Once we had a guest house secured he then rang the plane to see how it was tracking against the scheduled arrival time. As promised, when the next plane arrived our bags also magically appeared.

Airline company lost your bags - no problem!