Walking to the Hill
I am loving the country of Myanmar more and more every day. Robbie and I had such a great day today! Woke up early this morning after probably the best night?s sleep I?ve had in weeks, had breakfast on the roof of the hotel with a view of Mandalay, and then set out to see the town. There are actually many sights to see in Mandalay but the government charges fees for each of them and it can easily add up to over $30 if you want to see them all (that?s a lot of money for a budget traveler by the way). The main reason not to fork out the money is because it all goes to the (evil) government and we want to give them as little as possible. So we decided to go to only one and chose Mandalay Hill with a $3 admission.
It?s a far walk from our hotel to the hill, but we had all day to do it and we decided it would be a nice way to see the city. We walked along the Mandalay Fort wall which is huge, about 2 km on each side. It was a nice walk along the moat on the outside. No tourists anywhere and just a random Burmese person on a bike every now and again. We got about 3 km or so around and found a nice place for a coffee and cake break at the Swan Hotel. Robbie and I spent about an hour or so just chatting away. When we finished we decided to look at a room just for the hell of it to see how the other half lives. Nice room ? air con, tv, fridge, pool, gym, and tennis court. A double room including breakfast cost $45. Not bad if you split between two people but we are in an air con room (with breakfast) for $6 and it?s pretty hard to beat that.
Anyway when we were in the lobby we realized they had a business center so we asked about email. There is NO internet in Myanmar but at this hotel you can send an email for $1.50/KB. No receiving, only sending. I decided it would be worth it to tell the folks I?m ok so Robbie and I split the cost of one email which I sent to my Dad. I asked him in the email to call Robbie?s family in Northern Ireland and tell them he?s ok too. We were very excited to be able to make a connection to home.
~Side note: The government of Myanmar reads (and edits) all of the emails before they are sent out of the country. Almost one month later and my Dad still has not received that email.~
From the hotel we continued to walk around the fort towards Mandalay Hill. As we walked we noticed another lone foreigner up ahead and in another few minutes we caught up to him so we began chatting and walking together. Mike is from Australia and is currently working in Hanoi, Vietnam. Really nice guy. We walked along for a bit and then stopped to have a drink because the heat was slowing all of us down. There we sat for awhile looking in the guidebooks and reading up on some of the sights.
On we walked towards the Hill (I told you it was a far walk!). On the way we heard some live music (drums playing with some singing), so we went over to see what it was about. Apparently some kind of spirit ceremony with a girl dancing and people watching. We didn?t know exactly what it was about and we were the only tourists there so there was no one to ask but it was still very interesting to watch.
So anyway, we FINALLY got to Mandalay Hill at about 3pm. We paid the admission fee and then the 3 of us started the climb up the steps to the top of the 230m high hill, passing all of the various Buddha statues on the way.
The view from the top was nice ? with the Ayeyarwady River on one side and the mountains on the other. By the time we took all the photos and took in the view it was about 5pm and we were trying to decide whether to hang out another 1.5 hours for sunset or just go. Then one of the monks walking around approached us and started to speak English with us and before we knew it we had spent the next 3 hours talking with the monks and some other local guys, way past sunset! The people here are so eager to learn English and they want so much to talk with tourists just to be able to practice their English. It?s so genuine their intentions. This is truly a country that has not been spoiled by tourism YET. We really had the best time just talking and laughing with the monks. It was definitely the highlight of my day, and even one of the highlights of my time in Myanmar. We had such laughs taking group photos and the whole bit.
We were the last people to leave Mandalay Hill in the end. We said goodbye to our new friends, about 10 in all, and took a taxi to a vegetarian restaurant near the hotel. Great food! Chapatti, eggplant dip, egg rolls, veggie curry, fresh fruit ? it was all so good!! What a perfect end to a great day.
Tomorrow Mike is off to Bagan so we said goodbye to him after dinner. Robbie and I may try to rent bicycles and cycle to one of the 4 ancient capitals just outside of Mandalay.
Taking a break at the coffee shop
Our new friends from Mandalay Hill – in the back are Mike, Robbie, and me
Sunset from Mandalay Hill
Add comment July 19th, 2002