Mandalay

Events of Thursday, 20th September 2012

We'd spent the night anchored off Mingun. In the early morning light the mysterious, earthquake-damaged bulk of the Unfinished Pagoda looked particularly impressive. The Captain took the ship the last few miles downstream to Mandalay - perhaps one of the best-known city names in the world but probably one of the least-explored by Westerners. Part of that fame derives from Rudyard Kipling's poem 'The Road to Mandalay' which gained a new lease of life when performed as a song, originally by Oley Speakes in the United States of America. Of course 'Road to Mandalay' refers to the River Ayeyarwaddy which was the original (and perhaps still today) the best way of reaching Mandalay from the former capital of Yangon. The British linked these two cities with a metre gauge railway which, at one time, was the Pride of the East but today it is run-down and slow. Until recently, roads provided a poor alternative for long distances but there is now a dual carriageway road extending north from Yangon, although I've only travelled on a small section of it or viewed it from an aircraft. Flying is certainly the fastest way from Yangon to Mandalay, if not the most enjoyable.

After about forty minutes cruising downstream from Mingun, we passed a thriving small village constructed from bamboo right by the river on a sand bar.

A small village between Mingun and Mandalay.

At Mandalay, we once again moored mid-stream at a location usually called 'Mandalay Pier'. Our Fast Boats were moored side-by-side against the hull of a larger, unpainted ship tied up to the quay. All the Guests were, by now, quite used to being transferred ashore by our Fast Boats but this time we had the novel experience of also walking through the unpainted ship which appeared to be waiting for fitting-out. It should be an impressive craft when finished. Once again, the Guests were divided into smaller parties between a number of buses. I was in Bus 6, with the lady guide Nang.

We set off east on one of the city's main streets (26th Street, I think). Almost all the buildings are modern. The population of Mandalay is around two million but I always think it must be more because every street teems with the commerical life of Myanmar's second largest city.

Bicycles and motor bicycles in Mandalay waiting for traffic signals to change.

One of the most noticeable features of the city is the wide, square moat around the brick battlements built to protect the Royal Palace. The battlements are a nineteenth century construction on the grand scale - each side of the square is 2.2 km in length. All the original palace buildings were wooden and destroyed by bombing during the second world war but a replica has been constructed which we were to visit later. We drove north keeping the moat on our right and then turned east. At the foot of Mandalay Hill, we stopped and transferred to a pickup truck provided with a tilt cover and longitudinal seating. This type of vehicle is used as a 'local bus' and they can be seen everywhere carrying amazing numbers of passengers, looking like an attempt to enter the 'Guiness Book of Superlatives' for largest number of people carried by a four-wheeled vehicle.

Our pick-up made the hair-raising climb up the zig-zag route leading to the summit of Mandalay Hill, where there's a temple complex. In bare feet, we entered a lift (elevator) which raised us to the level of the temple. The temple commands splendid views in every direction. Of course, serious pilgrims walk from the base of the Hill. There are wide, concrete steps (about 2,000 of them), covered with 'tin' roofs for this purpose and we saw plenty of Burmese using this route. I noticed that two Army Officers who arrived to pray at the main shrine, parked their Jeep near the lift and made use of it.

View of the City from Mandalay Hill. Ignoring the modern hotel in the foreground, the Royal Palace moat and battlements can be seen nearer the camera with the reconstructed buildings of the Royal Palace peeking through the trees further away. The modern city is in the background, on the far side of the (not visible) moat on the other side of the Royal Palace.

Next, having changed back to our bus, we went to the Kuthodaw Paya which was started in 1857. It has a central, golden stupa based on the Swezigon near Bagan. The entire Tripitaka, the Buddhist canon, is engraved on 729 marble slabs, each housed in a white-painted small stupa. This has been accepted by the 'Guiness Book of Superlatives' as the "world's biggest book".

Each of the white stupas at the Kuthodaw Paya contains one of the 729 engraved marble slabs of the Tripitaka.

The Shwenandaw Kyaung, usually called the 'Golden Palace Monastery' has an interesting history. It is the only original building from the Mandalay Royal Palace to survive. It is the building where King Mindon died and his son, Thibaw, had the whole building moved to its present site in 1880 as a monastery. The building thus avoided destruction by bombing in the second world war. As we came out, a party of high school students visiting Mandalay were just having the 'Group Shot' taken, prior to going inside the building. I couldn't resist taking my own 'Group Shot' which I showed to the Group Leader and some of the students.

The Shwenandaw Kyaung (Golden Palace Monastery).

We then passed through the battlements of the Royal Palace site and drove to the reconstructed Royal Palace, spending some time exploring the mainly empty buildings and touring an interesting small museum. It was about 11.30 a.m. by the time we were back on the bus and we drove to the Sedona Hotel, reputedly the best international hotel in Mandalay. I had stayed at the Sedona during an earlier holiday ('Far East 2'). This time, we all enjoyed an excellent buffet lunch in pleasant surroundings.

After lunch, the tour was to continue to see Gold Leaf production and the famous Mahamuni Temple, finishing at Amarapura and U Bein's famous teak bridge. However, the Doctor asked if I would like to visit Taung Be Lar School and I said 'Yes, please'. I had visited the places on the afternoon tour before and, although I'd have very happily gone again, the opportunity to see Monastic School No. 21 again was irresistible. I went with the Doctor and Sammi in an air-conditioned vehicle from the Sedona Hotel to the 'Road to Mandalay' River Station at Shwe Kyet Yet. The ship was already berthed there, having travelled downstream since putting the guests ashore at Mandalay Pier earlier in the day.

In ten minutes, I managed to shower and change and then the Doctor and I returned ashore where a 'local taxi', a rather dusty 4-door saloon was waiting for us. 'Air Conditioning' in these vehicles is achieved by winding all the windows fully open - actually, this arrangement suits me. We drove over the new road bridge and continued to the foot of the Sagaing Hills. Here, we turned left onto an unmetalled, dusty road with a number of religious teaching centres left and right. The road then entered open, undulating country which could have been miles from anywhere with just a few bamboo houses scattered around. We paused at one rutted junction whilst the Doctor and the driver considered the right route. As we set off again, the Doctor explained to me "The banyan tree is the marker". It was the right route and after passing a herdsman with his animals and some small businesses which seemed to be extracting and crushing stone, we came to the school building, set on a slight rise and with good views of the river downstream of Sagaing.

Taung Be Lar School.

'Road to Mandalay' has provided renovation and other support to this school which serves a very poor rural area, but some later extensions funded by a local donor appear to have run out of budget before the work was complete. We had a look round the main school building and walked to a multi-purpose building a few hundred yards away labelled as a Voluntary Vocational Training Centre but also used by pupils from the school.

Pupils leaving the multi-purpose building at Taung Be Lar.

By the time we arrived back at the main school building, the stationery that the Doctor had brought with us had been laid out on a table by the teachers, ready for distribution. Each child was to receive two ruled exercise books, two pencils and a short plastic ruler. Doctor Hla Tun and I handed out the stationery to each child individually and gave the balance (to cover absentees and some stock) to the teachers. Some erasers and pencil sharpeners were also included in the stock left with the teachers.

Distribution of stationery at Taung Be Lar.

The event was fully recorded by our taxi driver using my camera, including 'group shots' with the pupils proudly displaying their new exercise books.

The pupils at Taung Be Lar proudly display their new exercise books.

We set off by car to return to Shwe Kyet Yet and the waiting ship. The taxi driver decided to return by a different route, which crossed the railway near a station. The Doctor said that there was time for me to take photographs, so I spent a happy half hour taking pictures around the station.

The station was called Ywa Taung and, although it's on a 'main line', a herd of cattle was grazing undisturbed up and down the station area. Just before we left, a freight train arrived, complete with a guard's brake van similar to those I'd seen in Thailand.

Ywa Taung Station. The single platform and station building are visible in the background.

Back at the ship, I was pleased to have a shower and a bit of a rest - it had been a hot, tiring but very enjoyable day. In the evening, I was included in a dinner party on the top deck with a number of my new friends before the day was rounded-off by a display of 'Tribal Costumes of Myanmar' in the Observation Lounge, modelled by students from Mandalay and introduced by San. My 'nightcap' was a cup of tea in the Piano Bar and then I retired, to recharge both the camera battery and my own 'batteries', ready for the next day.

Photographs:

Arriving at Mandalay.
Mandalay Hill and the "World's Largest Book".
Shwenandaw Kyaung.
Taung Be Lar School.
Ywa Taung Station.

[Revised 19-Oct-2012]

An Elephant Experience

Events of Wednesday, 19th September 2012

A later start meant that there was time for Morning Tea in my cabin whilst I was getting ready. As always, this arrived on time, beautifully presented on a small tray. Somehow, the almost fanatical attention to detail by the Hotel Staff made the food and drink taste better.

The ship had left the overnight mooring at 'first light' and continued downstream for almost three hours to anchor midstream opposite the large village of Thabeikkyin, by which time I'd enjoyed a leisurely breakfast including porridge and poached eggs on toast.

I was in the group of Guests transferred by the second Fast Boat to the landing steps (for fairness, this alternated day by day). The landing steps were crowded with curious locals just watching the arrivals but, as always, they would readily smile and reply if greeted with a "Mingala Bar". A series of buses were drawn up at the side of the road, each bearing the 'Road to Mandalay' sign and with a printed number taped to the windscreen. The lady guide Nang directed me to Bus 5 and suggested I occupied the front, left passenger seat. As I've mentioned before, most of the vehicles remain right-hand drive, despite now driving on the right (a change introduced after General Ne Win of Myanmar had visited President Nixon in the U.S.A. some time ago). Apart from having to clamber over the engine cover to reach this seat and the fairly limited leg room, I found this position most congenial. We set off on the climbing road leaving the village with the engine straining. The road just kept on climbing, twisting around the contours of the hill we were ascending, giving continually changing views.

Although the 'road bed' was wide enough for two vehicles to pass, in common with many of Burma's roads, the 'sealed' tarmac surface is much narrower, necessitating that vehicles may have to move off the tarmac when passing. One another. This, of course, tends to break down the edge of the tarmac so that the tarmac strip becomes narrower in places. Combined with the effects of weather and lack of maintenance, the road surface is, to say the least, less than ideal. I was fascinated to watch the driver expertly position the road wheels so as to miss the worst of the pot holes. Most of the traffic coming towards us was motor bicycles and the bus just held to the tarmac strip while the drivers assistant leaned out of the open door furiously waving to approaching traffic to move out of our way. I was afraid that the 'bike rider might lose control because of the sometimes sudden steep drop moving off the tarmac onto the 'road bed', but they always seemed to make it. Being a passenger in Burma can be quite frightening - being a driver must be terrifying.

Although the 'road bed' is often wide enough for two vehicles to pass, the tarmac may be much narrower.

We were now travelling along a fairly high plateau with 'bush' extending towards the distant mountains. We passed through a number of surprisingly large villages. They don't see many foreign tourists north of Mandalay so our fleet of buses was an object of great interest and there was a lot of waving and cheering.

One village seemed to be choked solid with motor bicycles and their riders. They were all waiting for attention at the local registration office for these vehicles which deals with annual license re-registration (and, I believe, insurance) on one or two days in the year. There were hundreds upon hundreds of machines and it was clear that their owners were in for a long wait. I'd seen a similar scene in Mawlamyine at the beginning of this trip.

After driving for, perhaps, half an hour all the buses stopped and the Guests got off. We were each issued with a stout bamboo stick as a 'trekking pole' and directed along an uneven path through the bush. A trumpeting call indicated that there were elephants nearby and the path came to a large clearing where eight working elephants were lined up, with their respective 'Oozie' (called the 'mahout' in some other countries) seated on the neck of their charge, with their legs pushed behind the ears of the elephant. The name and age of each elephant had been painted on the animal's hide, in Roman characters, presumably for the visitor's benefit. To one side, a bamboo shelter had been erected for local villagers involved in the timber extraction industry to watch the proceedings. There was another shelter as a 'refreshment station', a bamboo 'table' with bananas and sugar cane for us to feed to the elephants and a tall bamboo tower (with two sets of bamboo ladders) to allow the Guests to board a 2-person 'Howdah' on the elephant's back for a short ride.

There's nothing more impressive than a line of working elephants each with their 'Oozie'. They are part of the Forestry Service and the men had smart, lightweight khaki uniforms with badges. Even today, elephants have a manoeuvrability, strength and intelligence which is hard to match with a machine. One or two guests started feeding the elephants so I picked a younger, smaller elephant and fed it for a time. At one side of the clearing, there was a steep, muddy bank down to a small river perhaps fifteen feet below. Four of the elephants descending this bank without difficulty and entered the river for washing. Elephants are fastidious creatures and require regular washing, preferably by immersion.

Oozies washing elephants.

The Oozies scrubbed away at the tough hide until it was time for a demonstration of obedience. The elephants clambered back to the clearing and, on command, all the elephants knelt.

Next, we had a demonstration of strength. Two elephants were equipped with a simple, stout harness attached to chains. The 28-year old elephant called Thit Daung Sein scooped up a large log with its tusks and held it in place with its trunk whilst dragging an even larger log by chain. The first log, estimated at just under a ton in weight, was casually tossed over the edge of the steep bank to roll into the water. The second log (about one ton in weight) was then dragged into the river. A slightly smaller elephant, Htun Chein, dragged a slightly smaller log into the river. Thit Daung Sein then amazed by climbing back up the steep slope, dragging the large log out behind.

Thit Daung Sein braces for a moment before completing the dragging out of the large log.

The second elephant, Htun Chein, was still standing in the river. First, he scooped up his log and positioned it vertically against the steep slope, ready for dragging out once the chain was attached. He then scooped up the smaller log with his tusks, locked it in place with his trunk, climbed up the bank carrying the smaller log and dragged out his log with the chain. It was an incredible demonstration.

All the elephants were then equipped with a two-person 'howdah' in the form of a double basket made from bamboo so that all the Guests could have an elephant ride, boarding from the special 'tower' I had a ride on a rather vocal 24-year old elephant called Zaw Chin Ni.

Jan enjoys an elephant ride (Photo: Dr. Hla Tun).

This trip, I bought a wooden elephant bell. They carried no stock, so the bell was taken off one of the elephants. With great reluctance, I made my way back to the waiting buses with the other Guests.

The buses then took us back to Thabeikkyin. When we passed the motor bicycle registration centre, the waiting crowds seemed even larger than before. Many had parked their motor bicycles and were taking refreshments at an adjacent cafe.

The motor bicycle registration centre, showing just some of the waiting vehicles.

The Fast Boats transferred us back to our ship which then continued its journey downstream, arriving at Mingun and anchoring overnight midstream just as it was becoming dark. I had dinner with Edward, Ulrika and Arun before going to the Observation Lounge at 9.30 p.m. for the performance of a Yamayana play.

Photographs:

An Elephant Experience.