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I woke up at 4:10AM and around 4:30AM was able to share a taxi with some other people taking the ferry. When I arrived at the dock there were a lot of foreigners waiting around. They didn’t start selling tickets until 5:00AM and the boat departed at 5:30AM. Well, it didn’t actually leave until about 6:00AM.

There were about 40 foreigners, at least 100 Myanmar people, and a lot of cargo. For me it cost $10 for the ticket on this 14 or 15 hour boat. It was a pretty boring ride since I didn’t feel like talking to the other people.

When I got on the boat it was dark and when I got off it was dark again. I checked into the Golden Myanmar Hotel, recommended by a few people. And then got some food since I didn’t eat all day and then went to sleep to prepare to see the ancient city of Bagan tomorrow.

Today was a sick day. I just stayed in my room most of the day. I think I pushed myself too hard yesterday when I wasn’t feeling 100% to begin with. I went to sleep early in preparation of an early morning ferry.

After breakfast, I shared a taxi with the German people to get to the bus station. Instead the taxi driver dropped me off at a bus on the side of the road just before the station. I noticed some Myanmar people inside, so I thought maybe this is the next bus to Mandalay. It turns out 5 people were there to just run the bus and they were trying to leech people off the street for what turned out to be a nightmare bus.

There were other buses going down the road on the way to Mandalay and some other people would go get in those instead. I was stuck waiting on the side of the road for over an hour. The last half hour they would rev the engine to give the illusion that they were about to leave. I really wanted to get back to Mandalay because I saved the most important things for last and I was running out of time to see it all.

When the bus starting going with the very few unlucky passengers, there was so much vibration and the ride was not comfortable at all. Two guys would yell at everyone they past on the side of the road trying to get them in the bus. After a half hour, they stopped the bus, turned off the engine and the 5 guys went for a morning stroll. After a while they came back with no passengers and this continued for a while. It wasn’t pleasant when the bus was moved or stopped, I think the worst bus I’ve ever taken and I was so angry at these guys. But I was thinking it was my fault, I could have walked to the bus station when I had a chance.

Instead of the 3.5 hours, it was over 5 hours when we entered the city. I got off early, next to Mahamuni Paya. I got a quick view of the famous statue here. Then with all my bags I was hoping to find a taxi or something, but in the area I was at there were few. I decided to walk all the way to Shwe In Bin Kyang, a wooden monastery. Again I quickly looked and found a truck back to the market and my hotel.

Next I hired a motorbike to get to Mandalay Palace. My driver, with is Mohammad beard, didn’t know the correct entrance into the palace and it seemed like he didn’t know anything about this city. When we got to the correct gate, the guards said we couldn’t go any farther. They said it is illegal for a foreigner to get on a motorcycle in this country and I cannot be driven in. Instead I had to walk and it wasn’t a short walk. I did anyway, saw the palace, walked up a watchtower for a good view, saw the museum, walked all the way back. I was feeling quite tired and sick by this time. Then I told him to go to Sandamai Paya and he didn’t know where. I pointed in one direction and he thought I was asking about a place in the opposite direction. Even pointed on a map to where to go he didn’t believe me so we had to talk to someone else to explain to the driver.

I got to see Sandamani Paya and then Kuthodaw Paya (world’s largest book on 729 marble stones) and Atumashi Kyaung and Shwenandaw Kyaung. I knew I had a fever by this point and I just wanted to get back. I skipped walking up Mandalay Hill and got some soup in a restaurant.

I tried to make the driver and his boss feel sorry for not telling me it is illegal for me to be on a motorcycle and making me walk that whole way when I was sick. I’m not sure it worked.

At 5:30PM I went to sleep with a fever and it broke a few hours later.

I took yet another side trip to the city of Monywa. It was a 3.5h bus ride to the city. When I got on the bus I started to regret making this trip thinking whenever I get on a bus in this country it isn’t fun at all.

When I did arrive, I was lucky to see a German couple at the hotel and I arranged to share a taxi today so we could see the sights. We visited Thanboddhay Paya, kind of a unique and color place which has over 500,000 Buddha statues in one building.

Then it was a trip to the Po Khaung Hills which was also a little wild. There’s a stupa, a 90m reclining Buddha, and a 116m standing Buddha which is the 2nd tallest statue in the world according to Wikipedia (the tallest is in China). You can also go inside this last statue, which is brand new and you can see them still doing some construction inside. I walked up about 15 floors until I reached a gate. I imagine this is similar to what the Statue of Liberty feels like inside.

After returning to the hotel, I walked around and ended up eating dinner at a small table next to the road. I don’t think they’ve ever served a foreigner before, so they were excited and kept giving me so much food. I was getting a little nervous thinking I might have to pay a lot since they keep refilling all the plates, but it was only 1000 kyat ($0.83).

Later I was walking trying to find an Internet Cafe and a guy on a motorcycle stops and asks if he can talk with me and I said ok. He said he is an English teacher and he drives around the city looking for foreigners to practice English with. He seemed very enthusiastic about language.

Today happened to be Christmas Day, but there were no reminders of it where I was. I could only tell from looking at the dates on my photos.

Today I took the 9AM ferry up the Ayeyarwady River. From a distance I could see the Mingun Paya, the biggest single construction project in the history of this country. It dwarfed everything else around it. When I got off the ferry boat, I was able to see the remains of two of the largest stone lions I’ve seen in the country. They are guarding the entrance. I had three hours to explore.

I visited Hsinbyume Paya and then the Mingun Bell (2nd largest in the world), and finally walked up the 50m tall base of Mingun Paya. Construction stopped after 20 years on this brick structure, but the original plan was to build a 150m tall pagoda, the largest in the world. And this was over 200 years ago. It seemed a little dangerous to walk up here. No hand rails and there are giant cracks everywhere from past earthquakes that you have to step over. Plus you have to do this all barefoot, which seems to be the rule most places in this country.

I also saw a sign that said Computer Class, so I looked and talked to the principal of this school and saw some kids learning on computers which was interesting way out here.

It was a relaxing boat ride back to Mandalay.

Today I decided to see three of the old capital cities of the country. In the morning, I was able to get a German man and Spanish man to share a taxi with me.

First stop was some marble carvers along the road. Near here I saw some old Dodge trucks still in use. I’m thinking they might be about 70 years old.

Next, Maha Ganayon Kyang, in Amarapura, which is a monastery that is something like the Harvard of Myanmar. We arrived to see the meal being served to over 1000 monks.

Then it was to Sagiang, maybe the most impressive place we visited. There are hills here scattered with hundreds of golden or white pagodas and monasteries. The driver dropped us off at Sagaing Hill. We walked to the top through covered stairways, saw the hills around us had more stairs, so after some lunch we walked to some more places. I wish we had the driver meet us somewhere else (not the best driver in the world) because it was a long walk back.

Then it was Inwa, which first required a ferry across a small river, and then a horse cart ride to get around the ancient city. We saw a teak monastery called Bagaya Kyaung, some stone ruins, a watchtower (named Nanmyin), and an interesting building called Maha Aungmye Bonzan. This one had a series of dark corridors in the basement, bigger ones up above, and then a flimsy bamboo ladder kids were using to get to the roof (I didn’t use the ladder).

Finally, it was back to Amarapura to see U Bein’s Bridge at sunset. It is a narrow wooden 1.2km long bridge crossing a river. It was a pleasant walk across and back.

It was a all night bus, so I arrived about 8AM. Shared a taxi with three other foreigners and looked at a few hotels. I chose one with a quiet $5 room.

I was so tired from that long night that I went to sleep and just rested all day in the hotel. Good news is they have a generator they run at the hotel whenever the power is out so I effectively get electricity in the room 24 hours a day.

My back was in pain all last night. Maybe due to the long day with the vibrations on the boat. I took a look around the town of Nyangshwe in the morning and saw some interesting ruins scattered around. First I waited for one of the crowded pickup trucks to get me to Taunggyi. It was maybe a half hour wait, but I got on and got the local price.

On the way, I noticed some trucks carrying something huge. They were lifting up power lines and everything to get these trucks through. They looked like big tanks or a missile silo or I don’t know.

Later on I got on the bus for the long ride up to the city of Mandalay. Things were going fine the first couple hours until the bus stopped at one of the rest stops where there is a store and restaurant and I think they decided to rebuild the engine or something. There were at least 5 men working on the bus engine, from the top, sides, and behind. It looked like they were getting pretty deep into the engine, and I didn’t understand why since it seemed to be running ok.

Three and a half hours later the engine finally started and we were ready to go. By this time it was getting late at night and I was feeling cold and hungry waiting outside and in the store. Throughout the night the bus would stop for a while and they would check the engine. So not the most enjoyable bus trip. The bus arrived about four hours late. About 14 hours instead of 10 hours.

Today was a long boat tour of the lake. I was able to hire a boat with a Spanish man and French man. We started at 8AM and first headed to a busy market. Here there were people selling fish, vegetables, and souvenirs. There was even a blacksmith here repairing some long knifes.

Next we stop at a silver shop. They make silver jewelry and things here. Then it was a paper umbrella shop where we got a paper making demonstration. All of these buildings are above water, standing on poles. That’s why we’re doing a boat tour.

Next it was a visit to the long neck people. Some women here put heavy bronze coil around their neck their entire life and it makes their neck longer. After some more time on the boat, past fishermen, and more homes, we see a silk weaving factory. They use a combination of silk from China and fiber from the lotus flower in the lake. Interesting to get up close and see how they make these textiles.

Next stop was cigar shop. We saw a group of young girls making these cigars. The woman in charge said they work one day (8 or 10 hours) and get paid 1000 kyat (83 cents USD). Not sure if I can believe what she was saying, because that seems so low even for this country.

Next was Phaung Daw Oo Paya, which holds five special golden Buddha images. They were statues, but now so much gold leaf has been added everyday that you can’t tell their original form.

The group tried to have lunch at the place where the boat driver dropped us off, but we found the prices were 4x the local rate. So we decided not to eat there. Inle Lake is big for tourism, so this kind of thing happens. Up to this point, I’ve only seen one restaurant in the country with posted prices. Everywhere else, they get to choose any price depending on the customer. Later we found another restaurant with more reasonable prices and had Shan food (Shan is the name of the people in this part of the country).

Next after a boat ride up a river was Shwe Inn Thein Pagoda, near Indein Village. This place has around 1400 stupas, and it was really a pleasant surprise. It was a hill with all these ruins, trees growing out of stupas, very nice carvings on some. There is a Indiana Jones type feel here when you walk around. Some of the vegetation has blocked entrances to ruins and in other places you can see where robbers have tried to dig up treasure in the center of stupas recently.

Last stop was Nga Hpe Chaung, or Jumping Cat Monastery. Around here the water was like a mirror. The sun was going down and we got back about 6:00. Long day!

At 9AM, I make my way to the station to try another pickup truck to Inle Lake. It was nearly a two hour wait until the compact Nissan pickup truck had enough people to depart. In this case, the number was 25 passengers. It is interesting to compare one person driving in a full size pickup truck in America and 25 people in a compact truck here. I can see why the USA uses a quarter of the world’s energy. And what is going to happen to the world when everyone tries to live like an American?

Arriving at noon, I find the Gypsy Inn guesthouse recommended by a friend. I ask about electricity and it is something like a 12 hour on, 12 hour off cycle. Niilar was able to join me here for a few hours in Inle Lake. We decided to rent a couple bicycles and ride to some nearby villages.

We ride to an area with some canals and homes. After a while we were able to hire a small boat and go through some canals. However we got charged the foreigner price.

It seems like a simple place around Inle Lake. The canals and lake are in a valley between two mountain ranges. We visited a monastery, and tea with the monks. They said not many tourists have visited here in the past six months. Because visas have been harder to get after the storm in May, tourism is very slow right now.

We visit one more village and it seems the kids here know one English word, “Money!” as they hold out their hand. Niilar takes a truck back to Tuanggyi and then I ride around some more on my bicycle before going to bed in my $6 room.