Mandalay, Myanmar

Mandalay

Mingun Pahtodawgyu

Mandalay is the second largest city in Myanmar and from our perspective it is the first place to avoid. Sure it has some beautiful temples. But literally when I typed into google "top things to do in Mandalay" out of the top five, two of them weren’t even in Mandalay. Because even the tourists sites don't want to be there. 

Now that I have painted a lovely picture for you and got my bitchiness out of the way we did enjoy parts of our stay and why not focus on the positive instead of the negative?

We got a bus door to door from our guesthouse in Bagan to our hotel in Mandalay through Apex, 9 AUD pp . This was our first highlight of Mandalay, because being door to door meant we didn't have to deal with taxi drivers- yay! Our second highlight was the accomodation. We stayed at Hotel Iceland, 16 AUD per night. This was clean, had very helpful staff and best of all had a rooftop area with free drinks at happy hour- what a win.

We only had two nights in Mandalay and we are pretty grateful for this. The town itself just doesn't have any character. It is a hot, dusty, chaotic place with stark contrasts. For example when walking along the west of the city there is a brand new waterpark on one corner (with no-one in it) and right next door local people living in shanties with no clean water or electricity. 

If you are going to Mandalay the top places to see whilst you are there are:

• Kuthodaw Pagoda

• Mandalay Palace

• U Bein Bridge

• Mingun Pahtodawgyu

• Mingun Hsibyume Pagoda

** last two are in Mingun not in Mandalay

We only marked two off of our list because getting around Mandalay is expensive- definitely the most expensive taxi’s we have come across since being in Myanmar. The tourists sites aren't that close together so in the heat of the day bike riding around didn't seem like a great option to us (although we met other travellers who did).

The third highlight of our time in Mandalay was visiting Mingun. To do this you take an hour and a half ferry across the river. This cost's 5 AUD pp for a return ticket. The boat leaves at 9am and returns at 1pm giving you plenty of time to see the sites.  If you are planning on taking this boat ride you should have fairly good balance as you need to walk across at least 6 boats connected by questionable planks of wood to get onboard. Once you survive that adventure it is a lovely cruise upstream on the Irrawaddy river. Upon arriving in Mingun there is no need for tuk-tuks as all the sites are in walking distance of each other.

Local homes on the Irrawaddy river 

Streets of Mingun

The first place we visited was the Hsibyume Pagoda. It is a white pagoda and is modelled  on the physical description of Mount Meru, a buddhist mythological mountain. It is beautiful but could do with a lick of paint and would probably be more awe inspiring if electricity wires weren't hanging off of it. 

If you look closely to the left you will see the power lines
 

Hsibyume Pagoda

The second place was Mingun Pahtodawgyu. This is an incomplete stupa that started construction in 1790 with the plan of being the worlds largest stupa. Construction was abandoned when the King got a prophecy- if he completed building the pagoda the kingdom would come to an end. The incomplete stupa is 50m tall (which is only a third of how tall it was going to be) and is incredibly beautiful as you can see in the picture below.

Mingun Pahtodawgyu, extra points if you spot Luke

If you do find yourself in Mandalay (even though it should be on the bottom of your list when visiting Myanmar) I would definitely recommend the boat tour. We had a great time. 

Like always it was time to leave (yes!) we are off to Inle lake next.

Lots of Love,

Claire and Luke (Luke was going for a swim whilst I wrote this so he counts as a co-author too right?)

View from our bungalow for the next week