Mandalay

Well, the Myanmar chapter hasn't finished yet, here is coming the next part, a bit late, but better late than never.
From Bago we took a nightbus to Mandalay, the ancient capital before the British moved it to Yangon. In the middle of the 2nd biggest city in Myanmar is the royal palace, surrounded by a very large moat and wall. Outside towards Mandalay Hill are many old temples to visit and finally from the hill is a superb view of the city, Irrawaddy river and the landscape. Last but not least it's a nice sunset point a good place to get in touch with novices who come to the city from the whole country to go to school in the morning and practise their English with tourists afterwards.


The big moat and wall around the palace and at the end Manadalay Hill. The buildings inside the walls are all reconstructed, they were destroyed by fightings.


Mandalay is famous for many Buddhist temples at the bottom of Mandalay Hill. Very special is the wooden temple, only few of them have survived in the country.


The entrance to the staircase up to Mandalay Hill from where we could enjoy the landscape and a nice sunset.

Mandalay is a tourist place and an ancient capital. However in the region arround the city are 4 other former capitals to visit. On 2nd of totally 3 days we spent here we took a taxi to visit 3 sites in the southwest of the city.


Passing the Irrawaddy river on a brigde we arrived to Sagaing. Also once a capital, now only a lot of stupas remember of this place. The hills are dotted with them and the view from the top is great.

Afterwards we went to Inwa, situated just on the opposite side of the river on an island. Only a wall and some temples are visible in this place.


At the end we went to Amarapura, like the other places also an ancient capital. This place is famous for its teak bridge crossing a lake, the longest in the world. On the bridge is a lot of traffic, some tourists, but mainly local people who use it to go to work and back. The site is wonderful at sunset time when it gets busy and a lot of monks are hanging around.

On the last day we went by an 1 hour boat ride upriver to another ancient capital, Mingun. As in the other places, also here are temples and stupas to visit. The special one is the Mingun Paya, now only a ruine is left and from the top we could enjoy a nice view. Unfortunately never finished and also destroyed by an earthquake, it would have been Myanmar's biggest stupa.