January 16 - Mandalay

A long and exhausting day.  I was up at 5:00, fiddled around in the room for a bit, arranged my suitcase and went down for breakfast.  The breakfast wasn't anything special - scrambled eggs, fried rice, bacon, sausages (actually wieners I think), beans and onions.  They don't seem to vary their menu here it seems.  Even though I didn't have supper last night I noticed that the menu was identical to what it was the previous night.  Some of the gang went out to a barbeque place but I wasn't hungry, was too tired, had my photographs to process and was in no shape to walk the eight blocks and back in any event.  After breakfast I wandered out to the street and sat and watched the craziness of the motor scooters, motorcycles, bicycles and occasional car blasting willy nilly up and down the road.  Pedestrians also walk on the road seemingly unaware of what is taking place around them.  People are very friendly with most nodding and many saying good morning whether I initiate it or not.

At 8:30 we boarded the bus and made our way down to the river where we boarded our boat.  Even boarding was an adventure as we had to walk along two unsteady planks with a handrail of bamboo held by the crew and not too steadily at that.  With a heavy back pack on the walk wasn't simple for me.  I loved the ride as I sat in a rattan chair out in the open on the top level of the boat.  The morning was blessedly causing all of the local residents and some of our group to don jackets.   The river is wide, slow moving and muddy.  The day was misty (or is it pollution?) until near noon.  Many small and medium size boats ply the river doing whatever it is they need to do.  I took portrait shots of most of the group until other subjects presented themselves.   I was glad to have my long telephoto lens with me as most of the shots I wanted were on the far shore and wouldn't have shown up well with a standard lens.  I got photos of people in their bamboo huts, women washing and getting water from the river (not a pleasant thought), kids playing and many boats.  The ride lasted about 45 minutes I think.   Two local ladies brought out their wares and sold "longyis" (the skirt that many local men and almost all women wear) and other goods to the group.  I sincerely wish I had the nerve to wear my longyi all of the way back to Yellowknife.  If I was flying direct I might do that but I don't have the nerve to wear it through five airports and Customs.  Might also prove a little nippy if it is -40 when I get home.

Our first stop was at a castle partially constructed by a king back in 1700.  At first from a distance I thought it was a building and then changed my guess to a rock outcrop and then back to a man made structure.  It is about 50 meters high, made of brick and took hundred or more labourers to construct.  It was never completed because the king was warned of doom for the kingdom if it was ever completed.  His original intent had been to make it 150 meters high.  It is now in ruins but those who made the trek of 100+ steps to the top say the view is excellent.  Our guide arranged for an ox cart taxi to ferry me around the day.  That was fun although I must say that I have ridden in smoother limousines.  The roads are rutted and incredibly dusty.  Outside the castle are two huge rocks that were at one time carved into the shape of lions to guard the castle.  Now it is difficult to discern any detail in them.  While the group was climbing around I sat in the shade and took photos of the people, mostly souvenir hawkers, who were busily and determinedly working the area.  It wasn't long until a couple of them attached themselves to me and stayed no matter what I did or said even though I told them repeatedly I wasn't going to buy anything (more famous last words). 

Eventually the girl wandered off but was soon replaced by an older boy who is studying history and English at the university.  He was very knowledgeable and fairly articulate in English so was pleasant to have around.  Before long it was impossible to determine who had adopted who.  The boys looked after me as if I was even more frail than I am.  they carried my water, showed where they thought I would get a good photo, led me back to the proper cart (as if I couldn't find it) and even took my arm to help me down the hill if they thought it was steep or too rocky.  Made me feel ancient but I appreciated it none the less.  As we stopped at another small pagoda to wait for the group to catch up I went to look at a stall full of marionettes (my first big mistake of the day).  My next mistake was to appear interested.  It only took the vendor about fifteen minutes to convince me to buy one.  She told me all about her business and how the commission she received goes to help her with her education expenses (they almost all say that and it seems to work).  Now I am saddled with a puppet that definitely cannot be crammed into my already overflowing suitcase so I have a major problem.  I'm going to have to buy another suitcase and pay the excess baggage charges.  I'm happy to say that most everyone in the group caved in and bought more than they had planned to throughout the day.

We then moved on to view a huge bell, the second largest in the world (the largest is in Moscow and is about four times the size of this one).  One of my little friends insisted on taking a picture of me in front of the bell so now at least I can prove I was there.  As we walked to the final pagoda in this spot we were joined by a young girl who immediately began to speak to me in French.  Turns out she also speaks German, English and Italian and plans t0 go to university to study languages.  Now I had my own private little group and three local guides to get me around.  I had to have my picture taken in front of the pagoda and then sat and people watched while the young girl fanned me.  That was enough to force me to buy some postcards from here (20 for about $2.00)  When we left the gang again carried my stuff and even picked up my shoes (you cannot wear shoes in the pagoda grounds or the structure itself (I didn't go in this one).  Back at the cart I said au revoir to the young lady but the two boys stuck with me and shared the cart for the ride back to the jetty. 

As we approached the place where the cart would drop me off it did.  Literally.  The oxen stopped all of a sudden, the front of the cart flew up and all three of us plus my backpack and my puppet slid thunderously to the ground.  Now I have a mild case of whiplash to add to my woes.  The boys seemed genuinely more concerned about me than about themselves even though one of them was hurt more than I was.  The driver was extremely embarrassed but I assured him that it was ok.  Just another adventure.  No, make that misadventure.  With the boys carrying everything and holding both of my arms we made our way to the boat.  Where is my walker when I need one?  LOL  As we parted I gave each of the boys $5.00 to pay for their services and to assist with their education.  Back on board the boat I found a cold beer awaiting so sat and imbibed while awaiting the group return.

We were supposed to return to the hotel at that point but because we were an hour behind schedule we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  I wasn't interested in anything more than a bowl of soup but had to pay my share of the whole meal regardless.  It was expensive by Myanmar standards with each share being 9,500 Kyats (about $8.00 US).  As always food was plentiful and from the way the others dug in very tasteful   My soup was ok but the stock was extremely watery.  I suspect they just waved the chicken over the top of the pot and hoped that it imparted some flavour.  From what I could tell none of the dishes was particularly unusual.   While I was outside having a smoke I eventually gave a little bit of money to a little girl who was begging for food while her mother and baby stood off to the side.  Some times I can resist, sometimes I cannot. 

Back on the bus and off to yet another pagoda.  In this one there is a huge Buddha statue to which the faithful add more gold leaf every day.  The gold is now so heave that it has cracked the bronze underlay.  I couldn't approach the statue because I was wearing shorts and didn't feel like borrowing a lodi.  I was also more than a little put off by having to walk the qauntlet of stalls selling trinkets of every description.  The commercialization detracts markedly from the sentiment and feeling from my perspective.  It's sort of lie having to walk through Wal-Mart to get to church.  Outside I was again plagued by hawkers and beggar kids.  Most of them were cute and I played around with them for a while.  Here none of them spoke of education, only of food and not having any money.  From the look of them I tended to believe them.

I've lost track of the order of things from this point onward.  We visited a factory where they make gold leaf, a labour intensive and back breaking work to produce it and then very delicate work to apply it to whatever they are making.  One of the women had a young child crawling around the floor while she worked and he was playing with the bits of gold leaf on the floor.  I watched for a while to see if he ate any of it.  The sign of someone who has too much money is a Kleenex box covered in gold leaf!  From there we went to other "factories' to see them woodcarving, embroidering tapestries (beautiful but I already have too much stuff to carry), spinning and weaving silk, etc.  All interesting but extremely dusty, dirty and dark.  Not my idea of ideal places to work but then the salary isn't very attractive either.  Like most of the men, I bought a cotton shirt at one of the places for the princely sum of $8.00 US.

Our final stop for the day (thank Heaven) was a long, old wooden bridge which we (and thousands of others) visited to watch the sunset.  Here I was again adopted by a ten year old boy (William) who was the best English speaker I have so far.  He was hilarious, walking me to where he thought I would get the best shots and also forming his hand into a tube as if here was shooting as well.  When my back began to ache and forced me to sit down for a while he seemed quite concerned, kept asking if I was ok and took my arm when I stood up.  He moved people out of the way as we walked and generally served as a great guide.  Yes, I contributed to his fund (whatever it might be) as well.

Then it was finally back to the hotel to process pictures and get some much needed rest.  No supper again.