Day 222 - A Day in Mandalay

Today kind of shows why it's good to be open and just change plans if the opportunity comes along. At first I wanted to take it easy, sleep in a bit, go for a walk and then get a coffee and work on my blog.

While I was walking around the bottom of Mandalay Hill and was trying to decide if I should or should not walk up, one of the motorbike drivers approached me and asked if I want to hire his services for the day.

At first I declined since I didn't want to spend much money and afterall I could just hire a bike and drive myself to places.
But since he insisted we ended up reaching an agreement and a good price, he would take me around to see all the main sights in Mandalay and bring me to the train station or bus station later to catch my train or bus to Inle lake.

This gave me the opportunity to go and visit all the main temples at the bottom of Mandalay Hill, get lunch in a locals only place, see some of the further away temples and go to the famous U Bein Bridge.

The temples were all quite nice, despite me being a bit unsure about spending more time looking at temples after two days in Bagan.

The real highlight however was the U Bein Bridge as it's not only cool to see but there is a lot around it happening with people fishing, swimming and taking boats around the lake.

Since I quite enjoyed it at the bridge and it got late, I decided to just get the bus instead of the train. It also seemed not only to be the cheaper and faster option than the train, it also means not having to spend one night in the train and one in Thazi before getting to Inle Lake.
The bus makes this journey in just a few hours so I will arrive in Inle Lake at 4:00 in the morning.

Day 221 - The Train to Mandalay

Having a train station further away from the town than the airport is certainly one of the more 'unique' aspects of Bagan so it meant an early start to get there on time for the 7:30 train to Mandalay.

People at the station and in the train were quite excited to have a foreigner take this train as most just take the bus to Inle Lake or the boat or fly. As always it was a nice experience and nice to be around locals travelling.

Despite it being a short distance, the train takes forever to get to Mandalay but you can easily see why. The tracks are even worse than in England, at times it's so bumpy and shaky that you expect the train to fall on it's side or jump out of the tracks.

The views are not as nice here as on some other routes or the boat but you still get to see enough of the landscape and villages you pass through.

Despite the train being slow and bumpy, it's very relaxing to take it and just sit by the open window and watch the villages and landscape go by.

The train arrived in Mandalay just after lunch and at first I planned to go around take some more photos but decided to just take it easy instead. The evening was spent celebrating a friend's birthday.

Tomorrow late afternoon/evening, I will either take the train or bus to Inle Lake.

Day 218 - From Dawn till Dusk on the Boat

Had an early start to catch the 6:30 ferry to Bagan but it meant I got to see the sunrise from the boat as well as the local fishermen heading out.

The views from the boat were great and it also provided me the opportunity to do some work on my photos and blog updates since there was not really that much to do.

The river is always difficult to navigate and boats are said to be stuck on the sandbanks at times, you can certainly see this and most of the bigger boats have people in the front checking the depth of the water in certain places while other places are 'single lane' only.

The boat did make some quick stops along the way to pick up some supplies and some locals, these stops always made for some nice photo opportunities.

While the boat was supposed to arrive in Bagan at 16:30, due to the low water level in the river the journey took quite a lot longer and we only arrived after sunset at 18:30. It was a very nice day on the boat overall so I didn't mind that it did take longer to arrive in Bagan.

Even before you arrive at the pier in Bagan, you can see a lot of temples along the coast so this makes for a great view.