C & C globetrotting around the world…

We had breakfast in our guesthouse and set off on a tour to the Ancient Capitals of Myanmar with a driver and a guide. Our first stop was Paya Mahamuni, also known as “Payagyi” (Big Paya). Built in 1784, it is one of the most famous Buddhist sites in Myanmar. The most important part of the temple is the 4-m large bronze statue of Buddha Mahamuni, believed to date from 100 BC (or earlier). Over the years, pilgrims have covered it in 15cm of gold-leaf, changing its appearance. Every morning monks wash the statue’s face and brush its teeth. We asked our guide why people apply the gold leaf to statues. He said they want to offer what’s best to Buddha and since 24k gold is very precious, they offer it. A small gold leaf costs the equivalent of $2, so it’s pretty expensive, especially considering that many people offer more than one. Our guide also pointed out that in his opinion a country that is as poor as Myanmar shouldn’t spend so much on religion and should maybe focus more on health care and education… From the road to the temple, the alley is lined with shops making various religious articles. Mandalay is famous for its marble, so there are lots of artisans sculpting marble Buddhas in the area. Our next stop was at a handicraft store where women were making pillow-cases, embroidery and puppets.

From there we headed to the Ancient Capitals of Myanmar surrounding Mandalay. Our first stop was Sagaing, a town with 6,000 monks and nuns and 500 stupas scattered over the hills. Sagaing gets its name from the trees lining the river and was the capital of the Shan empire from 1315 after the fall of Bagan. Its glory was short-lived (50 years) because the king moved the capital to Inwa. In the 18^th century it re-became the capital for 4 years, but it had minimal historic importance. Today it is more important as a Buddhist refuge and for its big monastic hospital. Close-by is also the seat of the head monk in Myanmar, as well as a Buddhist university. The view from the top of Sagaing Hill was very nice, stretching out over the hills and stupas.

We then headed towards Inwa and had lunch before crossing the river. After crossing the river we hopped on a horse-cart, a must to go around the island. Inwa was the capital of the kingdom for 400 years, the longest Burmese capital to date. The kings worked hard to re-establish the Burmese power after the fall of Bagan. There is not much left of Inwa since many buildings were made of wood, but the stupas survived and are sprinkled amongst the palm-tree-lined rice fields. The only construction reminding of the royal palace are the royal baths and the watch tower. The tower suffered from an earthquake and is now called the “Leaning Tower of Inwa”. The royal palaces in Myanmar were made of teak wood and every time the kingdom changed capitals, the royal palace was also moved. Teak wood is very precious, so it was considered more valuable to build it out of this wood as opposed to stone. This explains why there is nothing left over of the royal palaces in the former ancient capitals. It is also a bit disappointing to visit an “ancient capital” and all you see are a few stupas and rice paddies…

After Inwa, the capital was moved to Amarapura (“City of Immortality”), where it remained from 1783 to 1857, before it was moved to Mandalay. Amarapura is actually more known for the 200-yr-old U Bein Bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world. It measures 1.2km in length and has 1060 pillars. From here we watched the sunset, which was beautiful. Especially at sunrise and sunset, there are lots of locals and monks passing on the bridge. Christoph didn’t like being on the bridge so much because it squeaks and there is no railing, but he had fun taking tons of pictures from every angle and at various times.

Mandalay is more known for its surrounding capitals than for the city itself. After having been to the 3 capitals before Mandalay, we decided to discover the last ancient capital of Myanmar. We had also heard that the “only nice thing about Mandalay is its name” and now we can attest to the fact that the city isn’t very pretty indeed. We can understand why the British moved the capital from Mandalay to Yangon (Rangoon) when they took over in 1885. We set out for a walking tour in the morning. It went past the reconstruction of Mandalay’s Royal Palace, but we didn’t go in since we would have needed a $10 ticket enriching the government. Unfortunately, the palace in Mandalay burnt down during WWII and has been rebuilt in recent years, but we heard there’s nothing special about it. We passed the palace moat and continued to Paya Shwekyimyit, a very old temple pre-dating Mandalay. It has lots of shrines and it was nice to discover all the nooks and corners of this extensive temple. Afterwards we passed through the large and busy market with mountains of garlic, onion and chilies (it felt like being in the Hungarian heaven!) before reaching Paya Eindawya. This temple witnessed the beginning of the 1919 demonstrations. A group of foreigners refused to take off their shoes before entering the temple grounds (you always have to take your shoes off when entering temples in this part of the world) and this upset the monks. Four monks were sentenced to life imprisonment by the British court, which sparked protests by the population.

In the afternoon we went for a long walk through the neighbourhoods, half erring trying to find certain temples. The areas were dirty and poor, but people were nice and helped us find our way to the Kyaung Shwe In Bin (“Teak monastery”). This monastery on stilts was built in 1895 by 2 rich Chinese jade traders and has some beautiful carvings. The entire neighbourhood is filled with monks and temples. We also went inside Kyaung Ma Soe Yein Nu, a monastery housing 2,600 monks. One monk stopped to talk to us and showed us around a bit, taking us to a tower for a nice view over the city.

We then walked some more in the dirty and extremely dusty roads before stopping for a beer at a local terrace. The staff was really friendly and kept on bringing us peanuts with our beer. We were also served a soup, but sent it back, so it got poured back into the pot. We then saw that left-over soups from others were also poured back into the pot – yummy. Christoph decided to order a Mandalay Rum with his beer, the way the locals do it. It was good, but very strong, so after his rum and beer, he was a bit tipsy 😉 . In the evening we watched a show by the “Moustache Brothers”. This trio is known for its political satire and had also been to jail for it in the past. In recent years they have been allowed to perform at home, so we decided to go see their show and support their cause. We were really disappointed because more than political satire, there was a show of bad dancing and music. The only good joke was one with a dentist. “One of the Moustache Brothers goes to Thailand to the dentist. The dentist asks him why he came to Thailand, if there aren’t any dentists in Myanmar. He answers that there are, but in Myanmar you can’t open your mouth.”