The road to Mandalay

We woke up early to catch our minibus to Mandalay; we had booked a minibus for 9000 kyats instead of settling for the normal bus 7000 kyats, as we were told it was faster and airconditioned. They picked us up from our hotel around 6.30am, and off we headed towards Mandalay, stopping by at a few more guesthouses before we headed for the nearby town of Pakkoku to pick up more passengers. The minibus was already packed like sardines when it left Pakkoku. 

I dozed off repeatedly during the journey, mainly because of my anti-motion illness medications. However, the minibus made a brief stop at some restaurant midway where we bought some junkfood to nibble on during the monotonous trip. The minibus swiftly drove past undulating hills and serpentine country roads, as my poor back rattled against the passenger seat. After another arduous 6 hours of drive, we finally arrived in Mandalay. 

Maybe I got severely misunderstood by both Rudyard Kipling and Frank Sinatra. 

"Come you back to Mandalay, where the old flotilla lay.

I can hear those paddles chonkin', from Rangoon to Mandalay.

On the road to Mandalay, where the flying fishes play.

And the dawn comes up like thunder, out of china across the bay."

Well, I was horrified when we reach Mandalay; it was hot, dusty, crowded and chaotic! There streets were packed with cars, trucks, buses, motorbikes, bicycles, songthaews, and any other vehicle that you can name of. The road junctions outnumber the traffic lights, hence vehicles were zooming in various directions in an unsystematically systematic way. Pedestrians and passerby-s aggravated the catastrophic scene when they started moving in and out, between and around the heavy traffic. The city was gloomy with car fumes and everyone just honked; they honk to tell you they are passing by; they honk to tell you they are stopping; they honk to tell you you're too slow; they even honk to tell you you're too fast! 

One of the perks of taking a minibus is that they sent you straight away to your hotel, hence we did not have to endure the agonising predicament of being swarmed by touts and taxi drivers at the bus station. Furthermore, Mandalay is a huge city, and I would not really want to venture too much here when one destination could be miles away from the other.

Having settled down at our hotel, we decided to tag along with another Thai backpacker who had found a taxi driver to take us around from noon till sunset for 15000 kyats. The itinerary included a visit to Mandalay Hill, several temples around Mandalay, any area we wished to visit downtown (stonecarver's area, gold pounder's district) and finally Amarapura for a sunset at U-Bein's bridge. Honestly, it was quite a bargain, as we could cover all these itinerary in a day, and most of these places are so far from each other, which would take us 1 and a 1/2 day to cover! We said yes, and set out together in this run-down little taxi!