12/27/2016. Buddhas, Buddhas, and More Buddhas; Monks in Pink, Burgundy, Saffron, Brown

December 27. 6:30 pm. (California Time – 4:20 am)

Mingalaba (Hello). Greetings from Mandalay

Set out this morning for Mandalay Hill, from which you can get spectacular views of Mandalay, see literally thousands of pagodas and monasteries dotting the city and countryside, and also visit the Sutaungpyei Pagoda. Apparently there are stairs that go up the 750 feet (like climbing a 70’ apartment building?), but frankly we never saw them and everyone was doing what we did – being dropped off at an entry point, coming by trucks and cars, and buses, and taxis… and then going on an escalator to get to the main landing.  Anyway, once “inside” the Pagoda, you’re staggered by the plethora of statues and Buddhas and glitter and gold. Everywhere you look there are tiny pieces of reflective mirror set into columns and walls and floors and surrounding nearly all the statues. I suppose that each of the statues – small and large – tell another story, but alas I do not know any. We didn’t see any Americans at all for the entire time we’ve been in Mandalay, although there were tourists at the Pagoda (Taiwanese, Japanese, Chinese, and some Europeans).

As with most of the pagodas and monasteries – although they are hundreds and thousands of years old, they seem to always be under some kind of construction, reconstruction, repair. For this one, we saw a crew of men (of course on the floor without any tools, breaking mirrored glass with their hands… into small pieces (we later realized to replace some tiny pieces that had fallen out and also to fix a section of a wall that had hundreds of these little mirrored pieces. They had no gloves, no knee pads… Nada! We walked around for about an hour or so (of course barefoot) and then started to head for the stairs, since it was our intention to walk to the bottom of the hill. Somehow we couldn’t find the stairs and realized that the first part of the stair walk was still considered within the pagoda boundaries so you’d have to walk barefoot. We quickly opted to find a taxi, which proved not possible.

So we spotted a pickup truck outfitted with a metal canopy and housing two benches facing one another inside the truck. There were spaces on the benches, so we hopped on. The truck fit about 8 on each side and 5 people hanging off the back. There were also tiny plastic stools in the middle, between the benches. There was an assortment of passengers – all Burmese, except us – including a Buddhist nun who was caring for three small children – probably under the age of 5. I think the nuns care for orphans and these young children are raised in the monastery. Everyone was very friendly and thought it funny that we were on the truck (can’t imagine what they were saying, but they were laughing). The nun seemed to have lots of goodies with her, and gave us oranges and candy and then some toilet paper to use as a napkin.

The truck went about 35 mph down the steep dirt road with about 20 hairpin turns… Obviously no seat belts… We were all just holding onto the frame of the truck… and as we made the sharp turns we slid into one another. It was a little death defying – made the tuk tuk seem safe and peaceful. Of course, I felt safe because the nun made a prayer before the truck started to go – although I think she was blessing and praying for the children.

From there we headed to the teak monastery, Shwenandow… with amazing carvings throughout…. As with all the temples, the streets and paths leading to and those around the temple are filled with little makeshift vending stands. We purchased a marionette. Burma is famous for its puppets, and we purchased an old one rather than one crafted recently.

Then we stopped to visit yet another temple — Sandamuni Paya (I think) — this one with 1,774 marble slabs inscribed with important Buddhist text. Some people refer to this temple as “The World’s Largest Book.’  And then we headed to lunch (at the restaurant we wanted to go to last night, but was closed when we got there). We had the traditional Burmese meal, which consists of your selected main courses (we picked a chicken curry, dried beef, and fish cakes; but the meal also includes sour soup, and about 8 different small dishes that might be considered condiments, but which are eaten as separate side dishes – one was fired crickets, we think; others included eggplant, some vegetables, etc. OK.. so we are not giving Burmese food a big five-star rating, and I think after having had their local dishes a few times now, we’ll go back to Indian food while here.

Then we headed to the area in town where they actually carve the Buddhas that wind up in temples and everywhere else. It was a bit odd to see dozens and dozens of half-finished Buddhas – some with totally finished bodies and detail, but a cube shape for the head! They were also carving teak columns and other small pieces. We strolled that area for a while. Seems as if labor is divided by gender.. with men doing the carving and women doing the “polishing” of the marble and limestone. And the teak carvers are all men, who have an interesting style – sitting cross legged on the floor and using their legs as braces for the wood as they do the carving.

Strolled from there to yet another temple which literally has a huge “mall” with hundreds of vendors in a mall-like set up “inside” the sacred grounds. We needed to take our shoes off to walk the line of shops. Then, enough with temples – we headed to the Chinese Market – a group of about  20 streets within the city grid where Chinese-Burmese vendors sell every imaginable kind of food, including some ingredients that are not found in other Burmese markets. Had a lot of fun watching the vendors cook and make sales. Lots of young, somewhat upscale shoppers coming on motorcycles.

Then we needed to find a taxi, which the hotel kept telling us was very very difficult (and they recommend that you have the taxi driver wait for you and then you are guaranteed a driver and also a safe car). Well we’ve had no problem finding taxis, but this area was a bit chaotic. We saw a parked taxi with a little kid sitting inside (and figured that the parent who must be the driver couldn’t be too far away). As soon as we approached the driver came to the car (he was the grandfather), and off we went to the hotel – with the toddler (probably 3 or 4 years old) coming along for the ride!.  I guess that brings up another point. All cars have seat belts but no one uses them. The toddler was standing on the seat for most of the drive. Speaking of driving, they drive US style on the right hand side of the road, but the cars are all British style. I think this is because they get their cars in Thailand.

After a brief stop at the hotel – just long enough to get a gin and tonic – we headed for dinner at a restaurant we had read about called “Smart Garden.” The Burmese use English words for a lot of restaurants.. Names like Happy, Taste, Feeling, etc… Anyway, Smart Garden is situated on a large lake about 20 kilometers outside of town.. so the taxi ride was about 35 minutes. We knew that the restaurant had about a dozen little huts that jut out onto the lake and had hoped to be seated in one of them. When we arrived there was a lot of flurry, because absolutely no one speaks English. Anyway they did offer us one of the huts, but we wound up at a table on the “grass” because you had to sit on the floor cross-legged in the hut with the low table… and Mike felt he’d never be able to get up from the floor. Food was actually good; obviously very very cheap. We had a beef dish, a noodle dish, and a great crab dish, and rice, as well as two large beers – for about $15.00. Lots of dogs and cats lingering around for the food that falls on the ground, I suppose.

OK… that’s it for today.

Tomorrow we head to U Bein Bridge, and then I’m not sure (Actually, planning an easy day as I want to get some work done in the afternoon and early evening – we leave Mandalay (by boat) very very early on Thursday for Bagan.

All the best –

Fern