12/28/2016. Final Day in Mandalay: U Bein Bridge, Royal Palace, Exchanging $, Thai Food, Misc.

Short Day – started out early to get to U Bein Bridge – the oldest, longest (3/4 mile) teak wood bridge in the world. It connects two villages; it’s a pedestrian bridge made of reclaimed wood from a former palace; built between 1849 and 1851. It has 1,086 pillars that are situated in the water below; the pillars come up above the bridge walkway planks by about  two feet. The pillars are spaced about every 12 feet. There is no railing. In general the walkway is about 20’ above the water…. Over the years some pillars have rotted and some have disconnected from the bridge, but no one seems to notice (except we two Americans).

Along the bridge and under the bridge are makeshift “shops” and vendors walking the 1.5 mile round trip with good on their heads and on their arms. On the shores below, fishermen (and it is “men”) are using nets and interesting wooden “traps” to catch fish, and rice is being farmed. It’s a busy place. About one third of the way there is a little pavilion on the bridge where you can sit – and of course several people are selling food.  After we walked the bridge, we checked out some of the wares sold by vendors – including the purses and jewelry made from watermelon seeds that have been dried and varnished and have a very deep ebony color. Pretty amazing just how entrepreneurial and how clever everyone is.

From there, we stopped to see some wood working shops and marvel at the craft and the process, as well as the tools being used. Then headed to the Royal Palace (figured we had to see it, although we weren’t overly excited about it… So here’s the download on it… It’s the last royal palace of the last Burmese monarchy.. constructed in the mid-1800s when the king at the time determined that Mandalay would be the new royal capitol city.. I guess they changed these capitols often in those days. There’s a huge walled fort surrounded by a moat… All the buildings are one story.. There are probably about 40 different buildings on the site and they each have a spire on the top… the taller the spire the more important the building. Strolled the grounds.. often ahead of or behind monks. 

Then realized we were running out of “kyat” (Burmese money) and decided to head directly to an ATM. OK.. worked for both of us; sometimes it’s been hit and miss, with regard to banks accepting our cards. Anyway, all good except that the wad of bills that emerged from the ATM machine was about an inch and a half thick! A dollar is equal to 1,350 Kyat… so if you withdraw $225 you get 300,000 Kyat.. but it all came out of the machine in 5,000 and 1,000 denominations… so I had about 90 bills! We walked into the bank to see if they would change this – at least to 10,000 bills. Frankly, we’ve only seen 500, 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 bills. So I don’t know if there is anything larger. As soon as we walked in the bank, the guard – a very friendly guy – ushered us to the front of the line (they treat foreigners well although it’s a little embarrassing).. We went to the counter to “explain” using sign language our problem and they seemed to understand. Behind the counter were about 8 workers who were counting money, by hand and also using a money counting machine. .. and wrapping the money in some kind of groups. All along the floor behind the counter were bills, some waiting to be counted, some already wrapped. No bars, no armed guards standing by the money – just the friendly guy who was taking care of us. Amazing. It does seem incredibly safe everywhere.

Headed for lunch at a little Thai place; not bad. They made a wide variety of smoothies and fruit juices. We both had a carrot, apple, ginger juice. Very fresh and very good. Tonight we will eat earlier than usual (for us) at the hotel restaurant which serves Indian food; we need to pack to be checked out tomorrow morning by 6 am. We decided to leave Mandalay one day earlier than planned so that we could have time for the all-day boat from Mandalay to Bagan. The boat leaves at 7 am and it’s about 30 minutes to get to the jetty. The boat (this is the “fast boat”) arrives in Bagan at 4 pm. So it’s a 9-hour trip. It’s possible to get a driver but that’s about five hours (and didn’t seem very comfortable). There’s a slow boat that takes about 12 hours (lots of people with chickens and stuff.. sounded OK but didn’t want to spend the extra time; those are also the boats that are known to be overweight and oversubscribed. There’s also a bus that takes about 10 hours… mmmmmmm… The “fast boat’ sounded like a good plan. Anyway, I’m signing off now so that I can do some work and then pack . and have dinner.. and also to take advantage of the complimentary 45-minute massage that guests are told about on arrival. Didn’t think we could fit it in, but trying to do that tonight.

Next missive from Bagan.

Cheers.

Fern