We left the Golden Rock early, because we had train tickets departing Yangon at 5pm. Our travel would be tight from here on out, and if we missed even one leg of the trip, it would mean we might loose all the tickets we had booked. (Everything was scheduled with little room for delay).
It was cold, rainy, and foggy that morning at the peak of Mt. Kyaiktyo. As rain drizzled from the early morning sky, novice monks in crimson robes walked, barefooted, on their alms rounds. We boarded the truck for another terrifying hour back down the slick, winding roads to Kinpun, the base camp of Mt. Kyaiktyo.
We arrived at the station in Yangon in time. The bus from Kinpun was not air-conditioned, but with the window open, it wasn't bad at all. We made much better time heading back to Yangon. By the time we got to the station, we were already tired and looking forward to our private first-class carriage. Little did we know what was ahead of us that night.
The train was ancient and dirty- far from the photos we had seen online. Now, I had read reviews that talked about how bumpy the Burmese rail system was, but I had absolutely no idea it would be that bad! The ride started decently enough, slowly chugging along through the countryside. But when it got dark and the outside view was no longer interesting, it was time to try and get some sleep. The train still runs on the 60+ year-old rail system built during the colonial period by the British. As such, they are in a state of disrepair. Things started bumpy, but not horrible, but as the night wore on and we got further from Yangon, things got steadily worse.
Sleep was basically impossible. There were moments in the middle of the night when I was bouncing literally a foot in the air off the rock-hard mattress of my bunk, while luggage and things flew around the train. I probably got less than two hours of sleep on and off throughout the night, trying to sleep during the times when the train reached a smooth stretch. There were no bedsheets, and it got a little cold. We got the windows open halfway, because it was too stuffy with them closed, and the fan in the carriage was broken. There were mosquitoes and some rain came in, but I wrapped up in my longyi and rain poncho, and tried to sleep as best as I could.
Finally, at 8:00 the next morning, the train slowly creaked into Mandalay station. After checking in at the hotel, I had never been so happy to have a hot shower!
There was no time to rest, though, as the boat to Bagan would depart early the next morning. We only had one day to see Mandalay, and we had to make it count by seeing all the big sites, starting at Mandalay Palace.
The current Mandalay Palace complex is a 1990's reconstruction built on the site of the old Mandalay Palace. Mandalay was the last Burmese kingdom to resist British occupation through much of the 19th century. The palace sits inside a moat on a piece of land several miles (Burma, like the United States, uses the Imperial system of measures, and not the metric system) square. When we got to the palace, cold rain was pouring from the grey sky turning all the fields around the compound into flooded muddy puddles. The palace itself was impressive from the outside, but other than the throne hall, the dozens of buildings around the compound were empty.
Next, we went to the Golden Palace Monastery. Unlike Mandalay Palace, this is an original building. The only surviving building, in fact, from the original Mandalay Palace complex. During my time in Mandalay, this was one of my favorite places that I saw. The building is very different from the other golden and gaudy temples throughout Burma. This one, made of hand-carved teakwood, was dark, quiet, and peaceful inside. Not many people were there, just a handful of European tourists taking some photos, and it was a good escape from the heavy rain outside.
Moving on, we came to the site of the world's largest book, Kutodaw Pagoda. The temple contains numerous white stone stupas. Inside each is a tablet with words from the Buddhist canon. The entire canon (all Buddhist scripture in the Theravada School) is contained in these grounds. I'm not Buddhist, but I do appreciate books, and I was very impressed by the scale and scope of this place. The grey sky and rain made the entire complex nearly deserted and quiet, and with the marble stupas there was a mausoleum-like atmosphere about the place. Still, it was definitely very interesting to see and worth stopping by for a time. The scriptures are all written in Palin, an old Sanskrit-derived language which is the ecclesiastical language of Theravada Buddhism, so of course I couldn't read anything (not that I could had it been in Burmese either). Nevertheless, quite impressive!
Cold, wet, and exhausted, our last stop of the day was Mandalay Hill. You could walk up it, but it was steep, and we were tired. Besides, we had hired a driver for the day, so he took us to the top. There's a temple at the top. It was a lot like the other ones I had seen in Myanmar. I'll be honest, by this point in my trip I was starting to get a little bit temple-out, as anyone who's spent time traveling in southeast Asia can attest, and besides, most temples in the country pale compared to Shwedagon in Yangon. Anyway, the view from the top, though foggy that afternoon, was really nice. All in all, I definitely prefer Mandalay to Yangon. It's much quieter and more peaceful, while still being a city (unlike the next stop in Hagan). I would have liked to spend longer than just one day there, but I was able, at least, to see the big sites. My day in Mandalay was by far the rainiest day of the whole week, and returning to the hotel for a cup of hot tea was much needed after slogging through muddy water at the palace all day.
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