Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin and Back to Yangon Myanmar

This post is a continuation of a previous post:
Yangon Myanmar (Part 1)
Bagan Myanmar (Part 2)

Day 6
We left for Mandalay in the morning after all the pagoda viewing the day before. Same thing happens, the hotel arranged a mini bus to fetch us to the bus terminal for us to catch the bus. The journey from Bagan to Mandalay is about 4 hours ride.

We wasted no time at Mandalay the moment we arrived, booked a taxi again and head off to the hotel to check in. We stayed at Hotel Yadanarbon. It was a pretty new 3 star hotel, but their service and accommodation is good. Their location is very accessible as well.

We went for lunch at a nearby roadside stall after settling down our luggage in our room.

Mote Hin Gar

We had Mote Hin Gar. This is similar to the Mee Siam that we have in Singapore, but I prefer this to Mee Siam if I were to choose. The soup broth is what won me over, and I can request them to add more soup too.

Following the tradition of the past few days, my first stop is a temple again. But this time, there is something slightly different.

Mahamuni Buddha Temple

I wore a Longyi over my shorts to visit the Mahamuni Buddha Temple. Shorts are not allowed into the temple. Do I look like a Burmese when I am in a Longyi?

After that, we visited the U Bein Bridge.

U Bein Bridge

This place is a famous tourist attraction because this bridge has been here for a very long time and it  is made up only with wooden logs and planks. The bridge links to the other side of the river. I didn't go all the way to the other side of the river though. A tourist told me it took her about 30 minutes from one end to the other and that deters me from walking. The distance is a little too far.

Mote Own Naut

There was a lady on the bridge selling Mote Own Naut. It is a local delight using rice cake and coconut shreds with sugar.

On the way back from the bridge, we stopped by the Ayeyarwady River because it doesn't look like a river.

Ayeyarwady River Bank

The river was dried up because it was winter and the land was used for agriculture during that season. Because the land is fertile and wasn't owned by anybody, the locals will "chope" the land by growing crops on it. So the more area you can plant in the shortest time, the more land you can have during the season. But I heard things are getting better as the government intervene to settle the land dispute issues.

Heading back to the hotel, we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant because I have been having too much Burmese food and my tummy wasn't really used to it. So at the restaurant we ordered something more familiar like the western food. I shall not post the photos here because they are food that we can get anywhere. I just want to post photos of Myanmar food.

Day 7
A week just passed by so quickly when we were travelling. Our itinerary for the day was to visit the royal palace and head up to Pyin Oo Lwin.

So we had our complimentary breakfast in the hotel to kick start our day and head of to the Golden Palace Monastery.

Golden Palace Monastery

This place was actually an apartment for the king in the palace. After the king's demise, the place was thought to be haunted by the late king's spirit. So the new king ordered the apartment to be relocated here and turned it into a monastery.

Sutaungpyai Pagoda

The Sutaungpyai Pagoda is located up on the Mandalay Hill. It is a popular tourist attraction as well, probably because of it's location.

The Mandalay Royal Palace

Finally, we arrived at the Mandalay Royal Palace. This whole place is a replica because the palace was destroyed during war time. The only thing that isn't destroyed is the watch tower.

Watch Tower in Mandalay Royal Palace

This watch tower is the only building that is original in the palace. From the top of the tower, we could see the whole palace from a bird's eye view

Mandalay Royal Palace from the watch tower

The view was really nice as I could see the whole palace from there.

After all touring around Mandalay, it is time to head up to Pyin Oo Lwin (also known as May Myo). The city is similar to Genting or Cameron Highland in Malaysia. It is located on a highland and car ride from Mandalay takes about 2 hours.

Because of the high altitude, the city is a lot cooler.

But before we head up to Pyin Oo Lwin, we made a detour to see CT's relative staying in a village along the way. Their address is pretty isolated so it took us quite awhile to find the place.

Wedding Bullock Cart Service

Her relatives are doing wedding bullock cart service for the locals. It seems rather interesting because there isn't anything like that in Singapore. Her relatives were very nice as well. Because I seemed interested in the bullock cart, they actually went through the trouble to bring out the cart and dress up the bull for me to see.

After the family visit, we continued our journey to the highland. We checked into Kandawgyi Hill Resort and we head down to the city center for lunch.

Purcell Tower in the city center

It is quite obvious to identify the city center in Pyin Oo Lwin. They have a clock tower called the Purcell Tower. Always use that as a guide and you will never really get lost in the city center. As Pyin Oo Lwin is located relatively near to China borders, there were quite a number of Chinese restaurants around, and we went into restaurant called Lay Ngoon Restaurant (利源饭店). I shall skip the food here as well since it is not Burmese food, the food is good though.

After filling up our tummy, we headed to back to the hotel. Guess what mode of transport did we take?

Sitting on Horse Carriage

Yes, we took the horse carriage back since we didn't have a chance to do it at Bagan. Their carriage is nicer here as well. I took the seat behind the carriage so that I could enjoy the scenery there at the same time.

After resting for a while, we headed back to the city center because we were thinking of renting a bicycle to explore the area, so we took our own sweet time and walk back to the city center. It took us about 40 minutes to reach but it didn't felt long because we have company.

Renting a bike there is very cheap, it cost about 2000Kyat for 24 hours. After that while we are cycling back, we went for dinner.

Myay-oh Mee Shay

Myay-oh Mee Shay simply means Claypot Noddle. I don't see a lot of noodle in the claypot, but instead, there were a lot of ingredients in it. I really feel that spending money on food in Myanmar is totally worth it. It is always filled with the generous portion of ingredients.

Later that night, back at the hotel, the reception called us to ask what we would like for breakfast. It was either the western breakfast or the Shan noodle. My choice was quite obvious, it was the Shan noodle since I always wanted to try the different Burmese cuisine.

Day 8

Shan Noodle

It looked like the noodle salad (mentioned in part 1 of my trip) to me, except the fact that this one is warm and noodle salad is cold. Anyway, it was really tasty.

We visited the Maha Ant Htoo Kan Thar Pagoda after breakfast

Maha Ant Htoo Kan Thar Pagoda

This pagoda is located along the way if you are heading to the China borders. The story I heard about this pagoda is pretty interesting. 

The Buddha statue in this pagoda was meant to be transported to China, but it got into some accident at this very place, so the transportation was delayed. On the same night of the accident, the monk who was escorting the statue had a dream saying that the statue did not want to leave the country. That is why a pagoda was built here and the statue is placed in it.

Interesting right?

Anyway, did I mentioned that there are waterfalls in Pyin Oo Lwin? If I have not, yes, there are waterfalls. The best waterfall there is the Anisakan Fall, but it takes about another 2-3 hours of car ride to reach that place and it is not suitable if you have elderly in the group. Because of the long journey, we had to skip that one and make do with the nearer Pwe Gauk Fall.

Pwe Gauk Fall

Although it might not have been as grand as Anisakan Fall, it was still a pretty sight. 

Water powered carousel

 Near the fall, there is a carousel powered by the gushing water from the fall. You don't see this everyday do you? Especially when you come from a more developed country.

Fried Pork Lard

We bought some snacks while viewing the scenic view of the waterfall. The pork lard taste like any other cracker that I have eaten. If I wasn't told, I wouldn't realise that it was lard. I wonder how much fats does 1 piece of it contain.

It started raining after a while at the waterfall, so we cut short our stay and went back to the hotel. It wasn't raining in the city though. On a side note, there is a place called the Shan Village on the way to Pwe Gauk Fall. I didn't manage to check it out, so maybe if anyone of you is going there, you can include the place in your itinerary.

Remember the bicycle that we rented the day before? We went cycling around exploring the area since we got spare time.

Amusement Park

There is a amusement park near the hotel that we were staying. We decided to give it a miss due to the time constraint. 

天然宫

Randomly, we chanced upon a Chinese temple. I haven't seen a Chinese temple since the first day in Myanmar so I find it quite interesting and I went in. There were statues from Journey to the West and a dragon head similar to the one at Haw Par Villa but a lot smaller. The temple also has an old folks home inside, so the whole place is huge.

After that we returned our bicycles and took a taxi to the National Kandawgyi Gardens which is just next to our hotel. There is a camera tax of 1000Kyat to take photos in the garden for your information.

Map of National Kandawgyi Gardens

Inside National Kandawgyi Gardens

This place has the same concept as Singapore Botanical Gardens. So there were a lot of flowers, swans, and ducks. Soon after we entered the park, it started to rain here as well. It was annoying that we had to seek shelter because of the rain. As the rain got smaller, we decided that we shouldn't be wasting time hiding inside shelter, so we headed for the watch tower in the garden so we can see the whole place from the top. It was still drizzling though, but we just walked in the rain.

Watch Tower in National Kandawgyi Gardens

There is an admission fee to the tower. We can choose to take the lift up or walk up the stairs. Me being stingy on the money, we took the stairs. Taking the lift cost more. 

Scenery from the watch tower

It was suppose to be cooling at the top, but because we were wet, we ended up shivering in cold. We just took a few snapshots of the place and we quickly head back to our hotel to wash up before checking out.

We took a taxi back to Mandalay which took only about 1.5 hour. Comparing to the 2 hour ride up, going down the hill is definitely faster, but scarier as well when you see how the driver drove. Reaching Mandalay we hopped on to coach heading to Naypyitaw. The journey is about 5-6 hours long.

Day 9 & 10
For the next 2 days, I was in Naypyitaw preparing to watch the opening ceremony for SEAgames. I shall not make this post any longer talking about it here. I will blog about the SEAgames in a separate post soon, so look forward to that.

Day 11
I went back to Yangon early in the morning because I have a flight to catch the next day. I would love to stay and watch some of the games before leaving Naypyitaw, but because I have something on in Singapore, I had to leave.

It was late afternoon when I reached Yangon. So I just headed to the Chinatown to spend the remaining time I have in Myanmar.

Oil painting with the artist

I saw this little boy (14 yeard old) doing oil painting. He was rather talented because all he needs is just a few minutes and a painting is done. I decided to get 2 paintings from him to support him and it only cost 1000Kyat each.

Along one of the alley, something really caught my attention. It's Wet Thar Dote Htoe! It means Pork on Stick

Wet Thar Dote Htoe

I always liked this kind of thing. Although I haven't get pass the hospitalization experience when I just landed on Myanmar, I still decided to try it even though I wasn't sure if it was safe to eat or not.
So to eat this,

1. All you need to do is to find a seat around the stall. 
2. Then you just pick whatever you want to eat, dip it into the soup to heat up.
3. Keep all the sticks that you have taken
4. Pass the sticks you have to the lady and ask for bill after you are done eating
5. The bill will base on how many sticks you have eaten

Following that night, we decided to drop by Strand Hotel for a drink before going back since it was our last night there.

Strand Hotel

Of course, the photo was taken during the day. I wouldn't be able to take such a shot if it was at night.

Strand Hotel in Yangon is not affiliated to other Strand Hotels around the world. It got it's name because it is located at Strand Road. It is one of the most iconic and luxurious hotel in Myanmar. It's founder was the Sarkies Brothers (the same people who built Raffles Hotel in Singapore)

Living in Singapore most of my time, the drinks there were rather standard. Of course, the price there is more affordable than Singapore. We had a couple of drinks and we went back for a good night rest.

Day 12

Since it was the last day of the trip, we went to have a more luxurious breakfast at Royal Rose Restaurant. Being greedy, I ordered Shwe Taung Kaukswe (Golden Mountain Noodle) and Kaw Yay Khauk Swe (Burmese version of Lor Mee).

Kaw Yay Khauk Swe

Shwe Taung Kauk Swe

Surprisingly I had good appetite that morning. I finished everything that I ordered. Another reason why I could finish them all was probably the food was delicious. I even ordered a roti prata after finishing up the 2 dishes.

Inya Lake

We went to Inya lake after a good breakfast because it is a popular spot for couples. Yangon University is also located just beside the lake, hence many events, such as kayaking, from the school were also organised here. This place is similar to Pandan Reservoir or Bedok Reservoir in Singapore, so there isn't anything to that really caught my attention. But well, it is a good dating spot I guess.

For the remaining time, we decided to roam around the city center again to do some last minute shopping. There wasn't much time either because we still had to go back to wash up and pack our luggage. The journey to the airport was about an hour, so we had to leave for the airport quite early.

The End...
Well, that sums up my 12 days trip in Myanmar. It was a pleasant trip and I would probably visit Myanmar again. However, the country is not really tourist friendly. Most people only understand Burmese. Accommodation and transport fee for tourist isn't cheap either. Even so, I would still recommend to travel to Myanmar now before it starts developing and lose it's origin.

One last important point, be careful of what you consume there. Don't end up in the hospital like me.

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