Mandalay - rest day

If Rudyard was able to return to Mandalay now, he would recognise the hill and the wall and moat around the (rebuilt in the1990's) palace, but very little else.  What a disappointment.  It reminds me of Casablanca, both names that conjur up such romance, in reality, both do not have a shred of it.  Poor Mandalay was very heavily bombed by the allied forces during the Japanese occupation but the rebuild is very shoddy.

It doesn't really have a heart, just a jumble of messy concrete buildings thrown up without a thought of architectural merit.  It's set out on a grid system and so is easy to negotiate but, in truth, the roads are choked with dust and fumes with a mess of "spaghetti" wiring looping from pole to pole.  Take my advice and go elsewhere in this marvellous country but forget about Mandalay.

That said, we had an enjoyable day.  We went to the only remaining original carved wooden pagoda.  It gave a real sense of how beautiful the city must have been before the war.  Then, off to the jetty on the mighty Irrawady, for a cruise to Mangun.  This was enjoyed by all, very relaxing and a delicious lunch was served on board.  In Mangun, we went for a ride around the village in an ox cart - a new experience for many.  The driver controls his "engines" by pulling on their tails and talking in a constant stream of " ox" to them. It's excruciatingly uncomfortable, but an experience we had to try. For the whole of our outing we were accompanied by several tourist police making sure that we kept out of mischief.

The mechanics had a very busy day of it and were still working hard when we returned from our outing in the late afternoon.  They are a fab team doing a great job of keeping us all on the road.

For the competitors, it was a day of gentle pleasures. A part of me really wanted to go to the Pagoda where the Buddha has his teeth cleaned by the monks every morning, especially given what I'm up to in Cambodia.  The ceremony starts at 4.00am though and would have necessitated a 3.00 alarm call - I didn't make it.