Myanmar (aka Burma)!

I got to Nepal last night; doing some catch-up posts from the past two weeks, since the internet speeds didn’t allow me to post anything in Myanmar!

I flew into Mandalay from Chiang Mai on Bangkok Airways. The plane was small and blah, but my bag didn’t fit in the overhead, and the flight attendant let me put it in an open seat with a seatbelt😂 Awesome! I haven’t paid any baggage fees at all. I’ve been able to carry my bag on every flight.

There were two lounges in Chiang Mai Airport that I was able to use – one with Priority Pass called Coral Executive Lounge. It was newly opened, nice, small, and had a lot of -okay- food options.

coral executive lounge food

For some reason, I also had access to the Bangkok Airways Lounge (I don’t know why), so I checked it out. It was very small, but the food was pretty delicious.

bangkok airways lounge

It’s a bit cooler in Mandalay – it gets into the 50s at night – which means I have “new” outfits because I can mix and match the warm weather clothes with the cold weather clothes😄 Mentally, it makes me feel like I have new clothes to wear, which  makes me happy 🙂

t-shirt, pants, flip-flops : “new” outfit!

For me, Mandalay was not my favorite city… There is a lot of dirt, a lot of trash and traffic. But I was only there for two days. The rooftop restaurant at my hotel was really cool, and there was a lovely sunset on one night:

sunset sky – mandalay

Mandalay Hill and the surrounding area is the main attraction in the city:

royal palace

moat around royal palace

strange glass encased shrine

shweyattaw pavilion on hill

temple

green giant

kuthodaw pagoda

kuthodaw pagoda stupas

kuthodaw pagoda

These stupas house 729 marble slabs that are engraved with Buddhist text, making the site the ‘largest book in the world’.

kuthodaw pagoda – world’s largest book

Mandalay Hill:

lion guard

mandalay hill – southern stairway entrance

mandalay hill – top

view of mandalay

Up on the Hill, I ran into this amazing young man, Sai, who is a Buddhist monk novice. We talked for a few hours about his life, what it’s like to live in the monastery, his family, etc. It was a great way to spend an afternoon, and I have immeasurable amounts of respect for Sai and the life he is choosing to lead. It really puts into perspective the frivolous things that we worry about and the truly worthless things that we choose to spend time on.

my new buddy

That was it for Mandalay, pretty much… except that I burned my leg😔 It’s still not healed. Gruesome pics in later post…

Next up: Bagan – Hot Air Balloon Ride!