11/22: Tour Around Mandalay: Buggy Ride, Teak Bridge & Comedy Show

Yesterday we arranged through the hotel a day trip to see a list of proscribed sights around Mandalay today with an English speaking driver who would pick us up at 8 and bring us back to the hotel after sunset. Our first destination was Mahamuni Pagoda located a little south of Mandalay. 

West of Mahamuni Paya or Pagoda, there were a whole series of workshops where we saw slabs of rock being blasted, chipped and polished into Buddhas of all sizes. Photos of some of them follow:

Very young novice monks holding their begging bowls.

The 'workshops' were all out in the open with cars racing by just inches away. The noise from the men's tools was almost deafening as they worked on the monuments. I got out of the car to take photos and was glad I got no closer than from across the street as I could see a fine layer of marble dust descending on everything and everyone that was any closer. None of the men I saw used masks or had ear protection. It would have been fascinating to have had time to watch the men shape a block of marble into a recognizable shape but we needed to get going. 

Photos of Mahamuni or Great Sage Pagoda: 

The pagoda, built in 1784 and then reconstructed after a fire a century later, is one of the three most important shrines in Myanmar along with Shwedagon in Yangon and the Golden Rock atop Mt. Kyaiktiyo in Kingpun. You may recall that we'd recently visited those as well.

We put our shoes in this locker, i.e. # 3!

There were a lot of souvenir stalls here as well of course. This one selling items made from Cow Bones was new to us.

Entranceway ceiling.

The Mahamuni Buddha is almost 13 feet high. It has been coated with several centimeters thick of layers of gold leaf by pilgrims over the years so that parts of the body were now barely recognizable. We were so lucky we could watch Buddhist faithful men pasting on the thin gold leaf as Buddha’s body is cloaked with robes during the rainy season.

It seemed like there were more worshipers here than at any of the other pagodas we had visited but possibly it only appeared  like that because the worship space was small.

Steven was told he couldn’t enter the area where the Buddha was because he had worn shorts but that he could borrow the native attire. These women helped him tie the longyi so it didn’t fall down!

I saw women give tiny packets of gold leaf to a security guard and other men so they would apply them on their behalf.

I saw female devotees kneel close by but they, and I, could only get a glimpse of the image. There were TV monitors so women could watch up close the gold being applied. Some women believe desegregation is long overdue as Lord Buddha never said anything like that and they too would like to put gold leaf on the Buddha image themselves.

Photos from other areas of Mahamuni Pagoda:

We were very surprised to find in the pagoda complex a museum and gallery as that was new for us.

 Some of the paintings showed the progression of the Buddha’s journey from India.

One of the entranceways to the pagoda!

Intriguing seeing large bronze figures below and to read that people believed if they suffered from pain and disease, they would get relief if they brushed those specific parts of their body against the bronze sculpture.

 

Steven rubbing his back against the bronze hoping to find relief.

 Once we got back to the car, we decided to alter the planned itinerary and have the driver take us to town of Mingun rather than to a nearby monastery where we could literally stand and watch the monks eat lunch at 10:30. The latter and a few other things on the itinerary held no appeal to us so we wanted to use our limited time wisely. 

Unfortunately the driver spoke very little English even though the hotel had assured us he would. It was also frustrating that, despite its being another 30 degree plus day, the driver refused to put on the AC because, he said, it wasn’t included in the day’s price! (When we returned to the hotel hours later and told them about our experiences with the driver, they of course said AC was included.)

Photos en route to Mingun:

People collecting money for a monastery located about an hour away.

The new bridge over the Irrawaddy River, the same river flowing through Bagan. Just as in so many places in Indonesia, the driver had to pay cash to a fellow acting as a toll taker standing at the bridge. No receipts were given; wonder where the money goes?

Photo of Sagaiing Hill, one of the places we chose not to go to that was on the itinerary. We figured climbing Mandalay Hill the night before had been enough in terms of hills for a while!

We were not surprised to learn that the town of Sagaiing is considered to be the principal Buddhist center in Myanmar as we saw one monastery right after another; we’ve seen a lot of monasteries this trip but no city has had as many as Sagaiing. Devout families bring their young sons to undergo the shin pyu ceremony and thereby join the community of the faithful. 

In the hills and valleys of the west bank of the Irrawaddy River are some 600 monasteries, as well as numerous temples, stupas and caves dedicated to the memory of the Gautama Buddha. 

At the northern end of the chain of hills flanking Sagaiing, on the banks of the Irrawaddy River was the village of Mingun that had been our destination. We arrived at its Archelogical Zone at 10:30 where we had to buy tickets for the area’s attractions.  

The driver dropped us off at Mya Thein Dan Pagoda, above, and told us to meet him back at the town’s entrance after seeing the other attractions. It was great having the luxury to wander at our own pace knowing we had no set time when we had to be back at the car. 

Photos of Mya Thein Dan Pagoda:

As you just MIGHT have guessed from seeing all these photos, I really loved this pagoda! It was just stunning against the gorgeous blue sky. It reminded me of so many photos I've seen of Santorini in Greece - I wonder if our travels might take us there one day?

Photos as we walked to the next attraction in Mingun:

Do you fancy riding in a Bullock Taxi? Well, we didn't either!

We've seen kids all over Laos and Myanmar play street soccer with these wooden balls.

We hadn't seen much in the way of social services in all of Myanmar so were surprised to see this home for Buddhist seniors in tiny Mingun.

The big lure for coming to the village of Mingun was to see its bell.

Photos of Mingun Bell:

 Mingun Bell is the largest intact bell in the world. It weighs 87 tons and stands more than 12 ft high and is 16.5 ft wide at the bottom. I don't know if it is ever rung now but I was glad we weren't there when it did as I can only imagine how deafening it would have been.

What a beautiful sound when Steven pounded the bell with the heavy mallet.

Cute photo he took inside the bell!

The youngest novice monk I’ve ever seen.

Walked next to an adjacent pagoda built to honor Sayadaw for his prodigious memory in recanting 16,000 pages of Buddhist scriptures without any hesitation! It earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

We walked next to an unfinished monastery which was just a few minutes away. Photos of Unfinished Monastery:

It is sometimes described as the biggest pile of bricks on earth. We got a sense of the enormity of the ‘pagoda’ as we walked around it.

Saw the sign ‘forbidding’ climbing up to the top of the unfinished monastery but we, like everyone else around us, resolutely ignored the sign and began walking up yet another stairway. It was great having the newish handrail to hold on to on the forbidden climb!

Offerings in the crumbling bricks as we climbed up the pagoda.

The climb had been well worth it once we saw these beautiful views atop the 'pagoda.'

We met up with the driver after that and he then drove us to a ferry stop. He told us to buy tickets for the ferry across the channel without being able to tell us what to do and see once we got there – just a tad frustrating as you might imagine. 

 We talked to other tourists who had been lucky enough to have taxi drivers who spoke better English than ours and learned we were in the small village of Inwa. The only means of conveyance were the horse and buggies who take tourists on a 2 hour circuit around the area. 

There was a young Irishwoman who joined us which made it more fun and less expensive. We had all thought initially we could walk to the ‘sights’ but quickly realized that they were too far apart and walking wasn’t an option given the time frame we had.

Our young ‘driver’ – I have no idea what the correct term is for a 12 year old boy who controlled the horse – really did a great job as he led us first to Yandana Sinme Pagoda. Photos en route:

Our horse and buggy.

Once we got to the pagoda, the three of us hopped out as we welcomed the opportunity to walk around the pagoda for a bit as the ride had been quite bumpy.

Photos of Yandana Sinme Pagoda:

The boys were playing with one of the wooden balls I photographed in Mingun.

Back in the horse and buggy and onto our next stop. On the way, we passed a lot of ponds like these. Don't know what they were though.

He next took us to a teak monastery called Bagaya that had been built in 1834.

It was reassuring seeing the fire extinguisher in the all teak monastery especially since we hadn't seen anything like a fire department anywhere.

Saw some intricate woodcarving here just as we had at the Golden Palace Teak Monastery in Mandalay.

Saw young monks studying for the first time.

Back in the buggy again and off to our next stop.

It was very common to see advertising on homes.

It was through the fields and over very bumpy lanes before we reached Mahar Aung Mye Bon San Monastery, our last stop before we were driven back to the ferry stop.

We had a really fun time seeing the countryside from a buggy although I, who was sitting up front the whole time was not too impressed with our young ‘driver’ who used his switch very liberally on the poor horse’s rump. After he lost the switch somewhere along the way, he stopped, above, and cut down a branch to make a new one. I am in no way an animal rights activist but even I had concerns about his ‘hitting’ the horse way too much. He was able to pick up on, and understand, my distress through my animated gestures.

When he brought back his new switch to the buggy, I tossed it out a few minutes’ later much to Steven’s horror, saying I should not have done that. I think the boy was amused by the whole interaction he and I had had about the switch as he and I had been sitting side by side for close to 2 hours by then. Luckily he accepted it with good grace and was able to communicate with the horse after that perfectly well without benefit of a switch. I like to think that he may remember me from time to time when using another switch on his ‘moneymaker.’

Photos of Mahar Aung Mye Bon San Monastery:

The monastery was built in 1822, severely damaged in an earthquake in 1838 and rebuilt by 1873.

The 7 tiered Prayer Hall above.

Inwa traffic jam! We had had a really fun time touring around Inya with our young guide even though our backsides were a little tender afterwards from all the jostling in the buggy.

There was a small gallery just before the dock and we bought a lovely painting there done by the gallery owner. We have purchased a number of paintings and wall hangings this trip so it will be fun to get them all home, have them framed and then try and figure out where or where we might find space to put them! Ivy – I know you mentioned to me years ago that we would have to start rotating some paintings so that not all of them are on view at once. I wonder if we may finally have reached that critical point!

Ferry boat driver pumping out water.

After our 5 minute ferry ride back across the channel, we got back in the car for our drive to Ubein Bridge, our last stop of the day.

Begging for a monastery again.

Photos of Ubein Bridge:

All tourists doing this day circuit from Mandalay end their day watching sunset over Ubein Bridge and that had been our original hope too til we threw a monkey wrench into the day by deviating from the itinerary and having the driver take us to Mingun. We had  decided earlier to walk across the longest teak footbridge in the world and call it a day without waiting for sunset.

While walking across the gently curved 1300 yards long narrow bridge with wide slats so we could see the water flowing underneath, another monk began chanting with us. So many locals in each of the countries we’ve traveled to on this trip have stuck up conversations with us asking where we’re from and expressing interest in us and our family back home. This monk knew of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and also talked about the recent election, saying the military government had not been good for his country.

It was the Dry Season when we were there; at the height of the summer when it’s the Wet Season, the lake rises several feet and water laps the bottom of the planks.

There were lots of monks of all ages enjoying the stroll along Ubein Bridge just as we did.

 Just a few of the 1600 poles on which the bridge stands have been replaced by concrete supports.

It was interesting to see how farmers here were still ploughing their land as they did eons ago.

Below, the final photo of Ubein Bridge which spans Taungthaman Lake in Amarapura, which means ‘City of Immortality’ although its prominence lasted less than 70 years. The city has become essentially a spread out suburb of Mandalay.

We got back to the hotel a couple of hours earlier than we’d originally planned as we hadn’t stayed for the sunset at Ubein Bridge. That meant that we had the evening free so we left the hotel at 6:30 to walk to the Night Market located a good hike south and west of us. The market turned out to be very small and not at all targeted for foreigners.

We then walked about 2 miles to see the 8:30 pm performance of the Moustache Brothers Show which took place in the open garage at their home. As there were only seats for 24 people, we were sure glad that we’d had the hotel reserve 2 seats for us before we had headed out.

We were the first ones there so we were given the 2 middle seats in the first row just a yard away from the simple stage. 

In Myanmar jokes can get you into serious trouble as the internationally celebrated Moustache Brothers found out the hard way. In 1996 they performed at an Independence day celebration at Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s Yangon compound when she was under house arrest. They told politically tinged jokes about Myanmar generals and 2 of the 3 comedians were arrested and given 7 years of hard labor. Several Hollywood comedians, including Rob Reiner and political comedian Bill Maher wrote to the government in protest. Meanwhile, Lu Maw kept the Mandalay show going on with the help of his wife.

After their release in 2002, the reunited Moustache Brothers remained ‘blacklisted’ from playing at outside events (marriages, festivals, etc) and played a series of gala performances at home attended, inevitably, by some government agents. The regional commander summoned Par Par Lay and told him not to perform at home anymore. 

The result was he and his family decided the show would go on but they would perform without costumes and makeup. They explained they were merely ‘demonstrating a performance’ since they couldn’t do a real one without costumes. Somehow it worked and the show continues to the present but without Par Par Lay who died last year from drinking lead poisoned water in prison. Costumes have since returned to their shows but they are now for, and attended by, foreigners exclusively. Locals who went until very recently would probably be followed by police.

An old photo of Par Par Lay and his brother Lu Maw with Aung Sun Suu Kyi, Myanmar's newly elected leader.

Lu Maw, the surviving brother and emcee, asked everyone where they were from and then made jokes about their answers. When we said we’re from the US, he immediately said, ‘Obama’ yes, he’s black like me.’ For the people sitting beside us from France, his comment was how much he liked French cognac; for the Swiss, it was the watches he liked.

He showed a clip from Hugh Grant’s film called ‘About a Boy’ in which Grant’s character talked about Maw’s brother, Par Par Lay being imprisoned. One of the best jokes I thought was when he recounted having to go to a dentist in Thailand and the dentist asked him why he had come all that way to have his teeth worked on. Maw’s response was that in Myanmar you couldn’t open your mouth!

The show was a combination of slapstick, political satire, Myanmar history and dance performances, the latter by Lu Maw’s wife, cousin, a friend and granddaughter. 

Lu Maw and his wife; she had been on the cover of an earlier edition of Lonely Planet's Myanmar travel guide.

This woman, who was the 'friend' in the troupe, danced beautifully.

This was Lu Zaw, the cousin, and third member of the Moustache Brothers. Only Lu Maw spoke any English during the show apart from a couple of words. Maw thankfully used word boards from time to time during the show to help the audience decipher his thick accent.

Lu Maw's adorable 6 year old grandaughter.

The show culminated with a shameless T shirt sales drive. Seeing Lu Maw, his cousin and the rest of the troupe perform was a unique show and a Mandalay classic. After the hour long show ended, the show’s ticket taker and his friend drove us back to our hotel on the back of their motorcycles. Steven had talked to the former guy earlier and learned that there no younger family members who wanted to follow in their parents’ footsteps so, when Lu Maw gives up performing, that will be the end of their show.

Posted on 12/5 from Kathmandu, Nepal.