I was definately on the Road to Mandalay. What a bumpy, half non-existent road it is. Our fine ship docked, just barely, at the Port of Yangon. We had to wait at sea for the tide to rise for an hour more than expected. Then it took a considerale time for the ship's thusters to nudge us up to the pier. We were bottoming out in mud but, we finally kissed the bumpers.
Instead of a cruise terminal we were at a container loading pier. Unsual, out gangplank was out on the 4th Deck (my deck) and it was almost level with the pier, instead of stairs going down t it. Things do not appear to be going as smoothly as at other ports.
My excusion left out the next aternoon for Mandalay. There were only 7 of us adventurous enough to take this overnight trip deep into the interior of Myanmar. Our guide Romey told us they changed the name from Burma because that was just what the British called it even though the Burmese people were only 40% of the country.
I say adverturous because here''s what we had to do to get to Mandalay. We were packed in a large somewhat comfortable van that was built for smaller people than we and given a box lunch. We drove over two hours to the Yangon Airport. This is because the Port of Yangon is not in anyway close to Yangon and the airport was on the other side - by road.
Allow me to say this about Fairfield Bay: our worst street in the Bay is better than their newest, best built and maintained road. Someone on the ship told me that the main highway we took to Yangon last year was a dirt path where opposing traffic had to pull aside to pass. It was kidney-busting bumpy the whole way with every bridge and culvert a jumping ramp.
I'm not complaining here. I'm just trying to paint a picture of the conditions of our trek. Romey, ever the talking tour guide, explained that his was a very old country with many kings, conquerors and military dictatorships. The country is mainly Buddist. (No kidding when you see the photos) The roads, as bad as they are; are much better than they were in the recent past. This fits in nicely with their belief that we are here to later have a better life and things improve in all things, a little at a time. They are thankful, since they have so little, for every little thing they do get. Like a road that doesn't turn into impassable mud when it rains - which is often.
Next, flight KBZ K7 204 was delayed 45 minutes. I needed local cash but, it was payday. All four ATM machines at the airport worked with a Visa card but, they were all out of money. We had to go through 3 differnt checkpoints with walk through magnetometers, wands and bag scanners. I had to assume the position each time because of my metal pacemaker. There were no gates at the airport for us, only buses with ceiling handholds (and not enough of them) to take us out to the airplane.
I said airplane, not jet. It was a twin turbo-prop. Okay, a type of jet but, the kind that American Eagle stopped using years ago. In fact, I suspected I'd been on this same craft on a hop from DFW to Laredo 15 years back when is owned by AA.
My luck changed, rather my adventure continued as I sat down next to a pretty girl, who turned out to be a model. A model that was young enough to be my grand-daughter. She and I talked the whole hour and a half flight. I Facebooked Molly and told her she had more competition for favorite daughter from Pupu in Myanmar. First Costa Rica and now here. I better start being appreciated.
Our landing was fast and hard. I thought we had a flat tire on the left side. It turned out (a passeger - pilot on board told me) they were trying to make the first turn-off ramp but, missed it. Another bus to the terminal that felt like a subway car, packed and a couldn't-care-less driver that had everybody struggling not to fall over.
Our new van picked us out front with a little bigger van, and thank goodness for air-conditioning. I was looking for a place that took credit cards and sold longyi, the dress Burmese men often wore. They looked so much cooler than I.
It was a two hour drive to our hotel, the Mercure Mandalay Hill. Very plush hotel but our late 9:30 pm dinner turned into a 10:30 one with the whole huge staff staying late just for us. It was wonderful but, we all felt guilty, being the only ones in the beautiful restarurant. The buffet was the biggest and best I've ever seen and this was the best meal we'd had on this world cruise. And, that saying something. It sure beat Western Sizzling in Clinton. A lot of it I didn't know what I was eating but it was grand.
The next day was busy. We visited the ancient city/fort of Mandalay, the Mandalay Pagodas, drove to Sagaing, ate lunch at the hotel. The we drove to and saw Kuthodaw Pagoda. We drove up to the top of Mandalay Hill which would best any tight curvy switchback road in Arkansas. t had a much tighter road-width to open air fall ratio. We stopped at a monastery and then a nunnery on the way back which was very interesting.
I'll let the pictures tell the story but there were too may things of which to take photos that, as many of them as there are; I have at least a hundred more. Even the photos can not capture the land, people, colors. There is just too much of it to take in and you are immerced in it.
The trip back was a reverse process of our first day. Somehow we got back to the ship, completely drained and worn out, right on schedule. This even with a stop at a jewelery store for a couple of the ladies and a stop at a small roadside zoo so Linda coud get out and take a picture of a pair tigers we saw on the way out.
Segway - cats. On the Road to Mandalay there people everywhere walking along the side of the streets. There were food sellers and other businesses and dogs walking along with people on the side of the road. They minded the traffic and occassionally crossed when they had a clear path. I'm used to seeing this as we drive along. Then I see a larger than normal dog up ahead walking down the side of the road with everybody else and it had a long tail and didn't lumber along like a dog.
It was a cat! A big, maybe 200 pound, cat that l saw. It had a long lazily swishing tail and was a faded yellow-tan, walking around like it owned the place. Nobody on the street was paying the least attention to it, including the dogs. One dog walked right by it going the opposite direction. I yelled out and several of my co-travalers saw it just as we passed by.
Anyway, I got to ship and got a good nights sleep only to wake up in the morning and to find that I had severly burned the heal of my left foot. We had to take off or shoes at each temple. At one of them I was walking on a white tile floor outside in 38c heat. The medical staff on the ship cleaned it up and bandaged and I have to come in each morning after I shower to get it re-bandaged. The medical center is only 6 doors down the hall. All is well.
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