Road to Mandalay

Been away for a month now. Feels like I've packed enough in. I know the number of blog posts are on the skinny side, but that's not for lack of material, just lack of effort. I can never shake my general apathy, even in blogging.

No one has yet found a way to silence me. So I feel comfortable enough to tell you a little bit about Myanmar while I'm still in the country.

On my last day in Yangon I stumble across a demonstration to free Ang Suu Kyi. Apparently it is supposed to be her last day under house arrest, but it isn't so people take to the streets. All very peaceful, but lots of guys taking photos of the crowd (including me). I assume they are tourists, but someone says they are secret police. I assume everyone else has since been rounded up and shot, but as a westerner they probably have more difficulty putting a name to the face. So this is borrowed time.

Take a flight up to Heho on some dodgy old fokker 80 plane, but it makes it and I meet an 80 year old New Zealander who is also travelling on his own. I'm almost inspired but the apathy takes hold. Inle lake is a relief after the humidity, pollution and general shitness of Yangon. The accomodation seems really nice too, but my first night there and I wake up with something crawling across my face. Without power to turn any lights on I assume it's a gecko (and I quite like geckos), but I wake up to find a whole family of cockroaches have started squatting in my bed. The next few nights are more or less sleepless.

The lake itself is beautiful. Most of the sights seem to be of the pagoda/stupa/wat variety. Lots of buddhas, lots of monks - a similar theme to everywhere else in this part of the world. I stop taking photos at this point. I'm conscious that, unless you have visited the religious icon in the picture, they must lose their appeal after the third flickr set.

So after five relaxing days in Nuang Shwe (a mini-holiday) I jump on a plane to Mandalay. It's a 20 seater twin-prop and the rainy season well and truly kicks in. We bounce around for the 30 minute flight but the karma saves me and we touch down in Mandalay on the hottest runway ever. It's 40 degrees and 95% humidity. I haven't seen the hostel yet but I'm pretty sure this is hell on earth.

Hostel has air-con, so it's actually more like heaven. But the air-con only works when the government supply power and that comes in 6 hour on, 12 hour off cycles. I feel sad. I'm sure when we moved out in the 50's we left this place in a much better state than it is now. It's like giving a kid a car you've built for their 12th birthday - you know they will crash it but they have to make their own mistakes. They are such sweet kids though, you can't stay mad for long.

Mandalay has lots of things to see and I don't want to hang around so I go straight to the hill, climb it, take a photo and on to the fort and palace. Both nice (surprisingly there is a stupa there - no one tells you that until you get there). The next day is for the old towns in the vicinity - lots of pagodas around to be seen. Our guide brings his neice along who is studying English. She is supposed to be 22 and learning at university. Either a testament to how appalling their education system is or she was away the day they learnt how to count in English. She looks about 12 and for the entire day tries to persuade me that I would like her as a wife. On the whole they are a reserved, modest people, but she hasn't learnt that life lesson yet. After the fifth time I have to push her off me she accuses me of being shy. Perhaps she is right. We don't part ways on good terms. She is crying into her uncles arms and refuses to say goodbye. Just another broken heart I leave behind - you grow immune to it after this long on the road.