Myanmar – Mandalay

On to Mandalay – with some street shots of market traders and world rulers, plus the wonderful U-Bein Bridge

We had heard mixed reviews of Mandalay, and we left the city with mixed feelings. One thing is for certain – it is not the exotic and romantic spot immortalized by Kipling.  It’s a very busy, largely concrete-built city with intense traffic, and relatively few facilities for western tourists.  Before we had even arrived at our hotel we resolved to fly out as soon as we could, and we booked a flight the following afternoon.  The next morning however, we went to the wonderful U-Bein bridge at dawn, and then on to the north of the city, and particularly  the Kuthadaw Pagoda, site of  the biggest book in the world, and started to regret our early departure.  I think I would go back, but would stay on the northwest of the city, nearer the huge fort and Mandalay hill.  As ever the people were charming and helpful, and in this section I started to concentrate on them a little more.  Information on how to view these photos is at the end of the post as usual.

To View: If you have Flash the photos are best seen in full screen (press FS in the bottom right hand corner), and in slide show ( press SL).   If you don’t have Flash, i.e if you are using an Apple iPad/Pod/Phone, or a Nexus 7/10 tablet, or any Android tablet running 4.1 +, you can now see them as well.  Just click any of the thumbnails and a full screen slide-show should start. Information on each photo can be seen by clicking on the ‘i’ symbol in the upper right corner of the screen show.