We walked down to the Irrawaddy, to a commercial landing, surrounded by local boats, and a larger river boat.  This is a kind of ‘merchant’ ship which brings goods downstream, and sells directly from the deck – fabric, pianos, beds, you name it.  Wandered around and bought more longyi fabric, and took photos of the sunset over the river.

By this time our guide was getting tired, and suggested that perhaps we should wait to go to the Strand Hotel, an elegant  ‘colonial’ hotel  - the last thing on her itinerary, until the next day.  But since that was mean to be a free day for us; we thought it would be easier for all if we went then – about 6.30. The Hotel was quiet at that hour, but we settled in for a civilized drink and chat with Myo.  We only realised at the end that we had spent a great part of our daily allowance on those drinks.  Decided we should practice a little more caution in spending.

Home to our hotel after a very long but interesting day, cleaned up and put on our new finery.  We walked around the hotel, discovered that drinks there were MUCH cheaper than at the Strand, and had a gin and tonic while watching the world go by.  

Monday 14 February

Now on our own for one of our ‘Free and Easy’ days, we decided to walk down to the river from our hotel.  Not a long walk, and the sidewalks were interesting, with lots of people heading off to work, many street vendors, and lots to watch.  Many photos were taken!  We walked past, but did not go into the Sule Pagoda as we were already a little ‘pagoda’d out’.  Not perhaps a good sign!  But we found the street life much more interesting. 

We got to the Strand jetty, very near the hotel, where there is a ferry across the river, which we were told would be interesting.  So we wandered into the ferry waiting area, where we were taken in hand by a small boy, about 10, who showed us where to buy our tickets – in the main office, rather than the ticket seller, as our passports had to be checked.  While the station master was doing this, the office cat walked across his ledger – a possible photo opportunity, except that I remembered we were in a transportation area, possibly restricted.  So I put the camera away 

Our young friend stayed with us on the ferry, and introduced us to his even younger friend, about 4, selling treats to throw at the gulls.  We bought some just to please him, and spent some time amusing ourselves.    Harry asked the young boy,whose name was Myokyaw, why he wasn’t in school, and he told a long story about having his Hmong village destroyed during the hurricane of 2008.  Supposedly he was now living with his brother in the city, but was not able to go to school.

On arrival, we found the ‘village’ on the other side seemed to consist of motorcycle shops and dust, and decided that we could pass on the trishaw rides everyone was trying to sell us.  So we took the ferry back, and said goodbye to young friend – here we came up against something that would occur in various places in Myanmar.  He had obviously joined us in order to receive money, even though he didn’t ask for it.  Many people during our stay in the country indicated that we should not give money to the children, as it ‘made beggars of them.’  But we felt that he had been helpful, we had enjoyed his company, and so we gave him some.

We continued walking around the area east of the Strand, heading gradually up to our hotel, past hundreds of vendors of second hand books.  Most were very old of course, many were ancient text books and work books.  After 30 or 40 minutes of this the sun got hotter and we decided a cold drink – preferably a cold beer – was in order.  Of course this didn’t prove easy to find, as we were surrounded by tea shops, but eventually someone pointed us in the direction of a ‘bottle shop’ where we could buy a cold beer and stand in the somewhat cooler shop.  No seats, but an interesting situation, and this time the vendor took our picture. 

After a cool shower we were ready for lunch, and took a taxi to Theik Di Shin, Anawrahta St, recommended in a Chowhound list. It’s air conditioned, and much more elegant than Feel, food better, although the author of the Chowhound recommendations said it was the best food they had in Myanmar.  We hoped that it wouldn’t be, as we weren’t that impressed.  Again we were probably the only tourists, although it is apparently frequented by private guides and their customers.   They kindly called our taxi to come and take us back to the hotel.  Time for another nap.

We had thought about going out again, but travel fatigue caught up with us, and so we relaxed, and went down to the bar again for a drink

Tuesday, 15 February.

Up early to go back to the market for more money changing before we left for Mandalay, on another free day.  I had vaguely remembered that our guide mentioned the market opened at 9, but since we were up early, we headed out.  She was right - nothing was open at 8.15!  So we wandered around trying to orient ourselves.  Eventually people started coming to work, the money changer arrived, and we did our business.  I was also looking for someone to sew the fabric I had bought on the river boat.  Of course we’d seen lots of people with sewing machines on Sunday, but took a while to find them again, as the market is so vast.  Finally a nice young woman did it for me while I waited, for about a dollar.  Quite chuffed to have negotiated clothing alterations in another language

Then we crossed the road to the ‘other’ part of the market, much more local, where there are lots of Myanmar drug stores – stalls set up in the markets with piles of medicine boxes, a telephone stand for people to use, and of course lots of snacks being made.  We found another bottle shop, and sat on plastic chairs watching people carry huge loads on their heads, and on shoulder yokes.  While we were there the market delivery service went into action.  We were at the foot of a tall apartment building. Our guide had already told us that lower floors were preferred because these buildings either didn’t have an elevator, or it was out of service.  So someone on an upper floor dropped a string down, with an order.  The vendor tied it onto the string, and tugged it so that she pulled it up.  She sent the money down on the same string.

More wandering, and decided that we could skip the restaurant offering Mashed Potato hamburger.  We were tempted by a Myanmar pizza, but it was a little too early, so kept going.  We were struck during all this walking through wide and narrow streets that we never felt unsafe.  People were sometimes interested to see us wandering around on our own, but everyone was friendly – or just ignored us, going about their own business.

Back to the hotel and we decided to take advantage of their Dim Sum lunch.  Quite good, and the restaurant was cool and calm, which also was good.  Then an hour or two by the pool.  We had originally asked for smaller hotels, perhaps guest houses, and weren’t too pleased to find that the hotels William had suggested were mainly bigger, tourist oriented.  But since they weren’t too expensive, and all seemed to get good reviews, we agreed.  Once there we found that we really did like being comfortable after a long hot and sometimes dusty day of sight-seeing.  (We also found as we saw some of the guest houses in the smaller places we visited that we were quite happy NOT to be there.)

One of the things that had struck us while walking was the number of billboards and advertising for Valentine’s Day, apparently now a popular time, especially for young people.  So, since once again we didn’t need dinner, and we could hear music coming from next door, we went out to check.   Turns out there was a small shopping area the other side of the hotel, and in what looked to be the driveway there was a rock concert going on.  A very loud, amplified, well lit young Myanmar singer was belting out hits for a large crowd.  We hung around for a while, but since we obviously weren’t following the lyrics, gave in and went to bed.  We had to be up very early the next day for our flight.

Wednesday 16 February.

Up at 4.30 to get to the airport for our 7.30 flight to Mandalay.  Since the restaurant wasn’t open, the hotel provided us with picnic breakfasts, and off we went.  Another interesting experience.  We had been in a number of airports around the world, but none quite as ‘artisanal’ as the Yangon domestic airport.  Luckily Myo ushered us through the crowd to the desk, and someone took our bag. She had also explained that someone would walk through with a sign indicating which plane was boarding, so we should be sure to look out for the number of our flight.  Our plane was called and off we went.  In fact the plane was quite modern and the flight was comfortable.

Arrival in Mandalay

Our next guide, Kyaw Ngwe, ( say – chon whay or John Wayne) met us and swept us into the car to get to Amarapura along very bumpy and incredibly dusty roads to see the Maha Ganayon Kyaung monastery where the monks would be coming back from their alms gathering for breakfast   This was one of the times that we were happy to have a private guide, because he not only showed us around the monastery, but made sure we had particularly good places for taking photos.  It was also a surprise to see so many other tourists – apparently many people arrive as we did, and visit the same places at the same time.  It was interesting to see the hundreds of monks, young and old, file in to eat, but not so much to see what seemed like hundreds of people taking photos, and handing out the rice.  I have to say I found walking past the monks’ laundry - deeply coloured robes hanging on clotheslines almost as interesting!

On to U Bein teak bridge, again with lots of other people.  This is one of the most picturesque sites in the country, but not easy to photography when other tourists are all strolling along. It’s still quite amazing, and we walked the full 1300 metres.  Our first sight, too, of oxen carts ploughing the fields.   This time we were followed by a young girl, who chatted with Harry while I kept my distance.

 Buying and releasing a bird is said to be an act of good karma.  We understand the birds know where to return to at feeding time.