It’s now less than 3 weeks to departure-day. This closing-up
period is pretty stressful and doesn’t offer much joy, so a great weekend in Mandalay was exactly what we needed.
Mandalay turned out to be completely different to Yangon in
every way: it feels more like a big village than Myanmar's second biggest city. And the best
thing – scooters are allowed so we had complete freedom to drive around in the
city and its
On the first day, our guide, in a very Burmese fashion, drove us around to places we didn't ask to go to, and repeatedly ignored our requests. It turned out well: we saw a thousand pagodas, but they were somehow different and interesting.
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| The detail is incredible! |
We visited shady lanes of white pagodas.. with young couples hanging out everywhere.
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| And my baby <3 |
Then we discovered the glass-art of Mandalay pagodas: I must've taken a million pictures of all the beautiful, colorful patterns
..as our sex-changed guide observed us from the gate. I love how open Myanmar is to broader interpretation of gender.
The next day we got to drive our scooter around on our own. We got lost around villages where all the houses were full of weaving machines and people painting longyis. When we stopped for a refreshing sweet drink, the locals were delighted and all stood around and quietly watched us.
On our way we had to cross a scary local bridge.. I wasn't sure I'd make it.. But I did (silly me).
But Arne was quite confident. And while I was waiting on the other side I caught these locals using the nice river as their dumpster..
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| Fearless. |
Then on Sunday evening after some delicious yoghurts, the fun ended and we had to head back to real life. Tomorrow I'm leaving for a week in Shan state, training future beekeepers on business skills. I hope it will be fun! Or at least successful.. When I come back, it'll be for the last week of our Myanmar adventure..
