It was a really long drive from Inle lake to Mandalay. The road is terrible and we seen many trucks and buses breakdown along the way. Eventually we got to Mandalay that evening. Our driver doesn't like Mandalay, too many motorbikes he says. Motorbikes are not allowed in Yangon incidently, only govermnent people can use them there and I have no ...

17.5 -20.5.08 Mandalay. Burma. ..ja se oli synkka ja myrskyisa yo. Saavuttiin aamuyosta tanne Mandalayhin (http://wikitravel.org/en/Mandalay tai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandalay) mukavassa kaatosateessa (monsuuni painaa paalle..) joten poikkeuksellisesti paadyttiin paikalla odottaneen freelancer matkanjarjestajan mukaan aamupalan jalkeen. S...

The taxi ride back to Mandalay was a breeze, it was a long breeze but compared to the bus, fantastic, a 7 buck classic. Along the way we passed a truck that had tipped over in the middle of the road, it was a perfectly flat piece of road in the middle of a town. Perhaps it had been horrendously overloaded just like many of the other trucks we pa...

Myanmar rocks. Come see it now! The simplicity and beauty I see now will certainly change very soon, for better or for worse, who knows. There are no tourists which is awesome for me but sucks for the Burmese. Today I took an express tourist boat between Bagan and Mandalay, 2 of the 4 biggest tourist towns. It cost only $25 for the 9 hour ride. ...

Entry containing 9 photos titled: Mingun, on the way to Mingun, Mingun, Mingun, Mingun, Lonely Planet Cover, Mingun, on the way to Mingun, Ox Cart Taxi

Entry containing 6 photos titled: Weaving factory, Amarapura, U Bein Bridge, End of the road, ferry to Inwa, Opening ceremony for new Sagaing Bridge, weaving factory

We stayed for 4 days in Mandalay. Lisa got sick for one day and we went to see the temples on the city and 3 of the 4 ancient cities. It wasn't spectacilar but it was fun. The only bad thing is that you are constantly hassled by trishaw and taxi drivers while you're there. Loved the chapatis on the street, I had them every night!

Sadly, the 'Road to Mandalay' is not quite as romantic as Kipling made out; it was a 15 hour bus journey aboard this old bus crashing and bumping along the so called higway through the night. We did, however, meet fellow travellers on board and tried to make light of the situation, despite the fact we had no sleep! Arriving in Mandalay in good s...

The famous city of Mandalay

WOW - Mandalay is quite the city. I have so much to tell you all that I don't know where to even begin. Perhaps first a small statistic - Myanmar is home to approximately 65 million people and in a normal year sees about 350,000 tourists. This year that number has decreased by almost 70%. Needless to say, we aren't bumping into a lot of other tr...