Mandalay

                    (to see all the Mandalay photos, click here)

Children with Thanakha (mud-bark)

One of the first things you notice about the people of Myanmar is the pale-yellow mud-packs they wear on their faces. The second thing you notice, immediately afterward, is the smile they always wear underneath. People here are always smiling, which considering what they've been through in the last half-century of violent military rule and the ongoing poverty that accompanies it, is hard to understand. Someone explained to me it's probably the "Oriental smile" - a tradition in Myanmar of masking hurt and embarrassment regardless of circumstance. But I sense it's more than that though. These are a wonderful, friendly people who give me none of the harassment seen elsewhere in South-East Asia and because of this, slowly, I am falling in love with this country.

The many pagodas on Sagaing Hill

In Mandalay I spend a lot of time chatting to many locals - some simply keen to practice English, others soliciting me for a ride in their tri-shaw, and all with a heavy story about their living conditions. One, Jo, tells me about having come to Mandalay from his village to work and send money home to his family; he stays awake for 10 hours every night as a security guard for 30,000 Kyat (US$25) a month and shares a tri-shaw with his friend by day, making about half that again. He doesn't rent a room in Mandalay to live - no need, he says - sleeping for just a couple of hours on the seat of the tri-shaw when business is slow.

Monks at Amarapura

And it's slow these days in Mandalay , as with the rest of the country. It's obvious from the half-empty guest-houses and street corners crowded with bored-looking tri-shaw drivers that the uprising in September 2007 - where a rebellion over an increase in the government-regulated price for rice was brutally crushed - has scared off many of the relatively few tourists did used to come here. Another driver I met, Hasem, has a wife and seven children who he used to be able to feed on 4000 Kyat a day from his tri-shaw business; now on a good day he makes half that, and still has to pay the daily tri-shaw rental fee of 500 Kyat. Needless to say, I started to tip rather heavily whenever I used the services of local drivers and guides.

Sunset at Amarapura

Mandalay is a former capital of Myanmar , itself surrounded by the sites of former capital sites of centuries past. The city is dusty and run-down, the worn streets covered in cracks and potholes and the buildings clearly having seen better days but it has a few good places to visit. One such is the Mahamuni Pagoda (temple), with its 4 metre Buddha originally cast in bronze but now covered in gold leaf of so many layers over the decades that it bubbles out   - about 15 centimetres. Also worthwhile is half-day hike up Mandalay Hill for the great view across the city. Less so is the massive historical fort in the centre, which in the late 90s was reconstructed by the Government using the forced labour of its citizens and for the principled traveller best avoided.

Mahamuni Buddah

The old capitals and Pagodas around Mandalay have the best attractions, including the world's longest teak-bridge. It's about 30 minutes away by taxi at Amarapura, where you can view a stunning golden-orange sunset over the lake. Nearby and along the Areyarwady river is Sagaing Hill which is covered in 500 bell-shaped stupas, and provides more grand views across Mandalay State .