Mandalay, Burma

On February 3rd, I headed from Yangon to Mandalay by bus. First I had to take a truck to the bus station outside town:




Then I had to wait a couple hours at the bus station. I bought some snacks from a vendor, and was amused by the "big, big bite-size pieces" I ate.




I got minor food poisoning on the overnight bus (the first time I've had food poisoning of any type in a developing country - previously I've only had food poisoning in the UK and New Zealand). So I spent the morning sleeping it off, and in the afternoon felt fine and went for a walk about town. Sadly, I don't think this beer is particularly legitimate...




The Burmese government is really just a military dictatorship, and they have these hilarious/ridiculous signs in many places. 'Tatmadaw' means the Burmese military.




One of many gates on the Mandalay Palace wall, complete with moat:




Another one:




Looking up at Mandalay Hill, a 7km walk from my hostel just before sunset:




Looking down from the steps leading up Mandalay Hill, you can see hundreds of small stupas in rows:




I met a Buddhist monk at the top of the hill and chatted with him a bit to help him practice his English. I also let him play with my dSLR camera.




We took a 'ghost' photo just for fun too, with a bit of blur to keep his face non-identifiable:






The next day I caught a pickup truck out of town, because I wanted to eat some strawberries... more on that in the next post.