We had booked a bus from Bagan to Mandalay from Ostello Bello and they promised a pick up at 9pm but by 9:30pm no one had come for us...

Mandalay

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We had booked a bus from Bagan to Mandalay from Ostello Bello and they promised a pick up at 9pm but by 9:30pm no one had come for us. Long story short they forgot about us and Ostello Bello paid a taxi to take us to the bus stop. The taxi driver thought he was very funny and started teasing us and saying that the bus had left already; thankfully when we arrived it was there waiting for us.

I don’t know if I have mentioned it before but busses in Myanmar are the best! The VIP busses come with a blanket, a toothbrush, toothpaste, water, soft drink/energy drink, and snacks! They are also very spacious and they recline like I’ve never seen before! 

After a couple of hours in the bus we arrived in Mandalay at 2-3am and we had to deal with taxi drivers. Luckily, 4 other tourists were dropped off there too and we were able to negotiate a fair price and split the cab with 2 other people.


We arrived to our hotel and Kam and myself felt like we were at the four seasons of Mandalay (Ok, that exaggerating it… like A LOT! but maybe it’s the closest one can get to the four seasons on a backpacker budget) but we finally were staying in a private room and the bathroom was clean enough for me to consider not using flip flops!!! Say whaaa?!?!

Needles to say, we spent the next two days sleeping in until almost noon and really taking advantage of the $12/ night we were each paying for such a luxurious hotel! haha
Many people had told me to skip Mandalay since there wasn’t much to do but since I had the time Kam and I decided to give it a try.

On the first day (after sleeping until noon) we decided to go check out the Mandalay castle. 

 Well… that was a mistake! The entrance fee was 10,000kyats and the castle was non existent! All we saw were ugly red buildings… so disappointing.
View from the the walkway that leads to the palace




We then decided to go to the famous U-Bein bridge for sunset. The taxi to get there was a struggle to get! I just really dislike how much we need to negotiate to get a fair price around here! Every taxi driver wants to take advantage of you and it gets so tiring to have to deal with them but at the end we got one and we were on our way. 

To be honest I had no idea what the U-Bein bridge was but Kam said sunset there was a must so I followed and OMG! It was so beautiful!!!!!!



So, the U-Bein bridge is a 1.2 km bridge built in the 1850s and apparently the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world.

We got there as sun was setting and in the middle of all the craziness we decided to stay on the bottom of the bridge for sunset and while we were walking we found Zarina and Jayden! 

The sunset was mind blowingly beautiful! 
The sky went from light pinks and purples to a deep and beautiful orange. The sun was ginormous! 















Our 2nd and last day we of course got up late and decided to go up to Mandalay hill. 

 We heard from Zarina that they walked all the way up without knowing that one could drive up so Kam and I decided to go up on a taxi and walk down. The way up was windy, long, and steep… we were so glad we were doing it in a taxi!
Our cool pick up truck taxi... with actual seats in the back!
We got to the top and we took our shoes off at the entrance of a temple. We got in and were surprised that we had to go up 4 flights of electrical stairs to reach the top. Once up we walked around the temple and Kam got her picture taken with like 20 local teenage boys. The temple was really blingy, lots of little pieces of shiny mirror and glittery paint.



Once we were done walking around we realized that there was no way down for us to get our shoes. We had to go to the next temple down the stairs to find the way out, grab our shoes and sneakily put them inside Kam’s bag since there was a big sign to not carry the shoes but what were we supposed to do? Walk all the way down the hill for an hour or so and then come up the hill again to grab our shoes?!?! Made no sense! 
Shoes in bag we walked all the way down Mandalay hill passing through at least 7 temples, all blingy, many of them had the Buddhas with the techno lights around them.

The many steps leading to different temples.



Palm reading anyone?
Kam and I chilling and enjoying the nice view!
Bling Bling Bling




Super giant Buddha!

View from the top!

Once at the bottom we decided to go check the Sandar Mu Ni pagoda and the Kuthodaw Paya.





By then we were, as usual, templed out so we grabbed a taxi and went back to the hotel to kill some time before our night bus to Kalaw.


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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com