Burma, Mandalay, January 2013, Part 3

[terry57]

Time to finish of my Burma thread. Landing in Mandalay.

[kingwilly]

'bout bladdy time mate !

onya!

[terry57]

Some punters like to take the piss out of travelers who use the Lonely Planet Guides.
I've used then on nearly every trip Ive ever made since they started to publish. Invaluable for the independent traveler.

[taxexile]

Invaluable for the lazy traveller.

An independent traveller, by definition would not need the help of a book designed for gap year sheep, timid incompetents and those who have lost the use of their tongues.

Now on with your thread terry, I enjoy your photo threads and do wonder why you would need that awful book.

[terry57]

Hotel accommodation was hard to organize. My friend got us in here at the last moment booked on the net. Around $70, quite a good deal.All the fruit but a bit outside the city center. No probs though just jump a taxi.

[terry57]

OK gaffer.

[terry57]

After dropping our stuff in the room it was out onto the street and start to just walk around the place. That's what I do when I travel, I do aimless wanderings, seem to find all the unusual stuff that way and have nice interactions with the locals. Been out of the room 5 seconds and these lunatics came straight at me. I'm on the footpath by the way but that's another road apparently.

[terry57]

Yep, the Natives are digging up the drains before monsoon season. It was quite hot in Mandalay plus dry and very dusty. The real hot season was still two months away.
Be a dust bowl then.

[terry57]

This was a residential neighborhood.They where Rebuilding the klong and put a walkway over it.

[terry57]

People are starving to death in Burma and some tosser is living in this monstrosity.Just down the road people where living in the street.

[terry57]

Now here we have a perfectly decent car that has been abandoned in the street. One would think they would give it a nice wash and sell it off. I looked inside and there was some dude fast a sleep. Must of been a Thai.

[terry57]

Anyway after plebing around the streets for a few hours it was back to the Hotel for a scrub up and straight into this Pub for a few beers and some nice food. Blood good that was.

[terry57]

The locals where always friendly to us. No probs there.

[terry57]

Mandalay ain't big on Public transport so we thought it best to hire a car and driver for the day . The hotel put us onto this guy, costs around $25. Great value.

[terry57]

We give him free reign, he was the boss so we just sat back and went along for the ride. Some really ancient vehicles on these roads. Mad traffic and shite drivers as well.

[terry57]

First stop of the day was Mandalay's largest Lake .

[terry57]

On the lake is Asia's longest and oldest Teak bridge.

[terry57]

Off we go for a nice walk on the Teak bridge.

[terry57]

On the bridge sits some young girls selling Paintings. The one at the back was lovely in real life. The girls in Burma are a funny lot, not the classic beauties one finds everywhere in Thailand but nice all the same.

[terry57]

Views from the bridge. Fisherman rounding up there catch.

[terry57]

These guys had a couple.

[terry57]

About turn on the bridge and head off to the next gig.

[terry57]

Invaluable for the lazy traveller.

An independent traveller, by definition would not need the help of a book designed for gap year sheep, timid incompetents and those who have lost the use of their tongues.

That's fair enough Tax but a bit of a silly statement. Considering you are so with it concerning totally independent travel your lack of travel threads is wanting.

Never seen you do one.

[terry57]

Next stop of the day was a visit to the largest Monetary in Burma. There is thousands of them here. It was lunch time, they are all lining up for their food.

[terry57]

Feeding all these guys is serious business, people where cracking on everywhere.