Historical Bit:
Mandalay is the second largest city in Myanmar after Yangon, and a former capital of Myanmar. Half of Myanmar’s monks reside in Mandalay and the surrounding areas. Although the name sounds ancient, the city is not medieval. It’s rather a new city that was created by King Mindon Min of Burma in 1857 as the new capital of the kingdom of Ava. After King Mindon, King Thibaw ruled the city until the British conquest of Upper Burma in 1885. Sadly, most of the magnificence is gone, destroyed by the intensive bombing during the Second World War. The current city, planned with its lettered roads and numbered streets, is a British creation. The Royal Palace and the Atumashi pagoda are modern reconstructions of King Mindon Min’s finest creations. Today, Mandalay remains the main commercial centre of Upper Myanmar, as a centre for trade with China and as a centre for the growing trade with India.
Ethnically, the Bamar (Burmans) form a slight majority. In recent years, there has been a major influx of Chinese from Mainland China, forming 30–40% of the population. Other prevalent ethnic groups include the Shan (related to Thais and Laotians) and the Karen, followed by Indian population.
Mandalay is in the central dry zone (by the Irrawaddy River) and therefore receives far less rain than the more tropical south.
-Wikipedia
Our share-taxi dropped us off at Hotel Sahara. There were some men inside who saw us walk in, and they quickly came out to open the door and got our luggage inside for us. (There seems to be often more than a few men in each hotel.) After checking in, they took our luggage up to our room and kindly explained how to use the shower. Using the shower is definitely not a complicated process but I admit that I struggle for a bit every time I go to different hotels. We went back to the front desk to see if we could arrange a few things for our tour.
First, we inquired about the transportation from Mandalay to our next destination, Bagan. I really wanted to go from Mandalay to Bagan on the MRGR boat down the Irrawaddy River. My research from back home said that late March and early April may or may not have boats running, depending on how dry the dry season is. The boat ride is a long one (taking at least 10 hours, and more if the river is low and the ferry happens to get stuck) but I wanted to see the riverside villages on the shore if I could. Unfortunately, after a few calls from the front desk, we were told the boat season ended a few weeks earlier. So we arranged a bus ride instead.
Second, we asked about the most desirable transportation within and around Mandalay. Since we had specific places we wanted to go, they recommended that we hire private taxi for the day. With a signal, one of the men at the door walked out and yelled taxi and the taxi drivers around ran out and started haggling. U Soe Gyi was our driver for the day.
U Soe Gyi first drove us to the Royal Palace. We were to spend only half a day IN Mandalay, and had to use time wisely. What I read about the Royal Palace though (not well maintained, not exciting, etc.), as well as the lack of enthusiasm from U Soe Gyi for us to see the Palace, helped us to decide to bravely skip the palace and prioritize other places. However, the palace has a wonderful external view, with the moat surrounding it.
Royal Palace
10,000 kyat, 7:30am-5pm
Royal Palace is a walled city within Mandalay. It was built in 1861 by King Mindon to fulfill a prophecy. The palace was rebuilt after being destroyed in World War II, and was renovated recently, with its design of the reconstruction being fairly faithful to the original. However the materials used were metal, instead of the original teak wood. Tourists are permitted to enter ONLY from the East Gate, unlike the locals. As of February 2015, foreigners are charged 10,000 kyat, payable in kyat only, for a 5-day ticket, which is stamped on each day you visit. Madame Tussaud style images of Kings Mindon and Thibaw sit on replicas of chairs in the throne room. At the west end is the Palace Museum where all palace-related stuff is on display.
We started our tour from Golden Palace Monastery, or Shwenandaw Kyaung. We bought the Mandalay Zone Admission Fees (USD 10), which would give us access to:
-Royal Palace
-Golden Palace Monastery (Shwenandaw Kyaung)
-Kuthodaw Pagoda
-Sandamuni Pagoda
-Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda
Golden Palace Monastery (Shwenandaw Kyaung)
Mandalay Zone Admission Fees (10 USD or 10,000 kyat), 9am-5pm
Shwenandaw Kyaung is a monastery made entirely of teak wood with intricate carvings. It was originally part of the royal palace built by King Mindon but was moved to its current location by his son, King Thibaw, in the late 19th century. It is the only major building from the original wooden royal palace to have survived the bombing during the World War II, and thus is the only authentic part of the royal palace which can still be seen today.
U Soe Gyi told us to visit Atumashi Monastery at the back of the Shwenandaw Monastery because “it’s free and it’s short visit.”
Atumashi Monastery
Atumashi Monastery, meaning Incomparable Monastery (Maha Atulawalyan Kyaungdawgyi) was considered one of Southeast Asia’s most magnificent buildings back in the days, when it was originally built in 1857 by King Mindon, 2 years after moving the capital of Upper Burma was moved to Mandalay. It was one of the King’s last great religious construction projects. The whole structure was burned down in 1890 along with the 9m-tall Buddha image, made from the king’s lacquered silk clothing. It was reconstructed many years later in 1996.
Afterwards, we went to Kuthodaw Pagoda, the site of the world’s largest book. Despite the rather colourful entrance, it’s mostly all white inside, and with such strong sunlight, there were eye-squintings for a while.
Kuthodaw Pagoda
8am-4:30pm
Kuthodaw Pagoda is located at the foot of Mandalay Hill. Built by King Mingdon in the 1857, 729 white stupas within the complex contain the complete text of the Tripitaka, Theravada Buddhism’s most sacred text. This pagoda modeled on the Shwezigon Pagoda at Nyaung-U. Same as Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda, it’s best to go before the sunset as it gets very hot in the day.
After a visit to Kuthodaw Pagoda, we went right across to Sandamuni Pagoda, similar to Kuthodaw but smaller (still big).
Sandamuni Pagoda
Also known as a “forest” of white pagodas and golden Buddhas, Sandamuni Pagoda is another nice place for sunset as the white pagodas all turn golden. Sandamuni contains the world’s largest iron Buddha image.
Then we went up to Mandalay Hill for the sunset.
Mandalay Hill
For a separate post on Mandalay Hill, click here.
It started to rain a little, and then there were rain clouds, then no sun. But we got to see a tiny bit of the sunset.
After the Mandalay Hill, we went to Kyauk Taw Gyi. It’s indoors and the lights are beautiful so it was worth a visit at night (other than for the lights, I would say it’s a skippable pagoda).
Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda
8am-6pm
Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda contains an image of the Buddha carved out of a single block of marble from Sagyin Hill. The figures of 80 arahats or the disciples of the Buddha are arranged around the central shrine, 20 on each side. The carving of the image was completed in 1865.
This was the end of our tour for the day, and we were dropped off at a restaurant near the hotel. At most restaurants, there will be servers that each specializes in certain languages. So when you go in, ask for a server that speaks your language and see if there is one. Oftentimes, they had servers, who spoke English, Mandarin, Thai, and French. Watching Margaret’s attempts at speaking Mandarin to get dessert menu was somewhat amusing. It was foreign language for both Margaret and the server and they were so visibly struggling to communicate. It turned out that the server not understanding Margaret’s Chinese was understandable as there seems to be no clear concept of “dessert” as in cakes. Fruits will do.
We walked back from dinner and consulted with the front desk again to set up a tour for the rest of the places we planned to see for the next couple days. We were told that since it’s not a busy season, private taxi would be affordable, convenient, and even time-saving. They calculated the distance and gave us discount before us even asking, and checked if the price was good for us. We said “…yyyes?” and a man walked out again and seemed to list all the locations we told, followed by the discounted price. U Soe Gyi must have been stationed in front of the hotel the whole time. He was to drive us around throughout our stay in Mandalay.
Day 8 — [North Side] Shwenandaw Monastery, Atumashi Monastery, Kuthodaw Pagoda, Sandamuni Pagoda, Mandalay Hill (Su Taung Pyai Pagoda), Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda
For the post on sunset at Mandalay Hill, click here.
Next post on Day 9 ([South Side] Gold leaf paper, marble carving, tapestry, wood carving workshops, Shwe Inbin Monastery, 3 cities (Amarapura, Sagaing Hill, Innwa), U Bein Bridge, puppet show)
Previous posts on Yangon, Hsipaw (trek), and Pyin Oo Lwin
If you know Korean and would like to read up on my first day in Mandalay in Korean, click here.
