Mandalay - Final Day

After a whirlwind tour of Bagan, I was back on the 9:30pm overnight bus to Mandalay. Luckily it was a coach and not a mini bus, so I managed to sleep for 2 hrs. I would've slept longer if the bus didn't keep stopping for noisy breaks next to markets and if the lights were turned off.  

I arrived to Mandalay at 2:30am, back at the hotel by 3:10am at the cost of 4000kyats by motorbike (USD4 - this is a rip off compared to normal rates!). I pottered around with laundry, cold shower and emails so wasn't asleep till about 4:30am.

I was awoken by a message at 8am from Chen (the Chinese guy I met on the plane to Yangon) - he and Ryan had arrived to Mandalay the night before. We agreed to meet at 10am at the Royal Palace as they had not seen it yet.

The day spent with them was fairly uneventful but nice to have the company. We walked around the palace for about 90 minutes, then decided to have lunch. Lunch was another 45 minute walk away, so we saved ourselves the ridiculous taxi fare of 5000 kyats (USD5) for 5 minute drive.

Too Too restaurant had traditional Burmese food, which the guys were happy with. They had been raving on about the awesome, delicious 10 dish meal in Bagan which cost 2500 kyat (USD2.50), so I was intrigued to see it. Unfortunately Mandalay is considered a city and cities are usually not as generous with food servings as their rural counterparts. Chen and Ryan were disappointed to see only 5 side dishes, along with the main. The ladies did keep topping up the dishes whenever we finished, so that made up for it... a little. Lunch was 3000kyat (USD3), which was reasonable.

We departed ways afterwards around 3:30pm; they were catching the 6:30pm bus to Inle Lake (which I was very jealous of) and I was going to have an early night to recover on 2 nights worth of sleep and pack my bags.

I had a nightcap later that night (one free cocktail during happy hour), let the Myanmar waiter talk to me for about 30 minutes to practice his English, then was sound asleep.

Chen's Polaroid shots - at Royal Palace in Mandalay

At Too Too restaurant.... the lady is not a born photographer

Infiltrating developing countries with giant billboards