Soledad Carves in Mandalay

We first visited Myanmar back in December 2016. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to return. Bagan was the highlight of our prior trip so we wanted to spend more time there than we had before. The rest of our 2 weeks in Myanmar would be in Mandalay, which we had not visited previously and where we would start.

Myanmar is an amazing country. It is currently my favorite country to visit in the world. It is mystical, relatively untraveled, rich in culture, economical, and its people are the most welcoming that I’ve encountered in the world. However, it had one of the world’s more oppressive governments for many years. It’s current government still has problems with equal rights and treatment. Myanmar’s “illegal immigrant” issue with its Rohingya population makes the USA’s problem with Mexico and Central America look like peanuts. There are sections of the country were foreigners are forbidden to travel and areas near the Thailand border that contain refugee camps with 3 generations of Myanmar people. However, in the midst of this, the places where you can travel truly inspire awe.

We arrived in Mandalay in the dead of summer so it was hot. Fortunately, the past 19 years in Texas have fully developed my immune system to heat. Less so for the kids & Soledad. We had highs of 95-97 and lows of 81-82 while there. Not terrible, but the heat was exacerbated by being outside most of the time or in locales without air conditioning. So this was the backdrop for our exploring what would end up becoming one of our favorite cities in the world.

Outside of the US, it’s often difficult to find single rooms for 4 people. Through a combination of “sleeps 4,” proximity to the central historical area, and traveler ratings on Booking.com we booked a three nights at the Kyi Tin Hotel for roughly $50 per night in a room with 3 single beds (Soledad doubled up with Vicente).

From breakfast at the hotel, we ordered a tuk tuk via the Grab app and headed over to a few temples in the northeast area of Mandalay. For world travelers, rideshare apps are a sea change. In countries that have them (Mongolia did not) the grind of trying to negotiate with local taxis who possess asymmetric information and typically work as block by block oligopolies is gone. Different countries use different apps but finding, downloading and using that app takes away SO many headaches.

We first headed over to the Shwenandaw Monastery. It’s a teak temple that was initially built as a part of the original royal palace at Amarapura (Myanmar has had a lot of capitals). However, it was disassembled, moved, and rebuilt by the new King Thibaw Min in 1878 because he felt it was haunted by the spirit of his father. It looks like one huge wood carving and is beautiful.

While we were there, artisans from the Missing Decorative Elements Woodcarving Program of the World Monuments Fund were carving pieces of teak to add to missing areas of the monastery. Using the Google Translate app, hand signals, and persistence we were able to learn that they would let Soledad take a discarded piece of teak and try to learn their method of ancient carving. They actually seemed happy that someone was taking an interest in their work and were more than willing to make room for her. Soledad worked with a piece of teak, different chisels, and the received pointers from one of the program’s staff. Three hours later, Soledad left with a piece of very partially carved wood, a new respect for the craft, and one tired back from hunching over to chisel. What a great opportunity for her.

While Soledad was carving, Vicente, Milagro, and I ate some ice cream and went across the street to and explored the religious State Pariyatti Sasana University.

After that we walked to the Kuthodaw Pagoda, a golden Buddhist stupa surrounded by 729 white mini-stupa structures. Each mini-stupa contains a marble slab with text of the Tripitaka (the complete texts of the Theravada branch of Buddhism), and all together they comprise the world’s largest book. Scattered around the complex were hkayei star flower trees which gave the place a natural, jasmine-like aroma. This was the first time we’d come across the repeating white structure architecture, which had a cool heavenly feel to it. I liked it so much that we had people take pictures of us in one of the rows. As you have to remove your shoes before entering any Buddhist temple, we were barefoot. As it as high nineties, the ground was hot. The ground in the sun was so hot that you had to throw down a piece of cardboard or palm leaf to stand on for pictures.

Across the street we grabbed a quick bite and were introduced to the dragon fruit as a part of a fruit shake. Wow was it good! It would quickly become our favorite fruit in Asia..

After lunch, the last temple of the day was about 6-8 blocks away. However, the family was hot and tired so we found a tuk tuk driver to take us to the Sandamuni Pagoda.. Sandamuni was created in 1874 as a memorial to King Mindon Min’s younger brother who was assassinated along with 3 princes during a rebellion, and contains their graves. It also holds a large number of whitewashed ancillary stupas giving it that ethereal feel like Kuthodaw.

It was a lot of templing in one day, but each place just felt so, so worthy of experiencing. Shoot, there was even a monastery, barely listed on google maps let alone any guide book, Atumashi Monastery, that was next to one of the “prominent” temples. It was huge, empty, and beautiful as well. After the original building burned down in 1890, Atumashi Monastery was rebuilt in 1996 by Burma’s Archeological Department with prison labor. That sentence there tells you a lot about Myanmar.

Our tuk tuk driver, Soe, waited for us outside Sandamuni and took us back to the hotel with a pit stop at the little star I’d made on my Google Maps while at the airport. Earlier that morning China Eastern had called me and let me know they’d found my bag. We stopped by the unlabeled building, waited 10 minute for the crew from the airport to arrive, and got our bags. Whole again!

Soe, our tuk tuk driver, spoke some English and also worked as an all day guide at the rate of $23 per day. He had a laminated flyer with different places around Mandalay that we could choose from for an excursion. They looked very interesting so we picked a few and agreed to meet the next morning to go on an all day tuk tuk excursion around the greater Mandalay area. I was excited, all day tuk tuk!