Mandalay

I took a quick flight from Nyaung U to Mandalay this morning, dropped my stuff off at a hotel and e-mailed home, and then headed off to see the city. My first stop of the day was at Mandalay Hill. Buddhists must have a thing for building stupas on top of hills. It seems like every hill in Southeast Asia that's near a city or town has some kind of golden stupa or other Buddhist structure built on it. Also, the larger the city is, the more stuff they build on their hill. Close to one million people live in Mandalay. Their hill is apparently a very big deal to them.

The climb to the top of Mandalay hill takes thirty or forty minutes and involves climbing up few thousand concrete steps. I climbed barefoot, as is required, passing buddhist shrines cov ered in mirrors and gold leaf on the way. I stopped for a few minutes to chow down on a couple of bowls of noodles that I bought from a lady on the hill, then I kept going. I couldn't help wondering if climbing steps to a shrine represents something to Buddhists. Perhaps it represents our journey through life and an ascent to becoming more like the Buddha. Or perhaps it is some kind of reenactment of Buddha's enlightenment. Or maybe it means nothing and they just need a way to get to their shrine on the top of the hill. Either way, I kept climbing. I passed several large shrines on the way, one of which had a standing, gold-leaf-covered Buddha that was about fifty feet tall. Other shrines featured golden-colored Buddhas surrounded by flashing colored lights, or Buddhas with LED lights blinking in a circular pattern behind their heads. The blinking lights might seem tacky in the United States, but somehow it fits here and even looks appropriate.
Finally, after a long and tiring climb, I reached the top of the hill and relaxed for a few minutes while I enjoyed the view. From the hill I spotted several golden spires throughout Mandalay, a sight that is typical of Myanmar.I wandered around the mirror-covered shrine at the top and snapped a few pictures, then began my descent to the bottom of the hill. I can't help but wonder if descending the hill so quickly after climbing up it has a symbolic meaning as well. Maybe a Buddhist monk can tell me about it sometime.

After reaching the bottom of the hill absolutely exhausted, I wandered down a nearby road searching for a couple of pagodas that came highly recommended by my Lonely Planet book. A local Burmese man asked what I was looking for and then directed me up a second flight of steps leading back up the hill. I figured that it would be a very short climb and started on my way. Climbing the first set of steps was pretty tiring but still enjoyable. This time, though, I was in no mood to climb another few thousand concrete steps barefoot. I tried to keep a good attitude but couldn't resist a few sarcastic thoughts. The first Noble Truth of Buddhism is, “Life is suffering”. I thought to myself that maybe that has something to do with the reason why they built all these steps and why people climb them barefoot. Two other Noble Truths are, “Suffering is caused by desire”, and, “Desire can be overcome”. Maybe the purpose of all the steps is to help people overcome the desire to climb them. After dragging myself up a few hundred more arduous steps I looked out over the city and saw that the pagodas I wanted to see were actually at the bottom of the hill where I had just come from. If nothing else then maybe I learned first-hand about the noble truths of Buddhism. Or maybe I just climbed a whole lot of steps for nothing.
Finally I reached Kuthodaw Paya and Sandamani Paya; at the bottom of the hill, not the top. Kuthodaw Paya is supposedly the “world's biggest book”, and is surrounded by 729 marble slabs inscribed with miniscule Burmese writing. King Mindon, who founded Mandalay in 1857, once used a team of 2400 Buddhist monks to read the book in a nonstop relay. The monks finished after about six months. I wandered past the small white stupas surrounding the pagoda, each of which enclosed one marble slab. After a few pictures of the stupas and one of a couple young Buddhist monks, I headed to Sandamani Paya. Sandamani is very similar to Kuthodaw; a central golden spire surrounded by hundreds of whitewashed stupas.
I rounded out my sightseeing for the day with visits to Atumashi Kyaung, Shwenandaw Kyaung, and the Mandalay Palace. Atumashi Kyaung is a large building that was formerly used as a Buddhist monestary. The outside architecture is the most impressive part of the building, featuring tiered red roofs lined with golden carvings. Shwenandaw Kyaung was essentially a smaller, more authentic Atumashi Kyaung. I enjoyed Shwenandaw a lot more and spent an hour or so wandering through the interior rooms made of teak, observing the thousands of wooden carvings decorating the exterior, and trying to find a few good photo ops. At the Mandalay Palace I climbed a 100 foot watchtower and snapped pictures of the seven-tiered central palace. The Mandalay Palace is surrounded by thick brick walls and was originally a separate city within Mandalay. Tourists are allowed to walk through the East gate of the wall and down a narrow road to the palace, but the surrounding grounds are strictly off limits, as they are used as barracks for the Myanmar military. I figured it would be best not to mess with the army of a violent dictatorship and I stayed strictly on the road with my camera turned off.
Dinner tonight was at a popular chapatti stand on a chaotic street corner in Mandalay. The place strangely reminded me of Cafe Rio, except that they made chapatti instead of burritos and the employees were Burmese instead of Latinos. I sat down with three Burmese guys about my age and got to know them over a meal of beef curry and hot chapatti. One of the guys spoke English much better than the other two and was effectively the communicator for the group. My new Burmese friends had come to Mandalay from their home in Rangoon on a business trip for their jobs in the gem industry. They told me that they dealt in rubies and jade, but mostly jade. One of the Burmese guys unfolded a small sheet of paper to reveal to me a jade stone inside. Another one somehow thought that I wanted to go to China and wrote down his cell phone number so that I could call him for help getting there.

Before coming to Myanmar I read about the Moustache Brothers in Mandalay, a local comedy act that is famous for its defiance against the Myanmar government. My Lonely Planet book said to show up at the Moustache Brothers' house at around 8:30 for nightly shows performed for tourists. Unfortunately there was no show tonight becuase hardly any tourists are in Myanmar right now, but one of the Moustache Brothers brought me into their home and sat me down to relax for a few minutes. A daughter of one of the Brothers immediately struck up a conversation with me and laid out several magazine and newspaper articles featuring the act. One of the Brothers was mentioned briefly in a little-known Hugh Grant film, and a poster of the film hung appropriately on the wall in their home. I would really have liked to see the show and I think it would have been a great demonstration of the Myanmar culture, but it was worthwhile anyway just to see the Moustache Brothers' home and to talk with a family member about their act.

I'm still amazed at how accessible the culture is here in Myanmar. I was talking with another traveler in an internet cafe today and he mentioned he had observed the same thing. I don't think I've ever been to a country where any random tourist can chat with respected religious figures or, for that matter, just show up at the house a local comedy act and be invited in to hang out with the family.