Back in Mandalay

So last night I got to chat online with Cathy via our Gmail chat device. Very cool. The timing was only a little off, and we got to chat for like a half an hour, which would have been a fortune on the phone.

She often makes the point of how wonderful the people are there. As you'll see in the following e-mail, which she sent upon return to Mandalay from Hsipaw.


we're back in mandalay after 4 wonderful days in hsipaw. i'll tell you
about the train ride first... so many of the good stories have to do
with transport.

the train from mandalay to hspiaw was full for 3 days so we hired a
car for $50 which turned out to be a great deal because he stopped at
the botanical gardens and some caves along the way. it took us most
of the day to get to hspiaw. the bontanical gardens were beautiful
and there was a flower festival going on so lots of lots of people.
it was nice to see burmese people relaxing and enjoying time with
their families because it seems that all they do is work (they are up
around 4am and things close down pretty early at night.. around 9pm).
one thing we thought was funny is there were speakers set up all over
the park BLARING asian music. it was very very loud and not very
relaxing. we were later told the loud music is to please the Nat. the
nat is sort of a spirit that a lot of folks believe in... they want to
keep the spirit happy so good things happen to you. chris.. the
spirit houses in thailand were for something like the nat. they do all
kinds of things to make the nat happy like build him nice little
houses and put offerings in the big bilbao trees and bring him fruit
and rice and beautiful flowers. apparently he also likes loud music.

so after the park we visited some caves that were really amazing.
there were hundreds of different buddah's set up back in the caves
along with little scenes ( fake trees and monks sitting around). we
couldnt figure out how they got all the stuff in there. plus a lot of
the walkway was done in tiny tiles which would have taken forever. it
was very impressive and christina called it a buddah theme park.

we stayed at mr charles guest house in hsipaw which is where most
folks stay. hsipaw is in the hills in the shan state in eastern
myanmar.. very close to the chinese border. the food is more chinese
there and the shan people look more chinese. we rented bikes one day
and rode around to different monestaries and a nat shrine (really
cool.. everyone takes the nat these huge food/fruit and flower
baskets. we asked someone and they said the baskets sit there for a
day then the children come and collect all the food and eat it. we
also went to the nephew of the last shan prince's house... remind me
to tell you more about that later (big brother watching.. phone calls
here are listened to etc etc)

the area around hspiaw is very beautiful.. lots of small farms. we
rode by several villages and gardens. chris you'd be proud of me. i
was mountain biking only with a one speed 100lb tank of a bike. the
roads and paths are terrible here!! i never fell off though. you'd
also be proud at me riding around in the dark like everyone else does.
i dont really like it but it gets dark at 5pm and we had to get home.
lights (on cars, scooters etc) seem to be optional. i havent seen
anyone get hit though and the traffic pattern is definitely mroe
orderly than vietnam. my favorite way to get around is by trishaw
(man on bike ).

anyway back to transport... the train ride from hsipaw to mandalay is
gorgeous. you go past gardens and rolling hills and monestaires and
pagodas. we enjoyed ourselves for the first 8 hours or so. they we
sat at a train station in py o lyn for 3 hours and we lost some steam
there. by the time we left again it was dark so they closed all the
windows on the train when it was cold. many more people had gotten on
at that point .. we had seats but there were people standing and
sitting in the aisles all around us hacking their lungs out. didnt
bother me when the windows were open but between the spitting and
hacking we were ready to be off that train when it finally arrived in
mandalay 13 hours after we left hsipaw. people were very very nice
though. they shared food with us and called us over to their window
when there was something pretty to see. the train car guy would tell
us how long we were supposed to stop at each station so we'd know if
we could get off or not. in short.. the opposite of vietnam. the
photos i brought over are a big hit. they've been looked at by so
many people. they were passed around the train car last night as we
crawled towards mandalay in a train car that was lit only by one
candle that someone had put on our train seat because they thought
we'd like some light. other than that it was pitch black!