I left my travel buddy again as she wanted to go to places I had already been and flew to Mandalay. I was not expecting the lovely hospitality off the hotel as there wasn't that many tourists about. The son was my driver for my time in Mandalay as it was quite difficult to get around without a car. His sister decided to come along for the ride to show me the sights and to translate which was lovely of her. She wanted to practice her english.
Our first stop was to the Mandalay palace. It was a wooden building with gold all over it:
There was a temple that only men could go in. The sister said she thought it was a stupid rule so she sneaked me in to have a look.
We then went to the cemetery. This wasn't your average cemetery as the whole place was full of hundreds of white tombs. It was pretty spectacular:
We then went to the Kuthodow pagoda which was a gold temple. It was beautiful.
Finally we ended our day in Mandalay hill. It was a Buddhist monetary and had an amazing view and a little market:
The next day we went out early to see the monks march through the city for their breakfast. There were loads of them, some really young. People gave them presents while they were walking:
Then we went to Mandalay U Bein Bridge. There wasn't much water so it wasn't as amazing as it could have been but it was still nice to walk across the bridge:
Then it was finally time to leave for Began! Mandalay was a lovely place and well worth a visit.
Began was amazing! It was so hot though 42 degrees.
I arrived and went to my hotel. It was getting late so wandered to find some dinner. I found the most amazing Italian restaurant (Yes I know its Burma) and had the best Italian food, and I have been to Italy.
The next day I tried to rent a moped as I was told it was easy. It wasn't and almost went into a tree, so I hired a tuk tuk for the day. They guy took me all over Began looking at temples. There's over 2000!
Began was amazing, it was one of the best places I had been too and highly recommend it. Unfortunately there were no hot air balloons flying when I was there but it was still a spectacular sight.
I had two days in Began but after a very tiring first day I relaxed by the pool on my second day as it was so hot!
I then had to leave Began for Yangon.
I arrived in Yangon and and my first stop was to the Shwedagon Pagoda. This was my favourite temple that I had been too as it was covered in gold. I walked there from my hotel and met a guy in the pagodoa who showed me around as he wanted to practice his english:
On my travels in Australia I had met a lovely girl from Burma. She had phoned her friends and asked them to take me out for the day. I couldn't believe how nice they were and that they agreed to it. It was also the start of the water festival (A festival I have come to loathe) It involves basically soaking everyone in water. So luckily her friends took me out in the car for the day so I didn't get wet.
They picked me up in a really nice car and took me for a drive. There were loads of people soaking each other and having massive water parties.
I also so the Kandawgyi lake and went for coffee at a 5 star hotel on the lake. I was also treated to lunch, they were lovely.
Then I was dropped off back at my hotel and decided to spend the afternoon in the Hilton having coffee and reading my book as I did not want to get wet!
