Beautiful bridge

I wanted to see the ancient city of Amarapura, so I rented a sturdy Chinese bike with no gears for the day for 60 cents. I ended up only riding it for about 45 minutes. It seems it’s impossible to go anywhere in Myanmar without making friends. The ride through Mandalay was scary, with trucks and “busses” everywhere honking. Going through intersections was especially exciting, what with the absence of stop lights and stop signs. Eventually traffic thinned out as I left the city, except for the pickup busses that kept stopping in front of me to pack in more people. I passed one of the “People’s Desires” government propaganda billboards, and stopped to take a photo. A friendly old man came up and talked to me. Unfortunatly, I couldn’t understand a word he said. Back on my bike another guy rode up next to me and asked where I was from and directed me to my destination.

I stopped at the first paya to look around, and almost immediately a young monk got up from the restaurant across the street and started showing me around. His name was Sondara, and he was 27 years old, and studying to be a monk. His vocabulary was limited, so conversation was difficult, but we were able to communicate on a basic level. We walked through the village to U Bein’s bride, which was absolutely stunning. It was a long wooden bridge over a lake with fishermen in longboats. The water was low, so rice was being grown, and farmers were working in their fields, and cows wandered about. The bridge was busy with many people going both ways. There were teashops at both ends, and even on the bridge. And, as if that wasn’t enough, the horizon was dotted with the white domes with gold tips of the many paya of Amarapura. It was exactly what I though South East Asia would be. On the way back I stopped for some ice cream, and as I sat eating it I attracted a crowd of about ten confused women and children. They liked it when I rubbed my tummy and said “mmm.”

Then Sondara wanted to show me the ancient city of Sagaing, where his monastery is. So he stowed my bike at a fire station, and we crammed ourselves into one of the busses, which everyone found very amusing. The final leg of the journey was on one of the tiny pony carts, which was packed with ten monks, and me. We climbed up Sagaing Hill to U Ponya Shin Paya for a breathtaking view of the remarkable “city.” All around us out of the trees rose golden payas, and they also covered the hills that surrounded us. It was like nothing I have ever seen before.

Me and my guide

Afterwards Sondara took me to his monastery, an unremarkable modern building, and showed me his room, which was basically a bed in the corner of a room where barrels of rice are stored. Then he took me back to Mandaly, which was good, since I had no idea how to get back on my own. Again, the people on the bus were amused by my presence.

When I returned the bike, the bike guy started asking me about state capitols, and produced a map for me to write them on. Then he started telling me crazy stories about how 20 years ago he worked for the government and went to Seattle to buy a 747, and New York to buy a helicopter, and how he took the Trans-Mongolian from Beijing to Moscow, and how in December he was going to Germany on a scholarship to study engineering, or maybe agriculture. It seemed like he was regurgitating stories other travelers had told him. He has no potential here other than being a bike guy, so his only hope is to live vicariously through travelers.

After some delicious strawberry ice cream at the Nylon Ice Cream Bar, a well dressed guy in slacks instead of a longyi rode up on a motorcycle (read: this guy is well-off), and started talking to me in perfect English. He gave me a lift to my guest house, and when I said I was going to Pyin U Lwin tomorrow, he said he used to live there, and would go with me to practice English. My “weird” alarm, which was already registering, went up a notch. When he asked my room number, I figured I should get away from this “friendly” guy. I wonder what his game was?