The road to Mandalay...

Yup, this the road made famous by Kipling, and the roadside fruit stalls are likely pretty much the same since.

Fascinating driving through the countryside and villages. We pass through lots of tiny villages trying to raise money for new pagodas, and they do this by having young women stand in lines on either side of the road with donation bowls that they shake as cars drive by. Some villages have put out flags and have a load hailer exhorting passersby to donate.

Some villages specialize in a particular product that crowds roadside stalls. One village had hundreds of bamboo chair and loungers lining the road. Another specialized in triangular blocks of wood with a carved handle on one end. I had no idea what these were for until we started the long climb to Pyin Oo Lwin. Very steep, VERY windy road lined with incredibly overloaded trucks. The wooden blocks are tire chocks for when the trucks stall going uphill, and prevent them from rolling back. Lots of lots of stalled trucks. At the roadside restaurants, there are water lines with hoses connected every ten or fifteen feet. Trucks pull in and immediately run a hose into their engine to cool them off. Going downhill, the truck drivers toss buckets of water on the brakes.

We had an 8 hour drive from Nay Pyi Taw (the new capital in the interior) to Pyin Oo Lwin. Interesting going through the countryside.

When in Mandalay...

If you’re a tourist in Mandalay, there are two customary things to do – watch the sun set from atop Mandalay Hill, amidst the local hilltop pagoda, and see the Moustache Brothers. Locals and the faithful walk up the hill via hundreds upon hundreds of stone steps. We drove, then joined others taking the escalator the final way up. Great view of the Irrawaddy River, the Shan Hills, and surrounding area. Off to street BBQ, then trying to find the home of the Moustache Brothers.

The Moustache Brothers are a traditional comedy troupe (two brothers and a cousin, only one of whom speaks bad English) that has been banned for several years for telling anti-government jokes. Two of them have been arrested many times and done prison time, the most recent stretch being five years at a work camp in the jungle. To keep the show going, they found a loophole in the order prohibiting their act – they work only their home, only admit foreigners, and “demonstrate” what a show would look like, mostly without costumes. The secret police still hang about outside sometimes taking pictures of those who attend, and the locals congregate outside to hear the show. The show is on the ground floor, in a front room, with the stage being 4” high and 2’ in front of a row of plastic chairs. Two Spaniards and I made up the audience this night. The night before they had and audience of 10. The suggested voluntary admission of $8 US largely goes for food for those in a local prison. Corny humour, hokey show, some jokes in rapid fire bad English, some demonstrations of traditional dance. An hour amidst lots of mosquitoes, and the obligatory souvenir T-shirt. You have to admire them for keeping up their brand of opposition. If you Google them, you’ll see lots online. They’re national heroes who get lots of international media attention. I had to crouch down to get in the same picture with the brother and cousin.

For a BBC story on the brothers, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7060424.stm

The other big (literally) site here is the Mandalay Palace and Fort, much of which is now a military base and off-limits. We drove by it several times. You can’t miss it. Each of the four sides is bordered by a mile long moat, which itself is huge. Too darn hot to get out and go walking though.

Pyin Oo Lwin (say that three times quickly!)

Pyin Oo Lwin (about 90 minutes from Mandalay, in the north of Myanmar) is a former English hill station, about 3,000 feet up, and on the main truck route to the Chinese border (major export to China this time of year? Watermelon. Huge trucks full of them in beds of straw). The Brits originally set Mandalay as the capital, and many moved it here in the summer months for the cooler mountain air (then called Maymyo, after Col. May of the 5th Bengal Infantry). Lots of 100-year-old English bungalows and large houses set amidst overgrown lots (the red roofed building is now a small hotel). Quite fascinating. The other oddity is the presence of lots of local horse drawn carriages. They look like pint-sized carriages you’d see the Queen in. All brightly painted. Not sure I’d fit in one. There is a large public garden, built largely by Turkish POW’s after WWI.

So, one huge problem on this trip has been the inability call home for the most of the time. International phone lines were cut when the UN special envoy to Myanmar was here just before I arrived. He’s been attempting to prevent further bloodshed and mediate between the ruling Junta and the outlawed opposition party, and it’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest most of the past 20 or so years. The lines were still cut when I got here, then the head general fell unconscious (he’s quite elderly now) and there were worries he’d die. Fearing unrest over a leadership transition and a potential power vacuum as others vie for the top seat, the international lines remained cut for most of the first part of my trip. Internet cafes also were down, including the one in my hotel in Pyin Oo Lwin.

Coffee on the front patio of my little hotel in Pyin Oo Lwin is interesting. The forest is alive with millions of buzzing buts and birdcalls. Monks file past in line, and horse drawn carts with bells go along the road. The roads are also home to homemade trucks that have two stroke tractor engines. You can hear them chugging along long before you see them. A few old English cars from the 30’s and 40’s. In the restaurant at the hotel there is a photo of a squad of Japanese soldiers posing. Remember, this was one of the countries they occupied. People still talk about how brutal they were. Apparently, after the war was over and the Japanese began the long walk home, locals around SE Asia made their life hell each step of the way. Long pent up rage and revenge.

Pyin Oo Lwin is known for growing coffee (all of it is exported and it’s hard to find good coffee locally) and strawberries. So, lots of strawberry jam at breakfast and lots and lots of roadside stands selling baskets (all in tiny hand woven baskets) of berries and berry wine.
Pyin Oo Lwin has been made famous by Kipling (who also wrote the “Road to Mandalay), George Orwell in his first book “Burma Days”, and Paul Theroux in “The Great Railway Bazaar”. Lots of Indians and Nepalese here, and descendents of former British Ghurkha soldiers. It gets down to about the low to mid 20’sC at night and everyone bundles up in heavy sweaters and winter coats.