So, I have to say that Mandalay was a bit of a low point so far. In all fairness, I would have cut it out of the proposed trip in the first place if not for the teak bridge (to follow).....but it's part of the standard trip so there we were. Also in all fairness, Michael was extremely ill so in retrospect it was perfect timing (if there can be such a thing when you are feverish, achy, and disoriented in a foreign country and not - if I may be indelicate - with your standard traveler's gi upset but with something completely, well, foreign).
So sick was he that for the first time in 25 years of traveling to far off places I called the US Consulate in Yangon for advice as to what to do should I have to take him to the doctor. The nice woman with the inexplicably British accent's words of wisdom: Get him to Bangkok or Singapore. And while I know that on his visit last year to Singapore Michael was somewhat intrigued by an establishment called, "Four Floors of Whores", I was still not eager to have to get him there in a crisis.
So, after as many drugs as we could throw at him (and ultimately thinking to stop the malarone anti-malarial drug that we have never taken before) and the tincture of time in not so lovely Mandalay he is improving. This is good because next on the docket is a balloon ride over Bagan and that did not sound like a good plan for someone who could barely move and could not weave a clear thought together.
Meanwhile, we spent a good deal of time resting in our room in the Hotel Amazing Mandalay (which was not as charming as even the Best Marigold Hotel) but which did provide respite and healing. We saw a wood carving studio and a gold leaf studio. The latter would have you believe that all of the billions of dollars worth of gold leaf used in this country is still pounded by fit Burmese men with sledge hammers. I am skeptical by nature so I'll withhold judgment on that one. (Read: I simply don't believe it.) We also took a nice little boat ride on the Ayeyarwady River to a huge unfinished pagoda. And of course we went at sunset to see the U Bein Bridge, the longest and oldest teak bridge in the world.
Pretty bridge.
Pretty bridge.
But that was the extent of our 1-1/2 days in Myanmar.
We are already in Bagan now taking our afternoon break. Michael is feeling better. And without giving away too much of a spoiler just let me say AWESOME!
So sick was he that for the first time in 25 years of traveling to far off places I called the US Consulate in Yangon for advice as to what to do should I have to take him to the doctor. The nice woman with the inexplicably British accent's words of wisdom: Get him to Bangkok or Singapore. And while I know that on his visit last year to Singapore Michael was somewhat intrigued by an establishment called, "Four Floors of Whores", I was still not eager to have to get him there in a crisis.
So, after as many drugs as we could throw at him (and ultimately thinking to stop the malarone anti-malarial drug that we have never taken before) and the tincture of time in not so lovely Mandalay he is improving. This is good because next on the docket is a balloon ride over Bagan and that did not sound like a good plan for someone who could barely move and could not weave a clear thought together.
Meanwhile, we spent a good deal of time resting in our room in the Hotel Amazing Mandalay (which was not as charming as even the Best Marigold Hotel) but which did provide respite and healing. We saw a wood carving studio and a gold leaf studio. The latter would have you believe that all of the billions of dollars worth of gold leaf used in this country is still pounded by fit Burmese men with sledge hammers. I am skeptical by nature so I'll withhold judgment on that one. (Read: I simply don't believe it.) We also took a nice little boat ride on the Ayeyarwady River to a huge unfinished pagoda. And of course we went at sunset to see the U Bein Bridge, the longest and oldest teak bridge in the world.
Pretty bridge.
But that was the extent of our 1-1/2 days in Myanmar.
We are already in Bagan now taking our afternoon break. Michael is feeling better. And without giving away too much of a spoiler just let me say AWESOME!
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