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“On the Road to Mandalay, Where the flyin’ fishes play, An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ’crost the bay.” – Rudyard Kipling |
Located in Mandalay, the Kuthodaw Pagoda is popularly known as "the World's Biggest Book" for its 729 stone slabs on which are inscribed the entire Buddhist Scriptures.
In 1892 Rudyard Kipling published Barrack Room Ballads, a collection of poems about the life of British soldiers stationed in colonial India. It included the poem “Mandalay,” in which a lovelorn soldier longs to return to Burma and his Burmese sweetheart. While the road to Mandalay may not necessarily lead to love, it does lead travelers to a fascinating experience of Myanmar’s culture and history.
The fabled city of Mandalay lies on the banks of the Ayeyarwady River. The last capital of Myanmar before the British took over in 1886, it is second only to Yangon (Rangoon) in size and lies in the center of the country. It was founded by King Mindon in 1857 in an empty area that, according to prophecy, would be the location of a town that would come into existence on the 2,400th jubilee of Buddhism. To fulfill this prophecy, the king moved his capital from Amarapura, dismantling the wooden buildings and royal palaces and loading them onto carts and elephants to relocate them seven miles south to Mandalay.
The city gets its name from Mandalay Hill, which rises more than 700 feet above the Mandalay Fort. Visitors can climb up two covered stairways that wind up the hill, stopping at the shrines, stupas and monasteries along the way. Near the top is a standing Buddha image pointing to the place where the city would be built according to the prophecy. Once on top, visitors are rewarded with sweeping views of the plains, the Palace and the Shan mountains in the distance.
The road to Mandalay is a route studded with ancient cities, where cars share the road with ox carts and markets teem with life. Although most of the significant buildings in the ancient royal capital of Amarapura were moved to Mandalay, some interesting structures still remain. The most picturesque is U Bein’s Bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world, which stretches three-quarters of a mile across Taungthaman Lake. A stroll across the busy bridge is a great way to experience the local ambiance. At one end of the bridge is the Maha Ganayon Kyaung monastery, where thousands of young monks live and study in a strictly disciplined setting. Each day at 11 a.m. they may be observed eating their main meal in complete silence.
A few miles south down the road is the ancient city of Ava (Inwa), which was the capital of the northern kingdom for almost 400 years, succeeding the nearby city of Sagaing. Both of these cities boast a number of interesting pagodas and historic sites.
One of the most interesting of the ancient cities on the road to Mandalay is Mingun, where in 1790 King Bodawpaya decided he would build the world’s largest pagoda. Despite employing thousands of slaves and prisoners to build it, he died before it was completed. What remains is the massive brick base that stands over 50 meters high. Although damaged by an earthquake, it is possible to climb the ruins for a wonderful view. The king also had a gigantic bell cast—weighing 90 tons, it hangs nearby and is the largest ringing bell in the world.
There is much to see on the road to Mandalay, but unlike the poem, there are no flying fishes and, alas, China is not across the bay.
Please join us on one of our California Native Myanmar Adventures.
Its summer vacation time! As many of us travel this summer, we see longer lines, airline cut backs and fees, not to mention unpredictable weather. Here are a few simple tips to make your trip a wonderful adventure to remember.
Pack light. This can’t be emphasized enough. If you plan carefully, you’ll have everything you need and you can carry it on the plane, avoiding luggage fees. Pack layers instead of bulky items for cold weather. Pick a color scheme and pack mix- and-match items you can wear in many combinations. Have a master packing list on your computer. Before each trip, print it out, modifying it for the length of the trip and the weather.
Time your airport arrival to give yourself enough time to get through security, but don’t arrive so early that you spend hours sitting around. Check to see which carriers fly from the same terminal. A lot of short-haul airlines usually mean a longer security line. Check your airline’s website for flight status updates which send text or voice messages to your cell phone advising you of your gate number, and changes, delays, etc. Since most U.S. domestic flights no longer provide meals, we like to get to the airport for a morning flight in time to get through security, then sit down and have a nice breakfast.
On our very first day in Buenos Aires, exhausted from jet lag and very hungry, we stopped at an empanada stand. Empanadas are a staple of Argentinian food. Basically, they are dough folded around a filling and baked. The name comes from the Spanish verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread. The available fillings were meat, onions and cheese, or ham and cheese. We opted for the latter. Delicious! OK, it was the first day, but we found a great lunch. Along the way, in other towns, we stopped in grocery stores, bakeries, etc. and ham and cheese was the filling we could consistently count on for empanadas. 
On May 21, 2010, California Native owners Lee and Ellen Klein were guests of Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón at a luncheon he held in Mexico City at Los Pinos, Mexico’s official presidential residence.
In the winter (our summer), when the snows fall, South Americans flock to the city to take advantage of the many winter sports. In the summer and fall (our winter and spring), people come to hike, raft, kayak, fish, enjoy lakeside beaches, and much more. On our recent scouting trip to Argentina, we sampled some of the abundance of activities Bariloche has to offer. We hiked beautiful mountain trails, stopping for lunch at overlooks above clear blue lakes while giant condors flew to and from their nests on adjacent peaks. We river-rafted down the scenic Rio Manso all the way to the Chilean border. And we enjoyed sumptuous meals of pasta, lamb and steak—to re-energize ourselves after all that exercise.
Oh, did I mention chocolate? Bariloche is famous for it’s chocolate shops. Strolling from the quaint main square, with its wooden and stone alpine-look municipal buildings, down the main street, you are confronted on every block by at least two or three chocolate shops. We’re not talking about little shops—we are talking about big stores with cases and cases of chocolates by the pound, café sections for sampling decadent desserts, and aisles of every size box of chocolates you can imagine. Visit just before Easter as we did, and you can see some of the most beautifully decorated confections you can imagine. The store windows are like museums of chocolate. And, ALL of it is delicious! I know! I tasted! More than once!
What is blue, white, frosty and cold? If you guessed a type of drink, try again! It is a glacier in Patagonia, and there are hundreds of them to see. The California Native scouting team was on our third trip to explore the area in March. This time we are developing a new itinerary for our adventures not only in Patagonia (Chile and Argentina) but also in other areas of the two countries.
In the first of three weeks of travel in the region, we were able to set foot on Cape Horn (as far south as you can get without being in Antarctica), hiked an island in the Straits of Magellan, crunched our way up an ice field fjord in a zodiac, trekked in Torres del Paine National Park in the shadows of the snow-capped towers, visited the largest and the longest glaciers in Argentina, and even hiked up the glacier itself (crampons on!).
Located on forty square miles on the east bank of the Ayeyarwady River, 300 miles north of Yangon (Rangoon), 
After a summer spent in the frigid waters of the Chukchi and Bering Seas, feasting on immense quantities of small crustaceans, the California Gray Whales begin their annual migration south to 
Easily accessible from 
