“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.

We appreciate it when our guests share their stories with us and allow us to post them on our blog for everyone to enjoy.

Earlier this month, Nancy King and Richard Keltner, from San Francisco, traveled with us on our 11-day Myanmar (Burma) Explorer Trip. Here are Nancy’s reflections on the trip and a few of her beautiful photos:

Dear Lee,

We loved it! It was an incredibly well organized trip from our arrival in Yangon to when we left 11 days later.

We had four guides and they could not have been more accommodating. They were educated, spoke excellent English and we had such good connection I found myself crying one time at parting (and we had no guide more than 2 -1/2 days). It is strange now in thinking I asked you about tipping because we wanted to give each a huge tip and did! And drivers couldn’t have been better as well, pulling over when I wanted a photo.

The resort you put us in on Inle Lake was fabulous. I even had our boat man take us to the Princess Hotel, which is where my sister had stayed. I wanted to check out the gift shop. To my delight, our motor boat was stopped on the entry to the Hotel and a [leg rower] jumped in our boat to quietly do his one-leg rowing the entire inlet to the hotel. I did not like the Princess Hotel nearly as well as Inle Resort [where we stayed].

Yangon was very hot and humid in January but all the other cities were quite comfortable. Plus the car was always air conditioned as were the places we stayed. We were upgraded to a suite at the Trader’s Hotel and that was especially nice with the full window view of the city.

The food was outstanding! Our guide ate with us and we let him order [for us] every time. Each guide handled it so smoothly.

We loved having the guide and driver all to ourselves. I like the opportunity to really build a relationship among us.

The excellent guides are important, as we spoke with others who had guides through someone else. They were such a strong part of our trip with our connections with them.

I’m deeply into our trip and reliving it as I process my photos and edit them and get them ready to put in my 71st photo album of our life.

Sincerely,

Nancy King

Oxcarts drive alongside the highways in Myanmar.

In Myanmar, an entrepreneur sells brooms from his bicycle.

A merchant weighs produce in a marketplace in Myanmar. The white cream on her face, thanaka, is made from tree bark.

Farms, houses, temples and hotels are all located in the waters of Myanmar's Inle Lake.

Onlookers move to the side as a train approaches the famous Bridge on the River Kwai.

I stroll across the railway bridge whistling “Colonel Bogie’s March.” Others on the bridge give me strange looks as if thinking “Who is this weird man?” But I feel good and my whistling is appropriate, for this is the famous “Bridge on the River Kwai.”

Most of us first heard about the bridge through the 1957 film, based on Pierre Boulle’s French novel. Set in a World War II Japanese POW camp in Burma, it is a fictional account of a battle of wills between a harrassed Japanese camp commander and a doggedly-stubborn British colonel. The story climaxes when allied commandos blow up the bridge.

More than 300,000 Allied and Asian war prisoners were forced to build the railroad bridge over the River Kwai.

The true story is different. During the Second World War, the Japanese planned a railway from Bangkok to Rangoon to shorten the distance between Japan and Burma by 1,300 miles. The railway would cross some of the wettest and most inhospitable terrain in Southeast Asia and require the construction of 688 bridges, but they considered it critical to the war effort.

For labor they used 250,000 Asian forced-laborers, mostly Thai, and more than 60,000 Allied prisoners—30,000 British, 18,000 Dutch, 13,000 Australians, and 700 Americans. Estimated to take five or six years to build, the project, which began on September 16, 1942, was completed after only 16 months, and cost the lives of 16,000 POWs and 75,000 Asian workers. The deaths from cholera, beri beri, malaria, typhoid, exhaustion and malnourishment, earned the railroad the name, “The Death Railway.”

Allied war prisoners in barracks during construction of Bridge on the River Kwai.

The Japanese actually constructed two parallel bridges across the River Kwai, just outside of the Thai town of Kanchanaburi—the first made entirely of wood, the second made of steel and concrete. The Allies destroyed both on February 13, 1945.

In the film the commandos detonated explosive charges fastened to the bridge’s supports. The real bridge was bombed. Failing to destroy the bridges with conventional bombs (some hitting POW camps) the American flyers brought in a new weapon, the AZON (Azimuth Only) bomb. The precursor of today’s “smart” bombs, it had a radio-controlled tail and ten times the accuracy of a conventional bomb.

After the war, engineers repaired the steel bridge over the River Kwai. It is still in use. Visitors to Kanchanaburi, Thailand, now walk across the bridge (the fortunate ones having the opportunity to witness me whistling the theme from the movie), and visit the Allied war cemetery and a museum run by Buddhist monks, featuring a reconstruction of a prisoner of war camp. The monks built the museum “not for the maintenance of hatred among human beings but to warn and teach us the lesson of how terrible war is.”

Bangkok, Thailand, is the cross roads of Southeast Asia. Most passengers traveling to our California Native destinations of Myanmar (Burma) and Bhutan stop in Bangkok before resuming their journeys, and it is well worth spending an additional day to visit Kanchanaburi with its memorials and famous bridge.

“How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun.“—Vincent Van Gogh

The delightful city of Izamal, located on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, is a magical town whose buildings are all painted yellow.

Built around the 6th century, the Shwedagon Pagoda is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar (Burma). It’s gilded stupa looks down on the city of Yangon (Rangoon).

A young Tarahumara girl carries her little sister in a yellow shawl, in Mexico’s Copper Canyon.

A smiling yellow buddha looks down at worshipers in one of the thousands of temples in Thailand.

Shining yellow light into the night sky, Buda Castle, in Budapest, Hungary, overlooks the Danube River.

The Street Musicians: No matter where you are in the world, everyone enjoys music, and entertainment provided by street musicians is universal.

In Iquitos, Peru, a musician plays huayno music, the traditional music of the Andes, on his mandolin.

A Tarahumara musician, in Mexico’s Copper Canyon, plays guitar for visitors.

In Sydney, Australia, a colorful street-musician entertains passers-by.

A street violinist plays on a Budapest bridge on the Danube River.

In Argentina, the tango is extremely popular, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, street music takes the form of tango dancing.

In Chiang Mai, Thailand, a street musician entertains at the annual flower festival.

A Street quartet plays classical music outside of the Prague Castle in the Czech Republic.

Located on forty square miles on the east bank of the Ayeyarwady River, 300 miles north of Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar’s Bagan stands as one of the two most preeminent ancient religious sites in Southeast Asia along with Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

It was in Bagan that the Buddhist religion took hold in Myanmar, influencing the society, its art and architecture.

Historically, Bagan was formed from 19 villages at a time when the region was beginning a transition from its Hindu origins to the Buddhist beliefs that are still a major force today. Manuha, the king of Thaton, a Mon kingdom to the south of Bagan, sent a monk to convert King Anawrahta of Bamar (the origin of the name Burma) to the new religion. Once converted, King Anawrahta asked for a number of sacred scriptures to be brought to him. The monk was unsure of the king’s sincerity, so he refused the request. In response, King Anawrahta attacked and conquered Thaton in 1057 AD, and brought back to Bagan classic Buddhist scriptures, as well as artisans, craftsmen and architects.

Thus began the golden age of Bagan, highlighted by the building of thousands of pagodas. Over 13,000 of these religious structures were built. Two and a half centuries later, in 1287 AD, Bagan was conquered by Kublai Khan and began to decline.

For many years the region was considered to be inhabited by bandits and nats (spirits). Once the British came to the area in the 18th century, and ensured their safety, Burmese people began to move back to the region.

Over time, floods, earthquakes, vandals and nature have reduced the number of pagodas, but over 2,200 still stand today, many in very good condition. There is beautiful detail on the exteriors and interiors and exceptional murals.

A trip to Myanmar is a wonderful experience—super-friendly people, a cultural mix of British colonialism and Buddhist tradition, magnificent temples and beautiful landscapes, but the true splendor of the country begins at Bagan.

On Mt. Popa, the core of an ancient volcano often described as the Mt. Olympus of Myanmar, the thirty-seven “inside” Nats are honored in the most sacred Nat shrine in the country.

Around 1100 AD, King Anawratha, who had learned Buddhism from a missionary, united all the Burmese kingdoms then attempted to convert the people to Buddhism, outlawing the worship of Nats, but this act angered his subjects and they resisted his efforts. Finally, he decided to incorporate the Nats into the Buddhist religion and, declaring Buddha to be the greatest of the Nats, announced that there would be 37 official Nats, whose images he personally carried up to Mt. Popa. These are known as the “inside” Nats. Other Nats, who continue to be worshipped, are called “outside” Nats.

Mt. Popa rises straight up from the plain, with a staircase winding to the temple at the top. Along the way are colorful Nat shrines, and pilgrims come from all over the country to give their offerings and make peace with the flamboyantly dressed representations of the spirits. Alongside the stairways, shops sell all variety of exotic merchandise, including bear paws, while frolicking monkeys run up and down the stairs begging for handouts.

It is believed that Nats can cure illnesses, grant favors and predict the future as long as they are rewarded. Otherwise, they can cause a lot of trouble. The spirit of the Nat is believed to enter the physical statue as it is crafted.

Most Nats have regular festival days, when pilgrims come with offerings and ask for favors. Each Nat has foods he favors or dislikes. They all love color, so everyone dresses brightly at these festivals. When a family has a celebration, they may hold their own festival. The Nats have “spouses,” someone who has had a dream in which the Nat offers to marry them. A traditional marriage ceremony is carried out, then the “Natgadaw” presides over the festival. The spirit of the Nat possesses the “spouse,” who then acts out the life of the Nat, accompanied by cheering and hissing. The Nat’s favorite foods are served, and there is much music, dancing, clapping, loud singing and drinking (except in the case of a Nat who abhors alcohol!).

Myanmar society is very conservative, and many believe that these festivals allow people to temporarily abandon the extreme self-control that is the norm in everyday Burmese life.

This issues feature stories include:

REVISITING PERU’S NAZCA LINES

The desert markings, believed to have been made thousands of years ago, made little impression on occasional travelers who viewed them from ground level, but when they were spotted by aircraft in the 1930’s they caught the world’s attention. They have since been surveyed, mapped and studied. Only two questions remain—who made them, and why?

RAPID TRANSIT: COSTA RICA STYLE

Costa Rica has long been a favorite destination for both the beginner and the experienced river runner. With ample annual rainfall, mountainous landscapes, and plenty of road-to-river access, the country prides itself on being a whitewater paradise.

GHOSTS OF THE GALAPAGOS

Packing a pearl-handled revolver, a riding crop and three lovers, the Baroness Eloisa von Wagner Bosquet disembarked on the Island of Floreana, in 1932, and declared herself “Empress of the Galapagos.”

COPPER CANYON’S LOST TREASURES

In 1880, Alexander “Boss” Shepherd, the last territorial governor of the District of Columbia, packed up his family and, in the remote village of Batopilas, at the bottom of Copper Canyon, developed one of the richest silver mining operations in the world.

THERE’S MORE TO CHINA THAN BEIJING

Because the Olympics were hosted in Beijing, chances are that you learned more about China in 2008 than at any previous time. On the other end of the country, far from bustling Beijing is Yunnan Province—home to the largest variety of ethnic groups in China.

CALIFORNIA NATIVE ADVENTURES
The newsletter also includes schedules, prices and descriptions of California Native’s tours to Mexico’s Copper Canyon, Peru, the Galapagos, Patagonia, Costa Rica, Yucatan and Chiapas, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos, Bhutan, Yunnan, China, and Ireland.

While our year begins on January 1, in Southeast Asia the year begins on April 13.  This is the first day of Songkran, also known as the “Water Festival” and the celebrations last for three days. Songkran celebrates the vernal equinox and is a favorite holiday in Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Laos and Cambodia.

It’s a time for fun, especially if you’re a kid, and in the villages and towns, people in pickup trucks slowly cruise the streets, their truck beds loaded with kids equipped with buckets of water and “Super Soaker” water guns.  Water is constantly flying and everyone is wet, but nobody minds, since this is the hottest time of the year. In one city I watched the local kids and police fighting it out with squirt guns.

Soaking wet California Native founder, Lee Klein, pedals his rickshaw back into the melee of Songkran’s Water Festival.

During the time of Songkran, many community events and parades are held, both secular and religious, including the Miss Songkran beauty pageant. It also is a traditional time for family gatherings.

As a tourist, it is a wet but great time to visit.