Myanmar Day 3: Mandalay, U Bein Bridge Sunset Ride Tour
 |
| Our well maintained bikes provided by Grasshopper Adventures |
Barely having enough any sleep after a crazy world cup match (Brazil vs Germany) that happened at 2am, local time, we were up and out to the airport before sunrise to catch our flight to Mandalay.
 |
| Clean and modern airport |
While keeping my expectations low, the domestic flight airport actually turned out to be better than I thought. Flight from Yangon to Mandalay was about an hour and the hotel driver that we booked didn't turn up! A Burmese lady, who was waiting for guests to arrive, saw us wondering around came to our rescue and contacted the hotel to ask for our driver's location. After multiple phone calls between the hotel and driver, she told us to take a taxi from the hotel as this driver seems suspicious. This whole incident actually took 30 mins! We took her advise and went with the taxi at the airport.
 |
| View from Taw Win Myanmar Hotel |
The taxi fares listed in the airport was the same as what I've research online. It cost us 15,000 kyats with aircon. Carry your own luggage if you do not want to tip the guys. We sat in a F1 taxi and the whole ride took us less than an hour.
Followed with a quick check-in to our hotel (Taw Win Myanmar Hotel), we rested for a while before heading out for our next adventure (U Bein Bridge Sunset Ride, with Grasshopper Adventures).
 |
| The famous U-Bein Bridge |
 |
| Our guides and us at the watch tower |
Our guide picked us up from our hotel, along with 2 other tourist, who turned out to be Singaporeans! It is very comforting to meet people from your home country in a foreign land. Singlish flowed out naturally after that too. We rode for half a day and that was the bumpiest ride I ever had! My butt hurt so bad halfway but I'm glad that I've persevered through. We explored small roads and visited the homes of the locals to understand what they do for livelihood. The tour was very enjoyable and our guide, Nay, was knowledgeable.
 |
| Mini Bagan in Mandalay |
 |
| Local food for dinner |
With the recent riot that took place in Mandalay, a curfew was imposed and everybody had to be in their homes by 9pm. With that, dinner had to be somewhere close to our hotel, which was on the next street behind our hotel as recommended by the hotel staff. We had some trouble understanding their menu and the waiter with limited English words wasn't able to explain it to us. Lady boss came long and decided to speak in Chinese! At this point, it was pretty candid as we were so glad that we can finally communicate. The staff laughed at our relieved reaction. With the lady boss's recommendations, we ordered a couple of items and similar to Korean food, they give out side dishes too. Verdict of the food? We didn't quite like them as it was either too oily or too salty. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel to rest for the day. :) We had another food tour with Grasshopper Adventure the next morning. Stay tuned!
.png "Menu")
0 comments :