I must have managed to get some sleep by some minor miracle, for at 6am woke up and the monk next to me told me we'd soon be in Mandalay, and sure enough at 7 we pulled into a bus station. I thought it was way too soon to have arrived in Mandalay, but other passengers confirmed that we were in fact in Mandalay.

Touts from various guesthouses were waiting outside the bus doors, though as far as I could tell I was the only foreigner requiring one. I didn't see a tout for the E.T. Hotel, whom I was referred to by the Yangon guesthouse, but a guy in tandem with a cab driver produced himself in short order and for 1000K they took me to the guesthouse, the entire time trying to convince me I should stay elsewhere, and trying to sell me on their services as Mandalay guides. The hotel was charging $7/night for a single with hot shower and a/c (as I was to find out later, both were decidedly intermittent amenities, as was electricity), as well as a morning breakfast.

I felt horribly dirty after the bus ride so I took a shower and then slept for 1½ hours. Around 11am went around the corner to Lashio Lay, a Shan restaurant which was listed in the LP and which the hotel recommended when I inquired about getting some lunch. When I got there I figured out you picked the dishes you wanted from the various boiling tins, but not knowing what was what I took out my "I'm a vegetarian" paper which one of the guys working there proceeded to read aloud, producing laughter from two women who were in line ahead of me. Embarrassed, I accepted the two vegetable dishes he picked out for me, corn and some mixed veggie dish. This I ate along with rice from a huge bowl they placed on my table, total altogether plus soda water came to 450K.

After eating I walked along 23rd Street east until I came to the moat on the western edge of Mandalay Palace, figured I would take a walk along the edge (this on 80th Street), not realizing how many blocks each side of the palace encompassed. Eventually made it to 26th Street, which bordered the palace on its south side, and made a left, vaguely heading towards the MTT office. Got many stares as per usual from passersby on bicycles, hardly any pedestrians about, and the whole place felt strangely deserted (probably due to it being around high noon). Despite this, and the fact that the sparseness of trees and the wide streets perversely conjured up images of L.A., not to mention that I was sweating like a pig in at least 95°F temperature, I was taking an immediate liking to the city. Hard to account for it, but I think in part I was feeling triumphant after enduring the 15 hour bus trip from Yangon.

As I was walking along the south side of the palace, a woman in her late 50's with glasses and excellent English who explained that she was an Indian Christian came up alongside me, trying to persuade me to visit her souvenir shop. As I made my way to cross to the other side of 26th Street, she confessed that it wasn't her shop but that of her friend, and that she would earn a commission if I went there. I declined, but gave her 200K instead. As I got to the other side of the street, I was met by an elderly trishaw driver (whose name I regretfully didn't note down in my journal) with decent English who directed me to where the MTT office was (it was on 68th Street bet. 26th and 27th Streets -- not exactly where LP said it was), and agreed to take me back to the hotel for 300K. I went inside the MTT office and bought a Mandalay map for 100K, then rode with him back to the hotel going along 27th Street, passing a mosque and a wonderful looking Hindu temple along the way. Made arrangements with him to pick me up at the hotel at 3:30pm and he would take me the Mandalay Hill and back for $3. At the hotel I asked if they had something cold to drink, and they went out to a store nearby to get me an orange soda for 50K. I took a nap for 2 hours, not waking up until 3:25pm (alarm clock not working).

Driver was waiting outside the hotel and he drove me to the hill, driving along 12th street which forms the northern edge of the palace, many drink vendors and more people than earlier, folks smiling at me and children waving, a wonderfully pleasant ride despite the heat (not so pleasant of course for the driver who had to haul my heavy ass around!). Driver took me to the main hill entrance, just past the Novotel hotel, he suggested I leave my sandals with him as I would have to take them off on the hill. Paid $3 entry fee (in FEC), then started to climb the steps, of which I later read there are supposedly 1700 of them taking one up over 230 meters above ground level. The place had somewhat of a bizarre atmosphere, lots of vendors of different sorts, although many looked closed or not interested in customers; it also appeared that many of these people lived there, they were taking showers, kids playing around, many dogs sleeping on the steps and elsewhere, many of the various shrines in quite a dilapidated state, the floor very dirty. Fairly early on as I took a brief rest, a young Burmese man and his sister came up and chatted with me for 5 minutes, he wanting to practice his English, and showing me a gem that he said he had found (not sure if he was implying he'd sell it to me, he never mentioned it). About halfway up met another tourist on his way down, said his name was Richard and it turned out he was a civil engineer from Berkeley and had a Thai friend who was attending the same English school as Naoko, we chatted for 10 or so minutes, he mentioned he was going to go to Mingun the next day so we said we'd probably see each other again.

Nearing the top it started to become confusing exactly which way to go to reach the summit, but eventually I figured it out and was rewarded with a spectacular view of the surrounding landscape, as well as the mirror-tiled arcade, here there were other tourists, presumably having come up to the top via the road. A young Burmese man carrying a book seemed to be following me around, eventually he came up to me speaking English but mentioned that he actually spoke Japanese better, and was then surprised when I started to speak back to him in my very limited Japanese. We spoke in a combination of English and Japanese, and he explained some of what I was seeing in the landscape below, which grew even more beautiful as the sun started to set. He said he was learning Japanese from a Burmese monk, and that his job was a studio portrait photographer in a shop on the hill. Later we noticed two Japanese tourists walking around with a tour guide, he eventually spoke to them and introduced me, and the four of us sat down on the tiles and talked for about 10 minutes. I was too shy to try much Japanese, but not my new Burmese friend, who did most of the talking, despite the Japanese saying they had a hard time understanding anything he was saying.

By then it was past 6:30pm, so I and the Japanese-speaking guide started descending the stairs, it was hard to see, not being lit very well. He stopped at one of the food vendors to get some dinner, then said goodbye when we reached his photography studio. I continued down, worried that I might make a wrong turn somewhere, since it was very dark, but I eventually made it down, the poor trishaw driver waiting with my shoes. I apologized profusely for being so long up on the hill, but he didn't seem too put out. I asked him to take me to Marie Min, a vegetarian restaurant recommended by LP, but he said it was closed, and that he would take me to another restaurant nearby. It was another nice drive, quite cool in the early evening air (relatively speaking!), as we headed down 66th Street which bordered the Palace on its east side (ironically I never went inside the palace walls during my time in Mandalay, but I did walk or ride around it circumference!). We finally ended up at the Pan Cherry restaurant on 81st Street, I was dismayed to see another tourist couple enter ahead of me. I paid my very sweaty driver 2500K (about $2 more than we agreed upon) and went into the restaurant, noticing that the women tourist was wearing thanaka paste on her face, which I thought a bit much. I ordered vegetable curry and a bottle of Myanmar beer, which they went next door to get (regretfully I didn't realize it was a Muslim establishment and therefore shouldn't have ordered the beer). Again the food was very filling, and seemingly all you can eat, my plate refilled several times (700K total for dinner).

As I walked back to the hotel, I was approached by a trishaw driver but I explained that my hotel was just a couple of blocks away. He said his name was Thoo Thoo and of course he wanted to know what I was doing tomorrow, and next thing I knew we had made arrangements for him to pick me up in the morning and take me to the boat landing where the boat for Mingun departed from. In the same block as the hotel I was approached by this guy who said his name was "Mango" who tried to sell me on a taxi trip to the 3 ancient cities (Sagaing, Inwa, and Amarapura), I went with him to his "office" (a little hole in the wall, literally), and we discussed pricing ($8/day for a pickup taxi, $15/day for a "more confortable" but non-a/c Toyota). After our discussions I went next door and bought two soda bottles for 45K each plus 70K for the two bottle deposit fee. While there I noticed behind the counter a computer running Windows 3.1, the first computer I had seen thus far in Myanmar. When I finally got back to my room, it was still only 8:30pm, but I was exhausted, and knew I'd be getting up early the next day.

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