We spent the first two days in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city and the last capitol before the British colonized the country. The city is built around a large moat-surrounded fort that at one time housed the National Palace and later housed the British Colonial Headquarters. This is what the moat looks like today:



It is quite picturesque despite large floating bits of scum all over the water. Actually, we learned that in order to "prep" the country for tourism, the government forced the citizens of Mandalay to come out and clean the entire moat, bringing tools from home to do the job, and if they didn't have any tools to help, they just had to use their hands.

Our first day in Mandalay we paid a driver to take us to the nearby ancient cities of Saigang, Amarapura, and Inwa. At Saigang we climbed to the top of the hill to visit a pagoda that overlooked the river and a vast expanse of ancient pagodas. We then took a boat to Inwa, which is built on an island in middle of the river:



At Inwa a carriage driver took us to see some of the ancient sites, including the wooden monastery and the "leaning tower of Inwa". Here is a view across Inwa and an ox cart on the way to the monastery:




Last, we went to visit U Bein's Bridge at Amarapura. I posted some photos from this place in the last entry, but I will post some more here because it was just such a beautiful place:




That night we went to the Thadingyut festivities. We were expecting a fair-like atmosphere, and that's what we got! Well, we got a little "more" than we hoped for. Night had fallen and virtually the entire city was making its way to festival site. Entire families piled onto a single bicycle or motorcycle, whooping with exileration and throwing firecrackers into the street as they rode past. Honestly, I don't know how tires weren't exploding with all the firecrackers going off under foot. When we arrived at the festival, we quickly realized that there were no other foreigners around, that all the men had lost their inhibitions through drinking, and that we were the target for many lecherous eyes and hands. So needless to say, we didn't stay long. We did stay long enough, however, to be involved in a stampede and almost get trampled, and also to witness a Burmese ferris wheel. So, you know how I mentioned that electricity is not reliable in Burma? Well, generally you would need electricity to run a ferris wheel, but the Burmese had come up with an alternative. They had a group of 10 or so young men who would scramble to the top of the wheel, hanging off the cars or propping themselves on the frame, and would propel the wheel into a spin with their body weight. It was CRAZY. The wheel was spinning soooooo fast, with boys dangling off everywhere and cars packed with families. I had visions of people flying off and smashing into the street below. I have never seen anything like that.