Myanmar (Burma) - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 572

AROUND MANDALAY
Mandalay makes a good base for day-trips
exploring the surrounding area. Each of
the sites listed here has its own appeal,
and most people opt to combine two or
more into a day-trip by taxi or self-drive
motorbike (with Mingun more usually
visited by boat as a half-day trip).
Accommodation in Mandalay will be
able to help with transport, and drivers
are likely to approach you in the street.
Expect to pay K13,000-16,000 for a
motorbike taxi tour of Amarapura,
Sagaing and Inwa.

Mintha Theater 27th St 65/66 T 09 680 3607,
W minthatheater.com. A great opportunity to see tradi-
tional dance with extravagant costumes, accompanied by
live music, with ten different performances packed into
the show. K8000.
Moustache Brothers 39th St 80/81 T 09 4303 4220,
E [e-mail]. The only chance you're likely to
get to experience ănyeín , a traditional form of comedy
combining political satire and broad slapstick. Two of
the performers, Lu Maw and Par Par Lay (who died in
2013), served six years' hard labour after making jokes
about the regime in 1996, and this context is reason
enough to attend even if the jokes don't always hit the
mark. K8000.

SHOPPING
Books Myanmar Book Centre, Diamond Plaza, between
77th/78th sts and 33rd/34th sts (daily 9am-9pm).
Handicrafts There are several craft shops and workshops
in the gold-pounding district on 36th St (see box, p.571),
including Zaw Min Khaing (between 77th and 78th sts;
daily 7am-6pm) for parasols.
Markets The biggest market is the Zegyo, 84th St 26/28,
selling a huge range of everyday goods. The Man Myanmar
Shopping Plaza to the south, 84th St 27/28, is more of the
same but even more hectic. Immediately to the west of
these are more interesting street markets. Man Myoe
market, at 84th St 38/39, has many gold dealers at the
front and is rarely visited by tourists.
Shopping centres Diamond Plaza (between 77th/78th
sts and 33rd/34th sts) is the biggest in the city. The 78
Shopping Center, corner of 78th and 38th sts, includes a
City Mart supermarket (daily 9am-9pm).

Amarapura
Amarapura was the capital of Burma
from 1783-1823 and again from
1841-57, after which King Mindon
moved the seat of power 11km north to
the newly founded Mandalay. Although
tour buses pull up each morning at
Mahaganayon Kyaung monastery so
that tourists can watch the monks eat
lunch, the real reason to visit
Amarapura is for U Bein's Bridge - at
1.2km, the longest teak bridge in the
world. In theory you need to have a
K10,000 Mandalay ticket (see box,
p.569) to cross, but nobody seems to
check it. he bridge gets particularly
busy at sunset, with many tourists
hiring boats (45min; K8000-10,000) in
order to get views of the sun setting
behind the bridge. It's arguably more
atmospheric - and there are certainly
fewer tourists - at dawn.

7

DIRECTORY
Cinemas Some films are shown in English at Myoma
Cinema, 81st St 27/28 (K1000-1600).
Internet Cosmos, 31st St 80/81 (daily 9am-10pm);
MS Aung, 82nd St 26/27 (daily 10am-10.30pm); Wai Yan,
27th St 73/74 (daily 8am-10pm).
Massage Smile (with blind masseurs), corner of 27th &
75th sts (daily 9am-11pm; K6000/hr; T 09 9100 9487);
GGG, 27th St 74/75 (daily 9am-11pm; K6000/hr; T 09
4025 77711).
Money There are foreign exchange counters and ATMs in
the arrivals section at the airport. Centrally located banks
with currency exchange include AGD, 82nd St 27/28
(Mon-Fri 9.30am-3pm), and Small & Medium Industrial
Development Bank (SMIDB), 83rd St 27/28 (Mon-Fri
9am-5pm). CB Bank, 78th St 27/28, also has an ATM.
Diamond Plaza has a UAB bank plus several ATMs.
Post o ce 22nd St 80/81 (Mon-Fri 9.30am-4.30pm).
Swimming Outside guests can use the pool at Mandalay
City Hotel , 26th St 82/83 (daily 6am-10pm; $5).

Sagaing
he main reason to visit the town of
Sagaing , the fourteenth-century capital
of a Shan kingdom, is for Sagaing Hill ,
which is dotted with white-and-gold
pagodas. It's around 21km from
Mandalay, across the Ayeyarwady River;
there are two bridges side by side, and if
you cross the older one (which also
carries the railway) then you're likely to
be charged the Mingun-Sagaing K3000
entry fee (see box, p.569).
You can drive up the hill but it's really
worth making the 25-minute walk. he
most common approach on foot is from
the south side; the first temple you come