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Mandalay Hotels

Hotels in Mandalay are plentiful. We chose The Bagan King because of it’s central location, with plenty of ammenities in the couple of surrounding blocks. This worked out well for us as The Mandalay Princess Hospital is just around the corner.
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Mandalay Taxis

Using a local taxi near the hotel is our first choice. We have a chat to them and have a driver for the day. If he’s happy with us and we with him, then we negotiate a deal for the next few days.
The taxi driver will always know many places to go …

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Mandalay History and Info

Mandalay history is relatively recent when compared with Bagan. It was founded in 1857 by King Mindon when the previous capital Inwa was hit by a series of earthquakes. The teak palace buildings were dismantled and moved by elephants to the new locality
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Mandalay – Inwa (Ava)

Inwa or Ava, the old capital of Burma had been the capital on and off for 350 years.
Our taxi driver Ko Swe Myint drops us off at the river and we wait for the river boat to take us across. Locals, monks, motor bikes and us.
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Mandalay Golden Palace

Manadaly Golden Palace was the last royal palace of the Burmese monarchy. King Mindon who founded Mandalay as the new capital, shifted the entire palace from Inwa on the backs of elephants. But the Golden Palace was burned to the ground during the Second World War.
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Shwenandaw Monastery – Mandalay

‘Shwenandaw Monastery in Mandalay is the historic Buddhist monastery built in 1878 by King Thibaw Min.’
The buddhist monk U Sandima was showing us this magnificent teak building, the only remaining original structure left from the Royal Palace.
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Mahagandayon Monastery – Mandalay

Our taxi driver Ko Swe Myint is taking us to one of the largest monastic colleges in Myanmar, Mahagandayon Monastery.
It was first started in 1908 as a meditation centre for forest-dwelling monks, and is now home to several thousand monks.
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Mandalay Jade and Flower Markets

Everything is traded. Large bits of stone, huge boulders of jade, flat cut slabs, unfinished cut pieces, finished cabochons, carvings and bangles. There are the clear and pure white stones, all the way through to the dark see through green of the emperors jade.
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Mandalay Port

Known as Shwe Kyat Yat Port of Mandalay, it sits below Shwe Kyat Yat Pagoda and is a site for everything river based to come and go from. Holding anything from large transport barges beached on the river banks, to small Ayeyarwady fishing out-riggers the river banks are filled with life.
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Shwe Kyat Yat Pagoda – Mandalay

Shwe Kyat Yat Pagoda or Shwe Kyet Yet Pagoda. We find out this pagoda by the Ayeyarwady River is known by both names. Climbing the long staircase to the top of the pagoda the river is right in front of us and we look out across the Mandalay port.
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U Bein Bridge – Mandalay

We are looking at the worlds longest teak bridge. ‘Built from teak wood from the old royal palace at Inwa’ Ko Swe Mint our taxi driver has taken us to see this wonder and he is giving us the info on it. ‘Long bridge over 1,200m’ he says. ‘And U Bein is oldest bridge .. built about 1850’
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Mahamuni Pagoda – Mandalay

‘Mahamuni Temple Buddha the most important Buddha in Myanmar.’ U Sandima our buddhist monk guiding us round Mandalay is showing us the Mahamuni Pagoda. ‘All Burma people come here to do pilgrimage to Buddha. Only men put gold on. No women allowed to do it.’
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Mandalay Pagodas and Temples

Mandalay has so many Temples Pagodas and Monasteries we find it hard to decide which ones to visit. What’s the best way to decide? Thats a difficult choice. In the end we left it up to our taxi driver Ko Swe Mint and the monk U Sandima to decide for us.
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