To travel here is to encounter men wear

224

MANDALAY & AROUND

AROUND MANDALAY

you explore Inwa by horse-cart. Pay slightly

more to be driven around Inwa, to add Pa-

leik or to substitute Mingun for Inwa. Doing

the whole lot in one day would be exhaust-

ing – and quite impossible if you wanted to

do the Mingun boat. Ideally, make two or

three more modest day trips.

Amarapura

amrpUr

%02 / POP C35,000

Myanmar’s penultimate royal capital, Ama-

rapura (pronounced amuRA-puRA) means

‘City of Immortality’, though its period of

prominence lasted less than 70 years (from

1783). Starting in 1857, King Mindon dis-

mantled most of the palace buildings and

shipped them 7 miles north to Mandalay,

which was to become the new capital ac-

cording to a Buddhist prophesy. These days

Amarapura is essentially a spread-out sub-

urb of Mandalay, but it’s leafy and attrac-

tively set on a wide, shallow lake, named

for an ogre who supposedly came looking

for Buddha here. The lake is crossed by an

iconic wooden footbridge. Several other

scattered attractions can be visited, but

they’re widely spaced, so a bike or taxi is

almost essential.

 1 Sights

oU Bein’s Bridge WOODEN FOOTBRIDGE

wI"pin't®t;"

The world’s longest teak footbridge gently

curves 1300yd across shallow Taung tha-

man Lake, creating one of Myanmar’s most

photographed sites. In the dry season it feels

surreally high and mostly crosses seasonal

vegetable gardens. But at the height of sum-

mer the lake rises several feet and laps just

below the fl oor planks. Just a few of the 1060

poles on which it stands have been replaced

by concrete supports.

A great time to visit the bridge is just af-

ter sunrise when hundreds of villagers and

monks commute back and forth across it.

The light is often best around an hour be-

fore sunset, but by then there will be a large

number of tourists and trinket sellers. A

popular visiting tactic is to walk across the

bridge then return by paddle-boat (K3000)

as the sun is setting. However, as boats are

usually only available at the bridge’s western

end (where tour buses arrive), you’ll need to

make pick-up arrangements before you walk

across. Or simply ask your taxi/motorbike

driver to drop you at the eastern end. In the

dry season a track along the southeast side

of the lake is passable by motorbike.

WHICH CAPITAL WHEN

CAPITAL FROM... NOTES

Inwa (Ava) 1364

Taungoo 1555

Inwa (Ava) 1636

Shwebo 1752 then called

Mokesebo

Sagaing 1760

Inwa (Ava) 1764

Amarapura 1783

Inwa (Ava) 1823

Amarapura 1841 following the 1838

earthquake

Mandalay 1861-85 the British later

banished the royals

to India

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