Mandalay Hill

Mandalay (28-May-2012)

There's a Singapore store in Mandalay, how peculiar indeed.

Noodle lunch & a cup of tamarind drink. According to my father, tamarind helps to dispel the "heat" in the body, & really it doesn't taste that bad. Not easy to get used to, but with the jelly added, the entire cup wasn't that bad either. Just very sour & makes your face cringe.

Railway in Myanmar is probably the main mode of long distance transport, & how I enjoy the fact that everywhere, railways are so starkly diverse from one another. Thailand's trains are somewhat more posh, but in Myanmar, they bring one back to childhood - a feeling I can hardly find back home, where trains are shielded by protective glass panels. (This nostalgia does not, in any way, induce me to want to put them through Instagram though! Sepia is overrated!)

Often the choice of train over plane is the scenery along the way. & this is particularly justified in Myanmar. Traveling through Myanmar, I often had the impulse to alight at unintended stops & stay, but being short on cash really held any impromptu plans back. The next time I lay foot in Myanmar though, I swear upon my dog's ears that I will be more well-prepared.

At certain points of time, travel fatigue kicks in, & we take in sights so passively without responding with any awe whatsoever. The lack of photographs was perhaps due to that, or the illness that I was barely recovered from. Nonetheless, Mahamuni Paya is still worth a go. Follow the masses of barefooted pilgrims walking on the scorching marble tiles heated by the sun. To save certain dignity, refrain from hopping around on religious grounds. 

Religion + Geography = Map (3D map below)

This topographical map marks the spread of Buddhism in Asia, which is really a rare sight judging by how many temples there are around which have museums housed within their compounds. But the stairway in the background is somewhat puzzling. I can't help wondering where it leads to. Mount Everest??

Up Mandalay hill, several golden towering Buddhas like the one below stand at intervals along the way. If you were dead tired from the climb yet refuse to show it, pretend to stop & pray.

From the top of Mandalay Hill, the view.

The scriptures written on these arches are.. I'm not sure how to describe them.

Sunset from Mandalay Hill in the accompaniment of the sacred stupas. I wish I could be a guy & be a monk so that I can continue to stay there.

And so these are some photographs that were taken at the monks' dormitory at their university to end off the day. & there's me in the grossly overexposed shot below. That's all I could do with Photoshop to salvage some colors. Getting used to a camera is important, surely. With the same settings 2 cameras can give distinctly varied results, & perhaps my camera wasn't feeling entirely cooperative that day. It wasn't so bad when I did the shooting, thankfully.