Mandalay Update

We arrived in Mandalay late on Thursday evening. Our flight had been originally scheduled for 4:15, was “re-timed,” as they call it, to 6:15 and didn’t actually leave until 7:00PM. We flew in an Air Mandalay AR-24, a twin prop, 50 seater, that has probably served at least 2 other airlines before arriving in Myanmar. Our landing in Mandalay was the second worst I have ever been a part of, bested only by the time I took out a runway light at San Marcos. But, we landed safely and once we stepped inside there was a man holding a paper with our names on it ready to help us get through immigration—we decided to pay a premium to get our visas on arrival instead of spending a full day at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok. The guy swept us into a small “office” where there were about 4 Burmese drinking tea and doing paperwork. Apparently, everything had been set up properly because they took our passports, stamped in our visas, and we were out of there in 10 minutes. Some other people from our flight also came in, without handlers, and also got visas by stuffing an unknown amount of cash in their passports. I wonder which way is cheaper.

After an hour long, very bumpy car ride from the airport we arrived at our hotel. They too had everything ready and showed us to our room. A nice, if unremarkable, place with a TV that doesn’t work but air conditioning and hot water that does.

After a full night sleep, we spent our first day getting money changed and walking around the city. Although we were stared at by everyone that we passed, no one could immediately discern that we were American, even after talking to us for a minute or two. Most guessed we were German or French. In fact, they are actually amazed when we tell them we are from the USA. One guy asked us if that was in North or South America and most only know about the state of California so we have resigned to telling people that is where we are from. One guy told us he knew “our” governor and liked his Terminator movies.

For lunch we decided to have authentic Myanmar food and headed to Too Too Restaurant which was packed with locals. I now understand my family’s fears that we would starve to death on this trip. The drill is to go to the back of the restaurant where everything is presented in cafeteria style. Luckily, there was an English speaking waiter who knew enough to at least tell us which meat was in which dish, and also pointed out the dish made from mutton brain. I am not sure what mutton is but I do know what brain is and so we decided on chicken and catfish. Honestly, it wasn’t bad, in fact the flavors were pretty good but the chicken was served on the bone and the catfish in small cubes with all the bones still intact. There are no knives, just forks, which they use like a knife, and spoons, which they use like a fork. So it turned out that our meal consisted of a little fish, a little chicken, and a lot of rice. But, the whole thing only cost $2.75 so the price was right. For dinner we decided to have Chinese.

Yesterday, our second full day, we decided to go to a few pagodas and a monastery before climbing up Mandalay Hill. Mandalay is completely flat, except for one hill 230 meters high in the Northwest corner of town. It’s a 40 minute hike up about a million stairs to get to the top, only made more uncomfortable by the fact that you cannot wear shoes for the entire climb and lets just say the ground isn’t mopped once a week—or even once a month. The view from the top is pretty cool though and you can see for about 3 km in each direction until the smog and haze gets too bad (talk about global warming).

We had another authentic Myanmar lunch, but this time we made sure to order dishes that were already de-boned. We also had a pretty good dinner at a little chapatti stand that serves piping hot chapattis right off the grill that you dip in your curry and a spicy potato dish.

At the chapatti stand we also met an older couple from Canada that has been traveling for 4 months and has 2 more to go. They were amused by the fact that our parents were concerned about the possibility of not hearing from us for 10 days while we are in Burma. Their daughters, who are our age, were also distraught about not hearing from their parents for the 28 days they are here. Complete role reversal.

Anyway it turns out the Canadians had the same plans as we did for the night, to go to the Moustache Brothers comedy show. The Moustache Brothers show is basically a Myanmar traditional folk opera (a vaudeville show with dance, music, jokes, and silly walks). What makes it so interesting though is the fact that they continue to joke in a country where a joke can get you jailed—or worse.

Par Par Lay and Lu Zaw, two of the three ‘brothers’, were seized by police in 1996 after telling politically tinged jokes about Myanmar generals at an Independence Day celebration in Yangon. They were sentenced to 7 years and forced to work with violent criminals, breaking rocks for roads and digging ditches. In 1997 several Hollywood comedians, including Rob Reiner and Bill Maher wrote to the government in protest. The third brother Lu Maw continued to perform from his home in Mandalay.

After serving 5 years of their sentence Par Par Lay and Lu Zaw were released in 2002. The Moustache Brothers were “blacklisted” from playing at outside events and cannot be legally hired by locals; however the brothers continued to perform at home with a series of performances attended—inevitably—by government agents with video cameras.

The regional commander summoned Par Par Lay and told him not to perform at home any more, but when he got home that evening some Westerners had already gathered for the night’s performance. The Brothers decided to perform that night without costumes or makeup and the show went on for the tourist and some government officials (the KGB as Lu Maw calls them). They explained they were merely ‘demonstrating’ a performance since they couldn’t do a ‘real’ one without costumes. Since then they have been generally left alone doing nightly shows at their home. The costumes have slowly come back too.

Sorry for the long history but I thought it was pretty amazing and the show was really funny. We bought a DVD of the show and will post some clips when we get out of Myanmar and anyone who wants to watch the whole hilarious hour can when we get home.

This afternoon we are headed to Inle Lake on another Air Mandalay flight that has already been “re-timed” 30 minutes later. Hopefully, the landing in Mandalay was an exception, not the rule.

Who knows if we will have internet access in Inle. After that we head to Bagan and then Yangon, the capital that will definitely have internet access. Again March 5th is the key date. If you haven’t heard from us then, send someone looking.

PS. Dallas, TX just made the CNN International weather with pictures of dust storms that apparently happened this weekend. Hope everyone is OK.