Day 3 (Pt 1) - The Road to MinGu via Innwa

Thanks to Ostello Bello Mandalay in arranging a tuk tuk driver for me,
​my final 2 full days in Mandalay were lived fully and well traveled.

After I’ve had breakfast, 
I asked to be taken to Mingu, where the white temple is.
To get to Mingu,
before 2018, you could just take a ferry across the Irrawaddy River 
and get there in a short and straight line in half an hour.
But now, there is no sound tourism infrastructure available,
no ferries run these days to take visitors across the river like that
So you have to go by car and you’d go through Innwa first then head up north to Mingu.

The cost was going to be 800,000 Kyat regardless of whether I visit Innwa or not.
I didn’t want to visit Innwa because that’ll just be too much in my system. 

But I chose to leave it with next time.

Especially as Innwa is full of hills, 
and I needed to hire a horse cart for my time there, 
as the tuktuk couldn’t go around it. 
The cost for the horse cart would be 300,000 kyat.
It’s not that much,
but no, I just didn’t want to see too much all in 1 day.
I wanna pace it out. 
Maybe another day, maybe next time.

So off I went right after breakfast.
My tuktuk driver was already ready for me.

I had brought along an extra dress with me, 
because the Ostello Bello Mandalay staff didn’t like how my bright pink & yellow dress still has these wide open slits on the side that showed a lot of my legs.
In case of the need to change, 
I kept the dress on still for the ride, 
but took my favorite green dress with me and left it in my bag.

The road leading away from Mandalay was straight, smooth, and long, 
it was also rather unoccupied.
Sometimes it felt like the tuktuk I was in was the only vehicle on the road.
​There were people working the brickworks in the middle of the street for the bays,
oxes stood in the shade under the canopy of the trees,
there were a series of fruit stands on the street-side: 
watermelons upon watermelons,
stacked and piled on top of one another, layer upon layer.

This explained why Ease Hotel would have watermelon juice at the breakfast buffet.
There were enough watermelon stands for me to anticipate the next stand,
and get my camera ready to take pictures of them.
I couldn’t anticipate people and oxes that passed by though throughout the journey.

Even though some of them were worthy of having pictures taken,
especially the women who walk with containers on their heads or with a bit round plate that could hold a lot of things on their heads.

The driver stopped briefly on the overbridge with triple archways for me to take pictures of Innwa.

Innwa IS beauuuuutiful!
This should really be the centre of Mandalay's tourism!

Several hilltops were adorned with golden or white pagodas.
Then there was the Irrawaddy River beneath the bridge.
So the pictures were very scenic indeed.
I’d love to come back to Innwa on future trips.
But right now, it is too hot and I am too un-bothered to go climbing hills in 40-degree heat.

At the end of the Irrawaddy Bridge was a checkpoint,
stationed there - it felt like - really just to take tips from drivers.
My tuk tuk driver drove on by without needing to give any tips,
but I could see drivers holding their hands out to give the police money in cash.
It seemed like it didn’t even matter how much was given, 
as long as they paid, they could pass?? Not sure.
Before reaching the checkpoint, 
My driver told me to put my camera away.
Obediently I did so, 
because I wouldn’t want the army/the police to take my camera away,
And I wouldn’t want them to come up to me just to check on my things.
I’m no journalist,
I’m just a traveler passing through.
I’m here to appreciate your country,
not to criticise it.

We were in Innwa in no time after coming off the bridge.

And already you’d find yourself going past pagoda after pagoda.
They were just dotted all around town.
What a sacred and serene place!
Immediately this felt like a change from the crazy hustle and bustle of Mandalay streets.
Even the outskirts of Mandalay had lots of traffic and pedestrians,
this felt like an instant breather from the higher population in Mandalay.

On a long quiet road,
my tuk tuk driver stopped to pick up some bottles of fuel.
And I mean, they were actually small plastic water bottles of fuel,
lined up on a little stand on the street side, 
looked after by a local lady.
On a long quiet road,
my tuk tuk driver stopped to pick up some bottles of fuel.On a long quiet road,
my tuk tuk driver stopped to pick up some bottles of fuel.

 After 10min of a break,
(I sat inside the tuk tuk and waited,
but really I would’ve loved to walk around a bit,
because even just to my left was a temple with a big white pagoda)
the tuk tuk set off and kept driving - 
heading towards Mingu of Sagaing region...