Travel Tips

Back in Mandalay we went to see the performance of the Moustache Brothers. Their cabaret gained worldwide attention when one of the brothers, Par Par Lay, was sent to prison for seven years for supposedly making fun of the junta.
He has been released now and they perform again, but nowadays only for tourists. I found the whole performance mildly interesting, but travelers only go there for symbolic reasons, anyway. That night there were only four at their house, so we had the opportunity to chat with one of the brothers, which was certainly more interesting and enlightening than the performance itself.

Our excursion to Shwedaung was purely accidental. We wanted to go to the ancient Pyu kingdom, but boarded the wrong pick-up. Since we could not make ourselves understood, the conductor assumed that we wanted to visit Shwedaung. When we realised the misunderstanding we were already in Shwedaung (20 min from Pyay). But we did not regret going there, not only was it an interesting experience to visit a typical Burmese village where few Westerners ever end up in, there is even a very significant sight in the village : the only Buddha statue in the world with glasses! The glasses are made of massive gold, 2m long with a weight of 10kg.

Back in Pyay we had to charter a pick-up to take us to the headquarters of this archaeological site (4000kyat return, incl. waiting time). There we organised a bullock cart (1500kyat,3h) to take us to the several pagodas that stand scattered in a pretty large area. The pre-Bagan period pagodas of the Pyu Kingdom are really ugly, but nevertheless impressive. Some of them are 1500 years old and really massive. Getting around on the bullock-cart was hard work. We sat on a pile of hay, constantly swallowing dust and the sun burnt mercilessly on our heads at 40°C in the shade.