After few days of exploring Bagan temples we decided that we've seen enough and that we are going ahead to Mandalay. Pawel chosen a hotel by it's name 'Nylon' - he thought it must be a funky place. It wasn't but at least staff spoke good English (what is a rarity in Burma). We stayed there for one night and then moved around the corner to the place with better standards and omlets for breakfast in a very similar price range.
Mandalay is a busy, crowded and dirty city with no pavements. At night there is no lamp posts so only motorbike light's light up the street.
Despite that we found it friendly and liked it. Pawel decided to shave in a barber shop and as we went there I started chatting with female customers.
They didn't speak any English but handed me a magazine and pointing at the images we had simple conversation. Flicking through the magazine I couldn't believe my eyes! There is so much propaganda to look like western people. I saw that propaganda before in Thailand, Hong Kong and Malaysia but thought Burma still remained untouched. How wrong I was! Skin whitening products and eye operations (to lift the upper lid) took most of the space in the paper.
From Mandalay we went to see U-Bein bridge in Amarapura, ancient village. It left me speechless. Photos speak for themselves. On Pawel's post titled Mandalay you can see images straight from the camera, without postproduction.
U bain bridge is located by the university and straight away we realised differences in how people look and behave. Women wear western clothes instead of long hand painted skirts.
They dye their hair and keep it short. In other cities Burmese women often have knee long dark brown, natural hair.
Also everywhere in Myanmar people apply tanaka paste to their faces- it's a plant based sun protection. By the university we didn't see that many faces painted with tanaka.
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