My second day in Mandalay I started by taking a tuk tuk to the U Bein bridge, which is on the outskirts of the city. The drive was pleasant and the bridge picturesque, with a cluster of outside drink vendors and souvenir hawkers at one end.
The bridge is apparently the oldest and the (once?) longest teakwood bridge in the world. That is such an oddly specific category that it failed to impress me. Honestly, one could skip the bridge. It is quite pretty, but not amazing. Still, I am glad I went. The scenery was lovely and the drive was nice.
I had the driver take me back to my hotel after, but stopped along the way when a temple of note popped up roadside and generally snapped some puctures from the tuk tuk.
I went to the Zegyo market, or at least part of it (it is massive) and poked around and walked the streets around the market, which were bustling with commerce.
In the afternoon i did a walking version / variation of a suggested bicycle route in the Lonely Planet. This was a good walk as it took me through some more interesting neighbourhoods had I had seen the previous day in Mandalay. There was a really pretty path along a small river with small houses on one side and people doing laundry or having beers by the river.
The only downside to this walk was one guy who fan ahead of me on a part of the path that had the river on one side and only a high fence on the other. I saw him facing into the trees and I assumed he was peeing, but as I passed, I saw through my peripheral vision that he turned to face me and was masturbating. Moaning and whatnot. I ignored him and walked by. He ran ahead of me and did the same thing. Again, I ignored him. After that second time, he ran up behind me and said “Hey!” I turned around and he was standing there in the middle of the road, dick out, in his hand. Like he thought I hadn’t noticed him before. He took a step towards me and I walked towards him, yelling, “You get the fuck away from me or I’ll cut your fucking throat!” As I said that last bit, I motioned with my thumb across my neck. He obviously got the message and ran away. I carried on with my walk, initially annoyed that this pervert interrupted my stroll and forced me to unleash upon him with with vitriolic death threat (albeit an empty one – I didn’t even have a weapon). But I quickly put it behind me.
I crossed the river and walked up to and along the bank of the Irrawaddy River, to a tallish hotel with a rooftop bar, where I escaped the sun for a while with a cigar and a virgin piña colada.
I took a tuk tuk back to the hotel (it had been a long walk and I had no interest in doing it in reverse).
I spent the evening on the rooftop of my hotel reading and smoking. Ready to get up super early to catch a boat to Bagan.
