Upon arriving in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), I took the first flight to Mandalay, which is the second biggest city in this relatively unexplored country. Burma has had a very tumultuous recent history and prohibited tourism for many years. They have recently started allowing tourists to enter the country, although there are many restrictions on what one can bring in to Myanmar—for example laptops are not allowed as it “proves” you are a journalist—and thus it was a little unnerving bringing all of my camera gear into the country.

When I arrived in Mandalay I decided to stay in the monk district of the city, which is lined with stores selling monk kits to young novice monks. There are about 500,000 monks in Myanmar and a very large portion of these monks live in Mandalay. I spent my days wandering the streets and alleys and being invited into many different monasteries and temples and exploring some of the 700 pagodas that are spread throughout Mandalay. I also spent an evening climbing Mandalay Hill for the sunset (or lack thereof in my case) and then off to the famous Moustache Brothers performance of political satire for which two of the brothers had been previously imprisoned.

I also ventured out to some of the outlying cities such as Pelek, Mingun, and Amarapura, the latter of which is home to the longest teak bridge in the world. The bridge becomes wonderfully crowded with monks and fisherman at the end of the day. Mandalay felt very authentically Burmese, and I really enjoyed the city as a whole. The people of Mandalay were some of the friendliest people I’ve met on my travels as of yet, and they were all eager to talk and to tell me their stories. I very much look forward to returning to Mandalay someday soon.

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