The night had not been much cooler than the day and the temperature always stayed above 40 degrees in the room. We were thoroughly dehydrated by the sickness we had a few days ago, and the heat just made it worse.
We decided that enough was enough - we had to change to an aircon room. With a little bit of haggling we managed to get an aircon room for 20 dollars (instead of 25) and immediately changed rooms.
With that business set we decided to walk to a temple across town and see local Mandalay on the way.
At first we walked on the main street, seeing shops a plenty and taxi/motorbike drivers shouting at us to rent a cab in every corner. But then, we took a left to walk on a small street instead. It was one of the best desicions we've ever made.
Not only did we not have to deal with the taxi drivers, but we also saw the real mandalay. The locals outside of the tourist areas were friendly - and curious!
This guy tried to take a sneak picture of us with his phone and so we went up to him and took a picture with him.
A lot of people waved at us and said hi while others walked past just to touch or pinch the skin on Syrena's arms!
After a long two hour walk from our hostel we finally got to the tempel where a little lady stopped Robert because he had shorts on. The temples in Myanmar had certain clothing rules - no shoes, shorts or spaghetti straps. And so Robert got to borrow a sarong from the little lady before we entered the temple. The difference in height was so cute that Syrena had to take a picture of them both.
Properly dressed for a temple visit we went inside to see the golden buddha. The about 4 meters tall golden Buddha was not originally made of gold, but the visitors to the temple brought thin gold leaves that they put on the statue as an offering and so with time it had been covered in a layer of gold.
For some reason women were not allowed to put gold leaves on the buddha and so wayu had to wait outside while robert went inside to try the ritual. A kind man gave Robert a gold leaf and showed him how to put it on the Buddha. He was moderately successful and came out fron the room still with a bit of the gold leaf stuck to his fingers.
After seeing the golden Buddha we walked around the temple grounds for a bit before taking another two hour long walk back to the hostel.
Upon arrival we both took a shower after a long day in the warm and dirty city. We thoroughly needed one as this is how our feet looked like when we removed our shoes:
After the long day we chilled with some other travelers at the hostel and heard a curious story by a german guy right before he left for the airport. He told us about this really great restaurant with true local burmese food that was impossible to find unless you knew where it was. A local taxidriver had shown him the place and now we where eager to find it.
The lot of us decided to try and find this mystical restaurant and after asking around for a while we found it by walking through a backalley street into someone's backyard. There we got a marvelous buffet for the price of a regular meal in Myanmar.
It was great to find some really local food that tasted delicious while eating with a merry crowd of travellers from all over the world.
//Wayu & Robert
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