Myanmar | Mandalay

My last stop in Burma and a non-stop sounding Road to Mandalay by Robbie Williams. Food poisoning and a 14-hour cruise on the Irrawaddy River have taken me two days, so I had to handle Mandalay somehow from a fast-track - local version - by bike. And yes, again, the latest bike and x-kilometer model I needed to explore.

The biggest attraction for me was U Bein Bridge. It measures 1.2km and over Taungthaman Lake since 1850, it is the longest and oldest tear bridge in the world. At sunset it was in the utter siege of tourists and so it was hard to concentrate on the beauty around. Tomáš Rosický, a local monk in typical robes, who told me that it was his original name (every monk has his native and monastic name, so each of them has two passes), noticed my distraction. Whether it was or not, his life story and the story of Buddhism allowed me to forget about that busy around, and I finally returned for twelve miles in the dark - my super-modern bike somehow was not endowed with light, and so are the roads around Mandalay.

I was still waiting for the last point on the list - Mandalay hill. A hill in the city center that leads to 1729 stairs, after which I and I rose barefoot to enjoy my last sunset in Myanmar. When this perfect spectacle ended, five teenagers headed by a monk with me asked what I was going to do now and tomorrow. Eventually, they found out that they were English students, and they wanted a little training. We spent 2 hours together. The boys asked what Europe was and if they could work there. The girls were interested in clothing, cosmetics, and boys around the world. There is some hesitation, hunting words, redness, but mainly a lot of laughter.

I would like to be so courageous at their age to reach a stranger, because of needs of practicing English, but in Europe this is simply not good. I sat on the bike to get some dinner, and I went back to the hotel in the darkness. I traveled through a quiet and empty city, and this time of night the streets were only dogs and me, a crazy tourist on a bicycle.

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