Mandalay, day one, Nov 22

Arrived in Mandalay at dawn at the dusty bus depot on the edge of town. Here we go off to the guest house.

The man on the left was my driver from the bus depot and the one on the right was my soon-to-be-driver for the rest of the time I was there. He operated his taxi from a spot across from my guest house.

This is a taxi. Nuff said!

I walked a few blocks down the street to the old palace and caught it as the sun was coming up.

After I got into my room and had a 3 hour power nap. Those night buses take it all out of me.

Then I was off to see the largest temple.

As usual, people are sitting in the temple.

Another view, this of the courtyard around the temple.

There are always vendor stalls. I brought a hand embroidered longi at one of them.

Women are not permitted to approach the altar and the Buddha. They sit at the foot of the altar.

Then we taxied over to the Teak Monastery. It was pretty run down but had been magnificent in its day.

This cement container is filled with water for washing. They dip water out and pour it over themselves.

On the bus trip we had an early morning stop at one of these to use the toilet and wash. They even gave us toothbrushes and facecloth on the bus.

The grounds were sand and rocks but you could see that the rocks had been swept away where they walk. Hard on the bare feet.

A shot of a market stall in the town.

Interesting looking church.

In the evening I got my taxi guy to take me to the home of The Moustache Brothers for a Vaudeville show. They are political activists who have been arrested many times for their public performances against the government.

They have been performing in their house and the government doesn't bother them there.

The cast is mostly from one family. Below you see some of their traditional costumes.

This is a monkey.

The whole cast.