Mandalay

On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!

One thing that's for sure is that Rudyard Kipling never went to Mandalay. There are no flying fishes in the Irrawaddy and Mandalay is 400kms inland. But Kipling made the name of Mandalay forever romantic!

The modern city is a large, noisy, bustling, crowded, fascinating place, teeming with humanity all striving to make a living. Unbelievably, the prices of the best property in Mandalay are similar to central London prices. In both cases, the Chinese have a huge influence.

Amidst all the graft and corruption and commercialism, the Burmese are still gentle Buddhists. Whilst there are half a million monks, there are "only" 75,000 nuns in Burma. But generally, once a nun, always a nun, and they can often be seen, flitting around in small groups, in their pretty pink robes.

More photos of Mandalay in my blog.