The Mustache Brothers...
Trip Start
Feb 12, 2011
1
103
144
Trip End
Nov 19, 2011
Where I stayed
Mandalay, Myanmar
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Dropping our bags at the Royal Guest House in our relatively spacious and sunny room, we collapsed onto the bed, drifting in and out of sleep. Sleep can be a trying thing when one never cools off thanks to a third floor room and constant power outages.
John was sick again and barely had enough energy to make it out of the room for some lunch. We baked in the sun for several blocks before we came upon a 'romantic' looking eatery with air-con. Feeling relief as soon as we walked in, we took seats under the cheesy heart shaped decorations and next to the budding romance of two high school students. Our relief was short lived as the power went out, customers lit up their cigarettes, and I was served the worst chicken sandwich in existence. John was too sick to eat and I was sickened into not eating, so we left with empty stomachs and almost empty wallets. We happened upon an ice cream shop on our way back to the guest house and were promptly served terrible ice cream, reminiscent of a Fudgesicle gone wrong. Where has all the good SE Asian food gone??
We rested more in our 90 degree hotel room until I finally got the motivation to find my way to Mandalay Hill for the much talked about sunset view. John got a second wind and decided to join me since we read it would be an easy tuk tuk ride to an ‘elevator’ that would take us to the top of the hill. We negotiated a cyclo ride with Joe who was another lovely Burmese man with passable English. He took us on a pleasant journey through the city, pointing out sites and giving us a little background on Mandalay. As we should have expected by now, things were not as they seemed. We were dropped at the bottom of a never-ending set of stairs and explained it was the only way to the top unless we wanted to pay an extra $10 to have an ‘authorized’ taxi take us to the elevator. Screw it, we’re walking!
After 1011 stairs, covered in sweat and panting, we made it to the top for another sunset that never materialized. We could do nothing but laugh at this point and with our breath back, talk about how strange the labyrinth was on the way up to the top of Mandalay Hill There were people living everywhere on the sets of stairs; watching TV, cooking dinner, collecting garbage, just going about their everyday lives not noticing the few tourists on their way up or down.
Joe was waiting for us when we finally made our way back down, ready to drive us back to our guest house. We took a different way back in the dark, listening to him chatting away about the Moustache Brothers show we were planning on attending. He dropped us at the Indian street food stalls so we could grab some decent food before the show.
It’s hard to put into words what the Moustache Brothers show was like other than it was living up to our opinion about Myanmar…bizarre. To put it simply, the Moustache Brothers are comedians who have gone to jail for telling jokes about their corrupt government. They now do their comedic act, complete with dancing jigs from all of their family members, in their basement for tourists only and accept ‘donations’ to make it acceptable.
We had a quiet ride home through the streets with no power save a religious ranting from a temple through loud speakers. Joe bid us a good night, thanked us again for visiting his country, as so many Burmese people already had, and off we went to bed after another interesting day in Myanmar.
