One of the main reasons to go to Mandalay is to explore the ancient cities around Mandalay. Yes, Mandalay isn’t even considered an ancient city since it was “recently” founded in the 1800s. There are four main ancient cities on the radars of most tourists: Amarapura, Inwa, Sagaing and Minggun. Each one of them was a capital of an ancient Burmese kingdom. I was in a state of confusion. I needed to leave Mandalay because of my lack of money and the coming Thingyan Festival but, of course, I couldn’t think of not visiting the ancient cities. I decided that I will be going to Sagaing, Amarapura and Inwa in that order. I would then go to the bus terminal after I finish exploring them. Minggun will have to wait some other time since that requires a ferry ride from Mandalay.
First things, first. I needed to get to Sagaing. I asked the ladies at the counter how to go to Sagaing the cheap way. They instructed me to walk down to 84th Street and find the buses to Sagaing. I had other choices right outside the Royal Guest House since there were some motorcycle taxis waiting for tourists to hire them to go to the ancient towns. If I had someone with me, I would have probably hired them but it would have been be too expensive for me to do that on my own.
So 84th Street it is. And sure enough, 84th Street was buzzing with activity with “buses”, more like pickup trucks with a solid top with benches on both sides, much like a Philippine jeepney. I started asking which ones go to Sagaing. Though they didn’t understand English, they understood Sagaing and pointed me further down until I found them. The bus was just as decrepit as the others but this is my cheap way to Sagaing. I quickly got a seat inside but it took a long, long while before the bus filled up. As the bus crawled along 84th Street it kept picking up more and more passengers. Some of which were already sitting on top of the bus or hanging outside the “doorway”.
Not satisfied with that, the driver shoved in yet another bench for even more people to sit in. Talk about making the trip worth it. It took almost an hour before we finally left in earnest for Sagaing. Actually, it wasn’t really that far, the bus crossed the Ayeyarwaddy River using a long and surprisingly modern bridge. The view from the bridge was astounding but I couldn’t take a photo since I was stuck inside the bus. I guess this is the kind of trip that I was asking for, and I am not complaining.
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