The main tourist draw of the ancient city of Amarapura is the U Bein Bridge. Such is the fame of this bridge that the moment I got off the bus from Mandalay, a little Burmese girl said “U Bein Bridge” and pointed towards it. The bridge is a result of the constant moving of royal capitals of the Burmese kings. Amarapura was chosen to be the royal capital by King Bodawpaya, but his grandson moved to to Inwa, and his successor moved it back to Amarapura. Finally, the Amarapura lost is favor as a royal capital when it was moved to present day Mandalay. Now, Amarapura is part of the the city of Mandalay.
Such confusing is the history of Amarapura. So where did the bridge come from? When the royals were moving the royal capital from Amarapura to Mandalay, most of the wood for the royal palace and other structures were moved to Mandalay. The mayor of Amarapura, U Bein, decided to make use of the teak left over from the move and constructed a 1.2 kilometer long teak bridge that now bears his name. It is now regarded as the longest and oldest working teak bridge in the world.
The U Bein Bridge is a fascinating bridge with more than a thousand posts buried on the ground to carry the bridge. Some of them have been replaced by concrete but most of the bridge is still intact. That bridge gets to see a lot of activity since it is still very much a part of the lives of the local Burmese. It has also become an important attraction for tourists. According to the guide books, a government fee supposedly applies here to see the bridge, however there was no one charging when we came. Good, at least I didn’t need to fork out any money.
The U Bein Bridge at 1.2 kilometers is surprisingly long and it crosses the shallow Lake Taungthaman spawned from the Ayeyarwaddy River. A popular activity here is to hire a boat and just drift on the lake. At the sun sets providing a great backdrop to the bridge. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to linger here in the bridge since I needed to make it back to Royal Guest House in time for my check out. I really wanted to hang around U Bein Bridge if it weren’t for my tight schedule.
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