28. July 2001 10:48
by Rene Pallesen
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When I initially arrived in Yangon / Rangoon, I wanted to fly up Bhamo - one of the bigger towns north of Burma. I also considered exploring Myitkyinã - a town further north of Bhamo.
My Lonely Planet guide indicated that the only border crossing into China was to the east of Bhamo. My initial plans to Burma also included exploration of western China. However, I was disappointed by the military turning me back, despite the fact that my Lonely Planet guide said I could cross into China at Ruili.
I decided instead to fly to Mandalay, not only because it was cheap to do so, but it saved me a 20-hour bus ride there from Yangon.
I heard about a song for sailors.
“To be a real sailor, the sailor would have to have been to Mandalay way upriver”
I quite liked Mandalay.
The photo below, is of Mandalay Hill.
During World War II (20 March 1945), the British and the Japanese fought one another to gain control of the position on this hill.
The photo to the left is taken from the hill itself facing east - as you can see, it has an aerial view of the whole city, and puts any oncoming enemies at a disadvantage. Control of Mandalay was important during the war, as the soldiers were able to set up artillery and attack anyone approaching the fortress.
This hill was of big strategic importance.
The building you see near the shrine is a monument to the British regiment who managed to take control of this hill from the Japanese.
At the eastern part of the delta, a lot of logging takes place. There was a train line built that used to cart all the trees/wood for export to Thailand.
The moat around the fortress is man-made.
Although man-made, comes from the local river.
The original fortress was burnt to the ground.
The whole fortress covered an area of 2.5 x 2.5 km
The design of Mandalay was quite colonial, and surprisingly, most of the streets were at 90º to one another.
Overall, I found Mandalay the most expensive city to travel to in Burma.
No matter what one does in Mandalay, be it explore Mandalay Hill or the city itself, the locals always had “special” foreigner prices. It really annoyed me.
I tried to use local currency as much as possible. However, FEC (Foreign Exchange Currency) was more valuable and worth more to the locals. FEC is also used in China, and one tries to use local currency as much as possible. Any item you buy has 2 prices - and obviously it is cheaper to use local currency than to use FEC.
I must admit, even Mandalay Hill was not that nice for the price I paid to explore it. It was also expensive just to go into the fortress.
Surprisingly, I could not find maps of the area that was not more that 40 years old.
28. July 2001 10:47
by Rene Pallesen
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Politics . . .
There is a lot of politics going on in Burma that an outsider should not get involved in - Burma is one of those countries where political opinions are best kept to oneself.
In Burma, use of the Internet and mobile phones is illegal. This is the government's way of controlling the information entering the country. Even access to equipment such as laptops is illegal - the country is so poor that many could not afford such a piece of equipment.
I saw many young women queueing for their rations. They were standing so close together that I thought they were lesbians! *laugh* The girls stand close together so another person cannot jump the queue by pushing in.
The girls here are very young, some have barely reached puberty and are doing some very hard work.
There is a lot of critique by Amnesty International, of Burma's use of young girls to provide maintenance for the roads.
Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal
They also had a snake show at the elephant place.
Some of the snakes were very poisonous such as this monocled cobra.
And the huge king cobra (which kept coming over the safety barrier).
Chong and I volunteered to hold the python.
I wonder how often the snake guy has been bitten by his snakes.
22. June 2015 11:07
by Rene Pallesen
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21. June 2015 11:07
by Rene Pallesen
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20. June 2015 08:07
by Rene Pallesen
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19. June 2015 08:26
by Rene Pallesen
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This year we traveled to Phuket in Thailand along with Kim's sisters family and her dad.
We had to fly via Bangkok, so we were a bit worried how the kids would handle the long flight (especially Lucas), but everyone handled it reasonably well.
The boys were very excited to be going on a big aeroplane.
Once we arrived to Bangkok it was pretty obvious to see that they were very excited.
The only thing that never made it all the way to the hotel was our stroller. We lost it somewhere between Phuket airport and the hotel...but wasn't a big loss and hopefully someone puts it to goo local use.
20. May 2015 12:05
by Rene Pallesen
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It is time to renew Aiden passport and like last time there were a lot of outtakes that we could not use, but which were quite funny.
20. May 2015 11:05
by Rene Pallesen
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Here is some more photos of my grandma and grandpa on my mothers side.
Here she is with her sisters (my grandma on the far right)
Here is some of her when she was young.
Here is one that I assume was taken in 1969 based on the date of the photo.
I think this one if my grandpa when he was young.
And here is some more.
And here is some family gathering photos.
I think it is her brother on the left. And my cousin Mette on the right.
And this is with my grandparents on my fathers side (left to right bedstefar, mormor, morfar, bedstemor, mum and Claus).
