Sun rise at Ubein Bridge

  Mandalay, Myanmar Friday, October 31, 2014

We had wanted to include this on our tour of Mandalay as we had seen just the most stunning pictures of it and it has a wealth of history to it. Here is a bit: Situated 11 kilometres south of Mandalay, Amarapura is one of Myanmar’s former capitals. It was built by King Bodawpaya in 1783 and served as the centre of power until 1857, when the capital moved to Mandalay. The most unique sight is U Bein Bridge (Burmese: ဦးပိန် တံတား), a beautiful 1.2 kilometre long structure built from teak planks. The local mayor, U Bein, salvaged the wood from pieces of the dismantled teak palace at Amarapura. Built around 1850 and is believed to be the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world. It spans the Taungthaman Lake near Amarapura The bridge was built from wood reclaimed from the former royal palace in Inwa. It features 1,086 pillars that stretch out of the water, some of which have been replaced with concrete. Though the bridge largely remains intact, there are fears that an increasing number of the pillars are becoming dangerously decayed. Some have become entirely detached from their bases and only remain in place because of the lateral bars holding them together.  The bridge’s beauty is not simply in its structure, but that it remains a central part of the community, with hundreds of locals and saffron-robed monks walking their bicycles home along it, and fishermen going about their daily work in its shadow.Today, you can find ruins of the city gate, the palace, and tombs of old kings. There are also numerous stupas to be seen in the area, including the Kyauktawgyi Pagoda, as well as the Maha Gandhayon monastery.  We had a choice to see it at sun rise or sun set so of course with nothing better to do at 4:30am we chose to go then!!! Our alarm went off at 4:20 am as the taxi was booked for 5:00am but it seems taxis are always late in Myanmar and he didn't turn up until 5:20. Oh just think of the extra 1/2 hour's sleep we could have had. Anyway, we arrived as the first light was hitting the sky and we don't think we need to say any more. We are going to let the photos do the talking this time.... Enjoy [gallery columns="4" ids="9087,9097,9100,9106,9111,9113,9117,9121,9125,9126,9130,9134,9136,9138,9142,9144,9146,9148,9153,9154,9156,9158,9161,9162,9165,9166,9169,9172,9175,9178,9181,9182,9184,9187,9189,9191,9192,9194,9195,9196,9198,9200,9202,9203,9205,9207,9209"]