Note: This series of posts is not intended to be a how-to for traveling to Myanmar, but rather an account of visiting a few of its most popular destinations. Travel to Myanmar requires careful planning and is beset with logistical issues as well as questions about the impact of tourism on human rights.

The previous post, about Bagan, is available here.

Logs being transported downstream near Bagan

Mandalay is our final destination in Myanmar. We get there via a 12-hour, 175-kilometer (108-mile) boat ride up the Irrawaddy River from Bagan. The boat departs in darkness and as we chug upstream the sky lightens and we see our last glimpse of Bagan's ruins – a group of stupas perched atop attractive tan bluffs.

Huts along the Irrawaddy

The river is smooth-flowing and at least a kilometer wide, despite us being more than 500 kilometers from the ocean. Boat traffic consists mostly of some barges carrying heavy equipment upstream and timber downstream. We see very few signs of infrastructure or economic development during the course of the day. The riverside is predominantly flat cropland with a thatched hut here and there and an occasional stupa.

A sweet snack for sale on the street

After disembarking and getting to our hotel, we decide to check out the famous comedy act of the Moustache Brothers. After several rounds of imprisonment for their irreverent jokes criticizing the government, brothers U Par Par Lay and U Lu Maw seem to have settled on an arrangement with the government wherein they and their supporting cast can perform their vaudevillian show, but only for tourists. If not consistently funny, the show is certainly zany.

Par Par Lay, one of the Moustache Brothers

Mandalay's buildings are on the whole much newer than those in Yangon, and one can feel China's presence here in the form of Chinese architecture, businesses, residents and imported goods. The city feels wealthier and newer than Yangon, and overland trade with China may be one reason. One local that we speak to tells us unprompted, "almost all Burmese don't like China's influence here."

Lunch, including fish and chicken curries and mutton balls

But considering the West's continued economic sanctions against Myanmar it is hard to see how China's influence will not continue to grow. It is a common sentiment among Burmese that that the economic sanctions don't do much good because the wealthy generals that run the country can get anything they want from China, Thailand and Singapore, among other nations.

The Shwenandaw Monastery is covered in carved teak

A highlight of our one-day tour around Mandalay includes Shwenandaw Monastery, which is made almost entirely of carved teak that still retains some of its gold gilding. We also visit a gold leaf workshop where we see workers pounding gold into ultra-thin sheets, with each gold sheet receiving five hours of hammering before it attains the desired thinness.

One of Mandalay's many "blue taxis," our rented vehicle for the day

We are somewhat under-impressed by the U Bein bridge in Amarpura, a former capital of Burma located just south of Mandalay. The bridge is made entirely of teak, including around a thousand teak poles planted in Taungthaman Lake. It was probably a pretty interesting site when it was used predominately by locals, but it's become something of a tourist zoo.

We catch an old Chinese train for the overnight ride to Yangon, sharing our four-bunk cabin with some friendly locals. The berths in the 'upper class sleeper' car, the best available, leave something to be desired. The train rocks and bucks like none we've ever been on before and sometimes we think its going to jump off the tracks. But it doesn't, and 16 hours later we arrive in Yangon to catch a direct flight back to Kunming.

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