"Do you know it is the thieves' night tonight?" the owner of the restaurant in Mandalay said as I was walking out the door. Hum, no I said. Is there a night assigned specifically to stealing I wondered to myself. He went on to explain. There is a festival that happens each 8th moon of the Burmese calendar. As part of this the Burmese play tricks on each other during the night. Moving bicycles, pottery, etc. A little less worried I moved on.
Mandalay is a huge city, the temperature is about the same as in Yangon, but it feels more bearable. The city itself is set up in a grid, but in a weird way. The numbers of the grid seem to be inverted, somehow it is all very disorientating. Mandalay is also a good example of what is happening in Myanmar. The city is part of a major trade route between India and China. In most other places the Himalayas divide the two countries, here they meet. As a result the population of Mandalay is now about 40% Chinese.
Mandalay is home to the last royal palace, or at least reconstructed bits of it. It suffered heavy damage during the Second World War. It also home to many temples, but for me temple fatigue had again set in and I visited only one: Kuthodaw temple. It has 730 white stupas that house the world's largest book, each stupa contains a part of that book.
