Fred, Nyar Na and Andy

Our last full day in Myanmar and its a really good one, thanks in part to Ashinnyar Na, a young monk who befriended us.  

We had a good start - the hotel breakfast was the best we've had since being in Myanmar.  We get ourselves organised for tomorrow then head out.  Lunch at a local place then a motorbike taxi to Mandalay Hill.  Three on a bike was a little scary at first in the Mandalay traffic but the driver was good so it was fine.  We are just about the begin the climb of many steps to the Sutaungpyei (wish-filling) Pagoda and a young monk asks if he is can accompany us to practice his English.  As we go up we get to know him and he's good fun.  His name is Ashinnyar Na, Nyar Na for short.  He's 16 years old and in fact tells us it is his birthday today!

There are great views over Mandalay at the top and we had planned to stay for sunset but we've got hours to wait so we decide to head to U Bein Bridge instead and Nyar Na asks if he can come along.  The taxis are asking lots of money at the bottom of the hill so we get on a local bus which criss-crosses town and arrives at our destination on the right side of town for the Bridge.  We then attempt to get another taxi ... not so easy so, after Nyar Na asking many people, we finally get one.  The taxi isn't  licensed to carry foreigners on their own but we're ok with our new friend.  We stop off to have a look at his monastery on the way which huge.  He says its the biggest in Mandalay with between 3,000 and 4,000 monks.  It also has a clock which looks just like Big Ben!

We get to U Bein Bridge just after sunset unfortunately but its still light so we walk part of the way over.  Nyar Na starts to disclose some things about himself including that he's a One Direction and Lady Gaga fan (he thinks she's sexy!).  We're not quite sure what to make of this but he's a 16 year old boy so why not.

He then drops us back at our hotel where we say our goodbyes and become Facebook friends.  He's been on his (rather posh) Samsung phone the whole time on FB and on the net ... google translate has come in useful more than once.  We ask where he got the money for the phone and it appears its all part of the deal (he couldn't afford an i phone though!)

We then head for a local dinner where the waiters entertain us with arm wrestles.  We'll be sad to say goodbye to Myanmar. Despite the odd difficulty, its been great and so different to anywhere else we've ever been.