Tuesday 19 March 2013

Entertaining the Mandalayans at their Hill!

I decided to wear my new skirt this morning so that I would blend in nicely as all of the local ladies wear longhi's every day. I thought it looked okay and so we set off from our hotel to Mandalay Hill which is famous for the views over Mandalay at sunset.
On the way we noticed more people smiling and waving than usual, but it got much more noticeable on the walk up the many hundreds of steps to the top.
The ladies in particular stared at my outfit, some shouted out unknown comments or started chatting loudly to their friends about me. Others started laughing and waving, and a couple said I looked beautiful!
One old man was walking up as we walked down and I saw him start looking at my feet then gradually up as high as my hat and he just looked completely astonished, then burst out laughing!
I realise I don't blend too well as I am about a foot taller than them, but it made for a funny morning.
My only regret is that Darren should have bought one as well as I think that then we would have stopped the traffic.
There are very few foreigners here, in fact until we went for lunch we saw only two others today, one who was staying at our hotel and another that we sat next to in a restaurant in Bagan. I have to assume that most don't try the local fashions.
The Hill was good, but most of the time the walkways were covered to keep out the sun and when we got to the top it was too high to see much of the city. Maybe we should go back at sunset.

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