To Inwa
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Mon 27 Nov 2017 23:07
|
To Inwa or
Ava
  Our
driver parked the car and led us along a narrow road in the process of being
sealed. He bade us buy ferry
tickets to the other side of the river and said we should then hire a
horse and cart. OK then, off we went.Our ferry soon docked and once aboard we could see the
old Ava Bridge behind the longtails huge
engine.
 A few minutes later we had docked,
walked up a steep natural bank, read the welcome sign
and faced complete chaos.
 Hundreds of horses
and carts. A man found us, we handed over seven pounds and picked our way
through the melee.
  We managed to climb aboard our
allotted chariot without getting messy, but oh, the
mud.
 Off we went, horses and carts as far as we could see.
  Once out on the track it was quite pleasant trotting along the narrow track.
  Looking in front
and behind as things got very
bumpy.
 Very green
countryside.
  The lady in the left picture carrying a huge amount of grass as we
compared horse and machine.
 A hungry chap
more interested in eating than
working.
 We had come to Inwa to see four historical
sites. Along
with Mandalay, Inwa
(or Ava as it was previously known) is perhaps Myanmar’s most famous old
capital, situated twenty kilometres south of Mandalay.
The heart of government and royal power on five separate occasions from the 14th
to the 19th centuries, Inwa was finally abandoned in 1839 after a series of
devastating earthquakes.
  A
bit of gentle weeding in the canal. Our driver passed
a very crowded parking area at one of the pagodas,
preferring to start our tour at a monastery further
on.
 The
biggest challenge of the trip was the detour - a six foot, steep drop that our
horse Nanya had to brace herself for, the squadgy mess at the bottom and the
equally steep upward bit to get us back on the original track. On our return
jaunt a taxi truck got stuck and this horse and cart came to
a standstill. The little lady simply didn’t want to do the final bit,
sensing it was nearly the end of the
day.
 On
our way back it was nice to see horses going ‘home’
after a very long day.
 Our final ride was thankfully a short
one but still so very muddy.
 A similar
chaos for our driver to get us back to be near the ferry
dock.
   A busy time of day, we had to queue
for the next ferry. Lovely to be entertained by a
couple of youngsters playing in the river.
   A motorbike and
several bikes got on before us. The Ava Bridge
looking pretty in the late afternoon sun, soon back over the other side, passing
a traditional house and finding our
driver.
ALL IN ALL A FERTILE AREA AND
GREAT TOURIST TRAP
ISOLATED AND PRETTY COUNTRYSIDE AROUND THE FORMER
CAPITAL |