After the Golden Rock, a major pilgrimage site for Buddhists, a completely different atmosphere awaited us at our next stop. Mawlamyine, still known as Moulmein , was the first capital of British Burma, between 1827 and 1852. It remains a capital today, that of the Mon state.
A place known and frequented by literary greats since Rudyard Kipling made a short stay there while George Orwell even lived there for several years as a police officer!
As an aside (thanks to my friend Wikipedia ), the name means "lost eye," because a Mon king lost one of his eyes there (well, it's not specified, but I imagine it was during a battle...).
Kinpun – Mawlamyine route
Once again, we travelled between these two stops by bus. Expect to pay 7,000 kyats per person and the journey takes approximately 4 hours, including a short stop in Thaton (not to be confused with Thaton in northern Thailand, of course).
It seemed to have its charm, but no stopping for us, we continued our route to Mawlamyine.
When you arrive, it's the usual broom of touts who want to take you straight to your hotel. I think to myself that sometimes it's tiring. The simple fact that they want to leave so quickly even though I haven't yet collected my luggage from the hold exasperates me a little.
In addition, we want, even if we are at the bus station, to buy our ticket directly for the next day, heading for Hpa An, our last stop on this 2014 trip to Burma.
Choosing your hotel in Mawlamyine
Once we had our ticket in our pocket, we were ready to head to our hotel... now all that was left was to find it... or rather choose it...
In our travel habits, we often leave ourselves "gaps" where we do not book a hotel, in case our initial plan changes, but also because there is sometimes more choice on site than via booking sites. In short.
Despite this, we were initially going to one of the hotels recommended by the LP and which we had heard another tourist, on the same bus as us, was going to.
And so our tuk-tuk driver takes us to the Cinderella Hotel . A warm welcome with a small glass of orange juice, a pink house and a rather chic atmosphere.
Unfortunately full… but that's where we see that some people really have a notion of service. Even if we weren't going to sleep there, the little girls at the reception offered to call other guesthouses in the area for us, depending on our budget.
We finally found one with space and went there, warmly thanking the staff of the Cinderella Hotel for their welcome, however brief it may have been!
Okay, and now for a change of scenery. Arriving at the Aurora GH , I went upstairs to scout out the room. Very basic, overlooking the street with just a fan. For those who might be interested, we later saw the Pann Su Wai Guesthouse on a nearby street , which looked newer and better than ours.
Since we're only staying one night and it costs $12, I don't dwell on it too much. It'll do.
Visit Mawlamyine in less than 24 hours
In total, we stayed there for less than a day , as we wanted to spend a little more time in Hpa An. So, in the late afternoon, we just explored the surroundings, notably by going to the riverbank, enjoying the sunset along the way.
There is a large square with street restaurants in the evening. Before finding a restaurant, we first went to a temple not far from there, in order to make a donation.
We met a talkative old monk there . Jitima is not used to the style of these, in the sense that while in Thailand contact between a monk and a woman is forbidden, here, he asked to have his picture taken with her, and then me as well.
For a moment we thought he was inviting us to follow him to the neighborhoods where he sleeps... but no, not really.
After that, we went back to the riverbank where we had spotted a restaurant that looked good, and with air conditioning too… (yes, sometimes it does feel good), so we had dinner at the Yokko restaurant.
Discovering Mawlamyine on foot
The next day we embarked on the walking tour of the city , as recommended in the guide. The tour took us just under 2 hours.
Kyaik Than Lan Pagoda
But just before that, we were going to visit one of the main temples of the city, the Kyaik Than Lan pagoda , located on a hill, which offers a view of almost all of Mawlamyine.
From there you can see the river, the old colonial prison, the bridge that is the pride of the city, and the city itself, in almost 360 degrees, which you can see is lost in the green tuft that surrounds it.
Although many hotels seemed full (well, apparently there weren't that many either), we hardly encountered any tourists during our entire stay in Mawlamyine.
The old buildings and architecture of Mawlamyine
Back at the hotel to check out, we set off again straight away for the walk. We will pass in turn in front of a municipal park, the Arab quarter, a group of small streets with facades of old colorful houses, in front of a mosque, not far from a church.
Of course, we come across several colonial-style buildings and houses. As it was already time to eat, we were looking for a restaurant in the area. Luckily, there is one not far away, renowned, located on the edge of the river and opposite the old cinema/theater.
So we had lunch at the restaurant soberly called "Grand-père et Grand-mère", which looked a little old-fashioned, but the food was still good and part of the income was donated to an association which takes care of elderly people abandoned by their families.
In the absence of grandparents, it is a young boy begging with his young sister, who we will help, ordering an extra meal at the restaurant, which we will give him on the way out, enough to bring out that little shy smile in the photo.
After the restaurant we walked back to the main street we were walking on. It's a pretty commercial street, not much really interesting apart from a mosque, some old buildings from the colonial era.
Around the Mawlamyine market
Further along, we continued our walk towards the market, which also runs alongside the river. At that point, we had seen most of our walking tour and therefore considered that we had seen most of Mawlamyine (rightly or wrongly, you decide!).
Museum of Mon Culture
Consulting the guide to find out how to occupy the rest of this half-day before taking the bus to Hpa An, we see that there is a museum about Mon culture , the ethnic group that makes up 75% of the population of the state where Mawlamyine is located.
Entry to the Mon cultural museum was 2,000 kyats each. It's quite basic inside, displaying Mon handicrafts, instruments, numerous Buddha statues from different periods, a few objects that belonged to local royal families, etc.
It's not a must-have, I think, but hey, considering the price, it made the time pass.
Even after that, we still had almost four hours to kill… So we figured we'd just go back to Yokko restaurant , take advantage of the Wi-Fi and air conditioning to relax, have a drink, and lunch. After all, it feels good to rest a bit.
I know that not far from Mawlamyine, there is a huge Buddha lying on a whole part of a hill, it was even one of the reasons for our passage here, but paradoxically, we did not have enough time since in fact it is a few kilometers from there, out of the way, and once again, priority was given to Hpa An…
If you have already been to Mawlamyine, have I really missed anything?
