Mandalay-- it's like the closest thing I've found to LA in all of southeast Asia.  It's probably the combination of multi-storied buildings with a distinct lack of energy/the feeling that most people don't live their lives on the street. Not sure if it was the fact that Yangon was my first city in Myanmar, but this 2nd largest city just doesn't have the same sort of energy. (Probably doesn't help that we got in on a public holiday-- the full moon of the beginning of Chinese lent.)  Everything is deceptively close on the map. City blocks here are huge! Be prepared to walk a lot.

I can't decide if it's this way because it's been occupied by both the British and the Japanese-- like perhaps it has a grid design because it survived some awful bombings (which is why the grand palace is nothing to look at now since the Allies razed it since it was a Japanese stronghold during WWII). 

So how much time do you need here? 

That totally depends on if you 1) find a good guide/english-speaking taxi driver, 2) What you're interested in, and 3) where you're located.

This city is expensive in terms of acommodation and transport. Hotels will pretty much only direct you to car taxis (not metered, and expensive in comparison to Vietnam-- 5000 kyat for 1-way trip of like 15 blocks). If your hotel has bikes, that's probably a better way to get around since the city is pretty flat and there are at least some traffic lights. Traffic overall was much better than Yangon (at least it flowed in rush hour).

Also, low season + random cyclone that we happened to get stuck in = not fun. Mandalay has 1 of 2 modes (confirmed this with a local): Dry and dusty, or wet and muddy. (I'm sure that's true for Bagan as well.) Some tour companies won't be able to run their usual tours when it pours. Initially had planned to go on the cycling tour of the old capitals surrounding Mandalay but it was too wet to do so! (Our guide who ran the foodie tour we had to take instead told us that the paths had a lot of mud and if you rode on the trails they typically took, you'd be up to your hips in water.)

Places of Frustration in Mandalay:
So... Diamond Plaza might be "the place to go to buy things in smaller quantities than at the Zecho/Zegyo market" but it's incredibly frustrating to get into. There seemed to be only one entrance in (the other entrance goes to a different part of the mall that is more or less deserted after 7:30pm and the floors above the 3rd floor were dark and shop-less), and it's an incredibly large space. I will say that the market in the basement had a good selection of Myanmar music, food, and random goods, like fuzzy flip flops. It was sort of a very compact Walmart.

Places to Eat in Mandalay:
MinGaLaBar Restaurant

Great food, wasn't concerned about sanitation (the food was kept in an enclosed space). Even though we sat in the downstairs non-airconditioned part, it was still quite pleasant. (Yes, air conditioning exists upstairs.) 

Bagan: temples, temples, temples. The only time you don't see them is when there's stuff blocking your way, like trees or buildings. But otherwise, this is a flat area covered in remnants of an 11th-Century empire.

I now understand why no one travels overland between these countries. Even though roads are nicely marked on maps (including my beautiful map from Kinokuniya that has been a lifesaver) everything is dirt in the countryside, and has no road signs. That dirt turns into mud when it rains. We had the unfortunate luck (or fortunate, because it was a lot cooler than usual) of being in Myanmar just as the cyclone passed over our heads.

Mud. It wasn't quite as bad as when we were all in Phong Nha (for that I say if you really are a die-hard minimalist shoe wearer like me, then get a shoe that has real traction because sneakers with smooth soles (though I love my Lems shoes) really suck when it comes to mud). We weren't really able to ride bikes with all the mud and the rain (5000 kyat for a day) so we hired the hotel car (their taxi) to drive us around for the day (which if I recall, was about 30,000 kyat for the half day). Although we couldn't see much out the windows (thanks to the annoying shade-dot-logo things), it did mean that we could hunker down and hide in air conditioning (and get eaten by mosquitoes).  

We asked our waiter at Zfreeti Hotel (who had great English for only learning for one year in Yangon) about some recommendations for places to visit.  I will say that one of the temples he pointed out was phenomenal. In some sense we made the mistake of going there first (beautiful area, carved/built into the cliff, has underground tunnels that are sort of blocked by the sand but they do lead to the other major temples in the area) and it was so cool because we had the place all to ourselves.  Now that would probably be a pretty sweet archaeological dig to lead.

We visited the village that our friendly waiter pointed out (it's sort of behind the large cylindrical viewing tower)-- my friends said it wasn't quite as bad as the village they visited in Sapa, but there were a couple of things I found obnoxious. First off, no Burmese person up to that point had ever to my face told me, "I want to sell something to you." Additionally the tour was mostly a quick walk through the village, to the guide's house, and then to the various shops they had that sold goods they supposedly made, like handcrafted silver, carved horn utensils, and woven cotton bags.  I understand that these people would like to just live off of the money that tourists give them (and I understand that they are poor people) but asking one person in the group for a "money present" instead of assuming you'd tip or even just being happy you visited and bought some goods-- I thought that was a little unusually rude for the Burmese people. What my friends and I were hoping for was an authentic village where we could observe how they lived, maybe chat and talk or enjoy a cup of tea, not just be walked through and then told to buy things.  I guess maybe I set us up for that when an old lady smoking a cigar came out after me and I took a picture of her and she demanded money and I gave her some (and her daughter who was carrying her baby asked too). I had seen similar things happen in Vietnam but I guess I feel that although these people may need money for better living conditions, me giving money directly won't exactly impact or change their lifestyle for the better (for all I know I could have been giving the old lady money to buy more cigars). 

Food:
Be Kind to Animals / The Moon-- great tea, so-so food. Maybe I felt disappointed (after all it was rated #1 on Trip Advisor) or the fact that I'm a hard-core meat person, but nothing here felt really satisfying.

Weathervane-- Super Western with decent Burmese food. The first place I've eaten Tea Salad at (quite tasty with whatever crunchy/roasted bean they put inside). Their curry was also yummy (didn't burn like the Shan curries) and a lot thicker than what we had previously seen at most other Burmese places. If you want a burger (my friends said both burgers were good) and a selection of pretty decent desserts, and you're craving good western food, not a bad place to come.

Where to stay:
In general if you come during low season you can stay wherever you want. New Bagan (to me and my friends) didn't seem interesting (though the older folks we met who were easily in their 40s/50s liked it) and we preferred our accomodation in Nyaung Oo. Unless you really want to spend time learning about Lacquerware, or want to eat at a local tea house, I can't see why you would want to be in New Bagan.

Zfreeti: Not the best hotel ever (spotty wifi, kind of old rooms) but it does have a swimming pool, spa, nice E-bikes to rent, and all of their staff who might have to interact with customers speak decent English.

Crown Prince Hotel: Things I liked: Wifi (best I've had the whole trip), Good selection of TV channels (oddly the satellite/international news and stuff only kicked in at night), and great in-room air conditioning.
Things I didn't like: Restaurant (stuffy and slow food-- seemed like 1 guy took your orders and cooked in the back), and honestly I don't know how well these folks are doing because the manager came out and asked me to write a good review for them. As far as I could tell they didn't have any E-bikes to rent, and it felt a ways away from everything that was sort of "going on." 

Temples I thought were interesting:
Shwesandaw (sunrise/sunset temple--though you won't see those when it's rainy)
Ananda (one of the largest temples)
Upalithein Unesco mural one

Ok so my uncle was afraid that I wouldn't like Yangon, but I did. There was so much to be seen on the street, from fresh seafood I've never seen in my life to rickshaws and folks wrapped in longyis (Lohn-gees). Locals lived their lives on the street here way more than any other place I've been in Southeast Asia.

Compared to Hanoi the air was cleaner (perhaps due to the rain) and more people spoke English (and better English than most of the folks I talked to in Vietnam). The buildings were a little run-down, but there was a lot of colonial-era architecture that was still up, in addition to weird fusion buildings and old shop houses. 

I did go to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda which is comprised of many many temples and has buddhas and shrines to the different days of the week (you pray to the day of the week that you were born on), and has the largest bell in Myanmar (which the British attempted to steal but it capsized the ship and sank to the bottom of the river and had to be lifted out by a makeshift raft by the locals). Spectacular.
(Hint, if you want a good view head to the rooftop bar called Vista Bar)

Loved the street markets around 19th street-- on Maha Bandula and 19th there was food, and Anawratha Road and 19th had lots of recycled hardware and tools. Tried a bunch of foods and didn't get sick so I highly recommend you do the same if you go! Just be wary of uncooked (the ice cream/popsicle thing I had didn't give me any issues).

Around the Sule Pagoda, you can walk by the oddly decorated City Hall, and the old Court building. Unfortunately we didn't get to go down to the Strand hotel or walk Strand road to find the other old colonial buildings.  If I went back I'd do that and go on the circle train around the city.

Bogyoke (Bow-geok) Market: Pretty amazing place if you want to buy longyis, jade, cane balls, and fruit all in one stop.

Alibaba Amusement Center: Stumbled upon this entirely by accident-- it's the Yangon equivalent to Chuck-e-Cheese. No pictures allowed inside, though (for whatever reason) so I snapped a shot on the way out. Definitely seems like a good place to spend some time on a rainy day.  Located somewhere on 25th Street north of Maha Bandula.

We met up with our friends from Vietnam who stayed in Pickled Tea Hostel (we stayed at Royal 74 Hotel, which I lived in a windowless shoebox of a room and the provided breakfast was fairly greasy and only somewhat good). If I did go again I'd probably stay at a hostel instead (you meet people). We met a lot of good folks through our friends and it was a good few days in Yangon. Do note that there are calls to prayer early in the morning in these places, which was pretty noticeable by my friends at Pickled Tea.

Shan Yoe Yar -- clean, great service, and affordable. If you like spicy food, then you'll love Shan food. It was so good we ate there twice!

Vietnam doesn't need an amuseument park-- Hoi An's Old Town is a major attraction! It's a mixture of old buildings with lots of character, a clothing or bag store almost everywhere you look, and a ton of tourists (really, it felt a lot like walking through Epcot and could be the place with the highest concentration of white tourists in all of Vietnam).  There's even 1950s music that gets played over the loudspeakers in the evening, and a lantern celebration takes place every evening!  And if that isn't enough for you, there are Vietnamese cultural lessons (language and cooking), music performances, and more for you to "immerse" yourself in.

If you're expecting "real" Vietnam, walk a few blocks outside of Old Hoi An. Additionally you can go to Cham Island or the neighboring countryside area (aka. Marble Mountains) or perhaps a less-tourist focused city (Danang). However if you just think of Old Hoi An as its own thing (like an Asian Epcot) then it's quite enjoyable. We bumped into a family we had met in Phong Nha and they were saying that it was a pleasant city to be in because of the pedestrian walkways and they didn't have to constantly worry about their children walking around (here sidewalks are sidewalks, as opposed to scooter parking, as in Hanoi). Lots of great buildings and temples, but after a while you kind of wish there was more to the buildings than just a plaque and a bunch of tourists all crowded around (especially annoying with those selfie sticks).

They're famous for certain things, particularly a noodle (cua lua? it looked like not-so-soupy udon) and chicken rice (Com ga). Frankly I guess I must love Singapore's Hainanese Chicken rice (or maybe it's that chicken skin) too much because the shredded Hoi An chicken white meat just wasn't doing it for me. The other dish that I've always wanted to try (but it's hard to find and I always assumed it was an omelet) was banh xeo, a fried rice pancake with shrimp and pork and beansprouts that gets rolled with a rice wrapper and lettuce and some papaya salad. It's quite good (even if it is pretty oily). 

Places I approve of (I'll put pictures of the rest of the food up eventually):
Morning Glory/Mrs. Vu's Market/any of those restaurants-- has great food from all parts of Vietnam (very very tasty and authentic)

Streets/Streets Too which is a pretty good restaurant that takes in orphans and trains them to work in a restaurant-- they force all the local workers to speak English to each other all the time so that they become fluent enough to be able to work at any other restaurant or resort catering to foreigners.

Bale Well isn't bad-- I think we could have sprung for the chicken rice instead (Joe thought that he didn't need to try the Hoi An Chicken Rice since he's already had Singapore's version). The locals ordered it and it looked really good (though they did make a pretty good version of banh xeo). An ok-decent restaurant. 

Didn't really find many restaurants in the area where the locals went (and I wasn't sure how good the street food was in terms of cleanliness so I actually didn't have a banh mi off the street or try their deep fried shrimp pancake). The one place I found was a bit out of the way (north of Tran Hung Dao about a block west of Lao Cai) there seemed to be a place where a lot of locals were eating (I think it was close to the ride-a-Vespa-through-Vietnam tour agency).

Initially I read that folks would charge $20 (400,000-500,000 Dong) for a taxi to go from Danang train station to Hoi An. These folks stopped me on the way out and had me at 300,000 for a minibus ride-- and then convinced us to go on the back of their bikes (they had Danang Easy Riders on it-- which is sort of a group of folks who guide you around Vietnam on a motorbike). He stopped for coffee and tried to convince us to ride out to the countryside (Ho Chi Minh Trail, Marble Mountains, etc) but I was pretty tired of seeing the same scenery and really wanted to spend time at the beach and so after briefly stopping at a tailor, the Easy Riders dropped us off at our hotel and drove away. 

 

Admittedly I was skeptical about getting anything made (Louisa's previous experience wasn't very good and she didn't recommend it). Our motorcycle drivers were obviously getting a commission from Tuong's (located @ 67 Trần Hưng Đạo). However after some bartering (I didn't get super local prices but all things considered, it was great service throughout the fitting process).  You need to come back for a minimum of three fittings, and they had actually messed up my order (I wanted 1 shirt to be sort of a round neck blouse instead of a button-down, and had asked for non-skinny legged suit pants) but they actually made the shirt for me for free to apologize for their mistake, and kept re-doing the pants until I was happy with them (the tailor even came out to see how the clothes fit me each time I came by for my fitting). They packed my new clothes for me, cleaned up the stitching where I requested, and gave free water and wet wipes every time we came through. Overall pretty impressed with the efficiency and the quality, and now I have some custom silk shirts!

It was quite a relaxing ride by train from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, although a bit rocky and bumpy in parts. There's rice growing all around the city!

We arrived (after a few frantic Google Maps checks to make sure that the previous 2 stops weren't Ninh Binh) around 11:30am (took the 9am out from Hanoi) and found ourselves not as close to our hotel as we had liked (apparently the train now stops at the new train station and although Google showed that the hotel is close to the train station, it didn't show both stations, just the old one).

It's a little bit eerie, stepping into this industrial countryside town. It's not quite as bustling as Hanoi and is way more spread out. It almost felt like a ghost town. I kept seeing all these folks waiting at their stores-- which made me wonder (because we did see a lot of people just sitting and relaxing in Hanoi too)-- what exactly is a typical day in the life of a Vietnamese person? Do they work? Or is it like they have specific seasons where tourists come by? In any case, it was odd, and it was a little strange to have so many pushy people try to get you to take a cab or go to their hotel. We had a tough time differentiating between who was trying to get us to buy something and who was just trying to help.

But hey, we came here for the view. (Or at least, that's why I dragged everyone else along-- I wanted less-touristy Vietnam and I certainly found it.) But as my cousin put it as we hiked up the ~500 steps to the top of Hang Mua to get a good view of Tam Coc: we tortured ourselves so that we too could take "stock photos."

Before getting to Hang Mua (Mua Cave-- pronounced Hang M-oa  emphasis on the oa) we took a taxi to Trang An, a local limestone cave area that is very scenic (and apparently is a newer tourist attraction as it was built to attract Chinese and Vietnamese tourists around 2010. 

After all this we decided to head back to Ninh Binh for dinner. However, it was pouring by the time we arrived at our hotel and we didn't want to chance it with the lightning and thunder going on outside. Finally when it seemed to calm down for a bit I ventured out on the town with my cousins. Boy, is this a sleepy town. We crossed over the river, and noticed that there weren't a lot of restaurants so we headed back to where we saw all the people hanging out.

It so happened that we found a Vietnamese BBQ/Hot Pot restaurant (heated by real charcoal)! Missing my summer BBQ I decided we'd eat BBQ (meat!!). If we could only decipher the menu....  Many Google searches later, I'm still at a loss as to what these places are called, and what exactly it was that we ate.

Sri Mariamman Temple
The oldest Hindu temple in singapore, this is a very grand place (and one of the biggest I've seen so far). There was a fire burning and some weird trumpety-sound coming from their 2-man band (which I associated with a funeral since I'd heard similar sounds sitting in my uncle's apartment, and he informed me that the son-in-law pays to assemble such a band).  There wasn't a casket, so it was probably a ceremony of sorts that I happened to walk by.

$3 for a ticket if you want to take pictures-- and since I've never really been into a Hindu temple I figured it was worth the entrance fee.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
This is a grand, 5-storey temple that is probably one of the wealthiest temples I've ever seen (look at all that gold in the main hall).  This is actually a fairly new temple, as construction started in 2005 and was finished in 2007 (and cost S$62 million).