The Architecture of Mawlamyine

From the girls school in Mawlamyine

This is the old front entry to the girls school, it is now covered over on the front side by a sign, but is still visible from behind.

I really enjoy seeing this kind of architecture, although I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. Midcentury communist modernism?

The gas station, straight from back to the future.

A typical giant Mawlamyine house of the past.

many houses have these mandalas painted or written in chalk outside of their front doors.

the girls school. the lattice work in the above picture is behind the blue sign. google sucks and re-arranges all my photos when I upload them... sorry.

the old church, tucked behind the girls school.

great symmetry.

this sort of metal work is very common around town.

a random sunset from the waterfront.

the local tea and coffee shop. when you sit down they put several plates of bread, steamed buns, and cakes on the table. you can just eat whatever you want without ordering. unfortunately their coffee is all from 3 in 1 packets. their tea is pretty good but super sweet. Jin has been trying unsuccessfully to order some less sweet for weeks, she has studied the language, asked several locals, tried all options, but alas, she has still yet to succeed.

this house has a rather square nose.

their very sturdy bridge which serves both cars and the train(on the right side.) the little island on the right is pretty cool too. it has several little pagodas.

Our First Morning in Mawlamyine...

sunrise at the bus station.

We arrived in Mawlamyine at 345am and hung out at the bus station until about 5am.... Finally, when the sun started to come up, we decided to walk the 1.5km in to town rather than pay a few bucks for a taxi. The taxi drivers at the bus stop are pretty aggressive and it was so nice and cool that it seemed like a nice relaxing way to waste an hour or two while we waited for it to become a little more appropriate hour. We're working on saving money and getting exercise so it fit in nicely with our plans!

we took the small local street that cars don't drive on. we walked up a long, forested hill, watching the monks begging door to door and checking out the local neighborhood. this is a jackfruit tree.

puppies at the monastery near the top of the hill.

at the top of the hill. we asked a young monk which way to go. He directed us in to the center of downtown, to the right. We actually wanted to go to the old town, where most tourists stay, which is to the left.

a traffic light in Mawlamyine

They have really big trees in Mawlamyine!

very typical scene.

A procession of monks, maybe a hundred of them marching in to town, going under the railroad bridge. This is near the traffic circle in Mawlamyine, which is one of the landmarks of the map(the only place we could find on the map!)

The mosque on lower main st.

at the waterfront around 630am

awesome example of old school Mawlamyine architecture/charm

The grandma and grandpa restaurant. It is right on the waterfront near the Breeze Hotel(the most popular traveler hotel in town, and where we stayed the first night. Some of the profit from this restaurant goes to support the local elders.

very typical ditch/trash depository

One more friend....

my new buddy

Tonight's Sunset, with a Friend

This evening we went to watch the sunset at the waterfront. It was pretty nice.

There are lots of friendly people in Mawlamyine.... In fact pretty much everyone is super friendly. We've bumped in to this guy a few times during our time here. His name is U. Khin. Every time he see's us he stops to chat. We were just sitting there watching the sunset and he was driving by on his scooter and stopped to say hi. We offered him a seat and we talked for a bit.

After a while, he offered to go get some tea, but then quickly changed his mind and invited us to his house to drink some beers instead. He bough us some tasty street food from the lady outside and gave us some Thai beers.

His house is right on the waterfront and just a few blocks from our hotel. He showed us his family pictures from the 70's, which were really interesting. He was a seaman and had been to many countries including the Philippines, America, Kuwait and Hong Kong. His wife lives in the UAE(I think that is the country he was saying.) He's 62 now and a really friendly guy. I'm super jealous of his house! This is my dream, big living room with a wide open view of the sunset every night. Plus, you walk ten feet outside and there is a lady making awesome Burmese food for dirt cheap!

Merry Christmas From Mawlamyine!

Today we went and saw the world's largest reclining Buddha. It's over 560 feet long!



Approaching the giant Buddha there are hundreds(maybe even thousands) of statues lining the road. Another road heads off in to the forest with hundreds more!

Classic Asia: Monks and Badminton

The scene around the Buddha

As you drive up to the Buddha there are giant karst mountains on either side of the road. One side has a Hindu temple on it, and the other side has a Buddhist temple on it. I believe this is the Buddhist one.

You can buy tiles for 50 cents at the entrance, then you can offer them to a giant Buddha statue.

The parking lot on the way in.

People offering their tiles to Buddha

Inside the giant Buddha there are 4 floors of lifesize dioramas depicting different stories from the Buddhas life. There are absolutely zero explanations in English.

The dioramas give the FULL story of the Buddha.

I liked the horse.

obligatory burning in hell religious scene.

Inside the giant Buddha there are many lookouts. Across the way they are building another giant Buddha, which is scheduled to be finished in 2058(just kidding.)

This place is really strange. The outside already looks old although it is brand new and unfinished. Inside, everything is under construction. Some things are finished, next to other things unfinished. The outside is mostly finished, but the lobby isn't finished. Each floor is about 40% finished. You would think they might finish the first floor first, then move on to the second floor, then third, etc, but no.

 

The eyes for the next giant Buddha are in the lobby of the (mostly) finished first giant Buddha. Directly to the right is where you buy and donate the tiles to the Buddha. I have no idea why they let people drive motorcycles inside the giant Buddha, but they do.

This place has everything!

This is the back. A lot of the place looks like this... They don't seem to have a lot of rhyme or reason here... It's part of the charm.

The stairs leading up to the inside of the giant Buddha.



This is the Hindu temple on the opposite mountain(I think.)