Christmas in Yangon and our trip to Mandalay

On Christmas day me and my family went to have Christmas dinner at a really fancy hotel called the Shangrila, but we call it the Traders hotel. There was a buffet inside with lots of food. We had a nice time, but them my mum got sick and spewed up all the lunch. Santa gave me a blue Furby and a book and a mirror that looks like chocolate. Daddy gave me my own tablet.

After that went to my pwa pwa and poe poe’s house [Grandma and Grandpas] and we had presents for all of my friends and cousins. We gave them loom bands and sets of uno. A few days later we went to a place called Mandalay and we stayed at Hotel Mandalay in a big room. On the first day we met my dad’s cousin Uncle Aung Aung and we went out for dinner with him- I don’t remember where. The next day we went to a monetary an old Burmese King wanted to build but was never finished [by the way some of the Burmese Royal family are my ancestors]. In front of the unfinished building there were two huge Burmese lions called Chinthe which you can see from the other side of the Irrawaddy river. They were broken from a huge earthquake and only there bottoms survived.

Later on we went to the world’s 2nd biggest bell at Mingun. Me and Zaw Zaw got to ring it. It was pretty loud. Then we walked past some shops and my mum saw a mini thanaka set [Burmese make-up] and bought it for me, but then I lost it. But before that we went to a monestary where my great grandfather was a monk and paid our respects to his memory. Later on we went to a traditional puppet show. My favorite part of the show was where two devils who killed alot of animals but they started to fight each other after there were no animals left, and it was really funny because they kicked each other and sat on each other and it was really funny. And at the start of it there was a horse that was going crazy.

The next day we went to the Burmese palace which was destroyed by the British army. The walls are 2 miles each side so in total it would be 8 miles around it.

We had to go through a special entrance for foreigners only that the army was guarding. When we got I side the palace we saw lots of soldier homes because the soldiers of Burma decided to move in and occupy the palace compound. We drove further we finally reached the palace, we had to take our shoes off. Inside there were 2 statues of the king and one of his wife’s Queen Supayalatt, sitting next to each other. Then we saw the Burmese royal bed where they slept. Then we came across the meeting table where the king and prime ministers resolved problems. Ten we went to the watch tower. It was huge. And at the top you could see all the buildings and houses of the royal family and where they kept their slaves. Then we went back and saw the royal dagger and shoes and staff, his crown, and lots of other stuff. Well that’s all I did in those 3 days so see you next time! Note: Sorry for the huge wait there wasn’t any internet anywhere that we traveled.