Journey To Burma (Myanmar) & Langkawi Via Kuala Lumpur, Day Three, Mandalay – Touring Amarapura & Inwa, 5 November 1998

Thursday 5 November 1998 (Driver Ya Rau Sou).

Relatively late start. Set off for Amarapura – looked at bronze costings and wood carving places along the way – examined one humble home in some detail, including a densely populated, young woman showing off her spread.

Then onto Mahagandhayon Monastery where we were able to witness the monks dining (circus style) while Daiso [Janie] decided that she wasn’t feeling very well. After sending out the search parties throughout the monastery, we were joyfully reunited and then looked around the masters quarters, senior students quarters and a dormitory (where Daiso’s pencils and glacier mints, went as fast as a rabbit down a hole).

A blind man in the Mahagandhayon grounds

Next – on to U Bein Bridge where we took pictures and bought a picture for Daiso – also bought a weird root vegetable (ice potato) which we ate for/with lunch. Then on to lunch at Emerald Green, good chicken soup, not much else.

Taungthaman Lake

I cannot find a modern reference to that restaurant nor to the root vegetable that Kyaw called “ice potato”. The restaurant long gone I expect, the vegetable no doubt known as something else. It reminded me of daikon, if I remember correctly.

Then on to Bagaya Monastery with 400 Buddha images – then to see silk weaving and did business on six longyis!

We didn’t take this bus to the silk weaving and longhyi factory

This lady selling betel nut along the way

Then on to Aya Bridge across Irrawaddy (no photos directly, but scenes around the bridge). Then back to ferr yboat crossed river (can take photos of bridge now )– then into pony and trap for back-breaking ride around Ava [aka Innwa or Inwa] – 18th century, monasteries/temple/Paya. – Eventually (numb) get to the other Bagaya Monastery (stunning) where few monks live.

The Old Ava Bridge – subsequently replaced

It’s amazing that, in that contraption, we only took a pony and trap in one sense of the phrase

Worth the bone-breaking ride

We took the bone breaking ride back to the ferry and wended our way home via the longyi shop (where they have sewn up how longyis for us). Dinner at Honey Garden restaurant where we continue to fail to get any duck, but we are compensated with excellent double cooked pork and shrimp rolls. Early night.

The photographs from this day are pictures 31 to 74 in this Flickr album – click here or below:

01 4 November 1998 - Worshippers in the women's section of the Maha Muni Pagoda in Mandalay BM_1998_J01_ (2)

A placeholder piece which shows the full itinerary and has links to the albums of all our photographs for this trip can be found by clicking here or the link below:

Journey To Burma (Myanmar) & Langkawi Via Kuala Lumpur, Placeholder & Links, 2 To 24 November 1998

Journey To Burma (Myanmar) & Langkawi Via Kuala Lumpur, Day Two, Rangoon (Yangon) To Mandalay For A Full Day Of Touring, 4 November 1998

Wednesday, 4 November 1998.

Rose early, flew to Mandalay and checked in at Sedona. First day of touring – The Mahamuni Pagoda with its bazaars on all sides and gold leaf covering of the image. A generous local invited Ged Ladd [Me] to apply some of his gold leaf to the Buddha. (See headline image also shown below). We see monks and nuns in the grounds and touch, healing Khmer statues.

This couple wedding-feasting at Eternal Restaurant

Eat at Eternal Restaurant with pork bun and Tom Yum soup and fine Chinese broccoli and not much else of note. Then on to see a factory where the gold leaf hammering is done. Daisy [Janie] dispensed pens with reckless abandon. Then onto the grounds of the Old Palace, now containing a somewhat gaudy replica. (The British “did a Wurtzburg” on the original at the end of World War II).

Daisy surveying the “Old” Palace

Then onto Shwenandaw Monastery (part of the old palace, which had been built and moved “MFI/IKEA style”) with fine, old wood, carvings…

…then onto Atumashi Monastery with amazingly naff “gameshow” Buddha…

Atumashi – stunning on the outside…

...while the naffness of this game show Buddha has to be seen live for the full effect

…and then on to Kuthodaw Pagoda, with amazing tombstone-like slabs of Buddhist Scriptures. There the local girls told Janie how pretty I am (as usual). Across the way to the Sandamuni Pagoda, where the unfortunately named U-Khanti translated, Pali scriptures into Burmese.

Ian politely tells Khaw that we are “pagodad out” now

Home for a quick siesta before going up to the Mandalay Hill to watch the sunset

Sedona for siesta

Another short break before going across the road for a Burmese meal at Pyigyimon Restaurant – mostly notable for a superb lentil soup and “sandal leather” beef – the curry sauces were good.

The photographs from this day are pictures 1 to 30 in this Flickr album – click here or below:

01 4 November 1998 - Worshippers in the women's section of the Maha Muni Pagoda in Mandalay BM_1998_J01_ (2)

A placeholder piece which shows the full itinerary and has links to the albums of all our photographs for this trip can be found by clicking here or the link below:

Journey To Burma (Myanmar) & Langkawi Via Kuala Lumpur, Placeholder & Links, 2 To 24 November 1998

Journey To Burma (Myanmar) & Langkawi Via Kuala Lumpur, Days Zero & One, Arrival In Rangoon (Yangon), 2 and 3 November 1998

Yangon Sunset by Francisco Anzola from United States, CC BY 2.0

Monday 2 November 1998 – Left London in morning. Flew day/night to Kuala Lumpur, then transit on to Rangoon arriving mid morning 3 November.

Tuesday 3 November 1998 – Tired and travel weary. Met by Ko Kyaw, our guide. Slept afternoon – rose early evening. Looked around Hotel [Inya Lake] – dined in “Grill” restaurant. Tried varied Burmese menu, including chicken salad, tomato salad, mango pickle, shrimp condiment, chicken curry, snapper & shrimp, vegetable vermicelli, mixed vegetables, mung bean soup, and Burmese tea.

We must have been seriously travel weary when we arrived in Yangon, as we didn’t take a single, solitary photograph that day. In our defence, we knew that we would be returning to Yangon later in our trip.

A placeholder piece which shows the full itinerary and has links to the albums of all our photographs for this trip can be found by clicking here or the link below:

Journey To Burma (Myanmar) & Langkawi Via Kuala Lumpur, Placeholder & Links, 2 To 24 November 1998

The House Among The Stars by Michel Tremblay, Orange Tree Theatre, 31 October 1998

Our Richmond-fest continued with this Canadian (or should I say Quebecois?) play. My log was pretty clear on our take:

Dreadful, we almost missed it due to bad weather and road condition, but still left at half time.

Nick Curtis in The Standard was kinder than that, although still awarded it a blob:

Tremblay Curtis StandardTremblay Curtis Standard 28 Oct 1998, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The local Chronicles spoke highly of it:

Tremblay Starr ChroniclesTremblay Starr Chronicles 05 Nov 1998, Thu The Feltham Chronicle (Hounslow, London, England) Newspapers.com

No doubt Janie and I enjoyed our Don Fernando dinner afterwards, despite the play.

Homage To Marc Chagall, Wigmore Hall, Chagall Trio & Samuel West, 25 October 1998

Sunday night at “The Wig” to see this concert by the Chagall Trio, peppered with readings from Marc Chagall’s autobiography delivered by my old schoolmate, Samuel West.

We heard:

  • Dmitri Shostakovich – Piano Trio No 2 in E Minor, Op 67              
  • Philip Grange – Homage to Chagall       
  • Igor Stravinsky – Rag-time for Eleven Instruments         
  • Aaron Copland – Vitebsk – Study on a Jewish Theme    

Janie is partial to a bit of Chagall, visually, and is fascinated by Chagall’s life story, so the whole idea seemed to tick a lot of boxes for us. It was indeed a super concert that pleased us.

Equally Divided by Ronald Harwood, Richmond Theatre, 24 October 1998

We were on a Richmond kick that quarter, for some reason, with three visits to The Orange Tree and two visits to the Richmond Theatre. Coincidence really, I should imagine.

Janie liked it more than I did.

That is my log’s pithy conclusion.

Excellent cast, with Stephanie Cole, Stephanie Beacham, Benjamin Whitrow & Gerald Harper. Christopher Morahan directed it. A transfer from Bath, as was often the case at Richmond.

Here is the Theatricalia entry.

Here is Jody Lindbeck’s take on it in the local gazettes:

Equally GazetteEqually Gazette 23 Oct 1998, Fri Ealing and Acton Gazette (Ealing, London, England) Newspapers.com

Reading that review 25 years later, all I can think of is the wonderful Peter Cook quote: “I go to the theatre to be entertained. I don’t want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction – I can get all that at home.“

Nash Ensemble At The Wigmore Hall, 13 October 1998

I think we must have been experimenting a bit at The Wigmore Hall for this one, as I don’t think of this music as being Janie’s taste. Perhaps I was especially keen to encourage her to hear the Richard Strauss songs…or at least i was keen to hear them performed live. Olaf Bär certainly gave them some baritone oomph.

We heard:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven – Trio in B Flat Op 11 for Clarinet, Cello and Piano         
  • Gustav Mahler – Kindertotenlieder for Voice and Ensemble     
  • Richard Strauss – Five Songs    
  • Arnold Schoenberg – Verklarte Nacht Op 4 for String Sextet.

I sense that I enjoyed this concert more than Janie did.

Nikita’s Restaurant, 10 October 1998

Photo “borrowed” from Google.

In those days we sometimes went to restaurants on a Saturday night. On this occasion, a posh Russia restaurant named Nikita’s.

Gone now, 25 years later, but still with a website – here’s a link to it.

Here’s a scrape of it in case the website has gone once you get here.

No doubt several of Janie’s clients put her onto it, no doubt the following rave review in The Standard encouraged them:

Nikita's StandardNikita’s Standard 22 Sep 1998, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

It was very good.

Sperm Wars by David Lewis, Orange Tree Theatre, 3 October 1998

My log is silent on this one. I think we quite liked it but clearly didn’t rave about it. Our diaries add nothing. Not even the fact that, almost certainly, we went to Don Fernando afterwards for a Spanish meal.

The local gazette papers had a rave review for this piece:

Sperm Harrison GazettesSperm Harrison Gazettes 16 Oct 1998, Fri Ealing and Acton Gazette (Ealing, London, England) Newspapers.com

Nick Curtis in The Standard was less sure:

Sperm Curtis StandardSperm Curtis Standard 23 Sep 1998, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The Blue Room by David Hare, (adapted from Arthur Schnitzler), Donmar Warehouse, 26 September 1998

By gosh there was a fuss in the UK press about this one, with theatre journalists falling over themselves to heap praise, in particular on Nicole Kidman, essentially for looking the part and being able to act.

We had tickets for the first Saturday, because back then, as members of the Donmar, that was the sort of thing we did, especially if someone as grand as David Hare was credited with writing a whole new version of a play.

The play, originally known as La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, was highly controversial when it was written at the turn of the 20th century. There are 10 characters. David Hare’s version at Sam Mendes’s request at The Donmar (subsequently transferred to the Cort Theatre in New York) was not the first time the play was staged as a two-hander. It starred Iain Glen and Nicole Kidman.

Janie and I thoroughly enjoyed our evening, but probably for all the wrong reasons. My log comment speaks volumes:

Nice bodies, shame about the play.

Having been wowed by David Hare’s wonderful solo performance piece Via Dolorosa the week before…

Via Dolorosa by David Hare, Royal Court Theatre At The Duke Of York Theatre, 19 September 1998

…Janie and I found The Blue Room to be comparatively thin dramatic gruel.

Still, nice bodies as I (and the fawning journalists) said, plus a bizarre moment for me personally. Janie and I were sitting right at the front at one of the sides of the stage, as oft we did at the Donmar. As the stars took their final bow and departed the stage, Nicole Kidman seemed to look straight at me and wave at me with her fingers. One of Janie’s patients was in the audience that night and came up to us as we were leaving the theatre in a state of great excitement, because she had seen Nicole Kidman waving at me. The patient wondered whether I knew Nicole Kidman personally, to which my answer was, “not until this evening”.

25 years later, all I can say is that me and Nicole, we go back a long way.

Here are some of the fawning newspaper pieces. The Standard, seemingly without irony, devoted its Page 3 to the news & review. Frankly some of the language used in this Standard page would not be acceptable 25 years later:

Blue Room Standard Blue Room Standard 23 Sep 1998, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph was blown away by Kidman’s bravura performance:

Blue Room Spencer TelegraphBlue Room Spencer Telegraph 23 Sep 1998, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

In the Guardian, there is a gushing piece in The Arts Diary which, like the other papers, probably would get heavily edited or spiked today, while our friend Michael Billington did the worthy thing and reviewed Our Country’s Good at The Young Vic instead. (Janie and I went to see that the following spring when it came back from its tour.)

Blue Room & Our Country's Good Guardian BillingtonBlue Room & Our Country’s Good Guardian Billington 19 Sep 1998, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com