Inle Pancake Kingdom

Mrauk U is perhaps one of the most far-away from everywhere places in the world today. It is an adventure just to get there, and your timing needs to be right if you want to catch the local ferry from Sittwe to Mrauk U. Nevertheless it is definitely worth the trip. The temples are ancient and unique, the tourists are scarce, the people are friendly and generous, the electricity is extremely limited and the mosquitoes are probably carrying drug resistant malaria. Mrauk U in it’s heyday was more affluent than London and Amsterdam at the time and decadent to the extreme.

Maurice Collis book Land of the Great Image is a perfect traveling companion for this trip, describing the ancient splendor of this Arakan Kingdom from the perspective of a Augustinian friar, Sebastiao Manrique who was founding a church there in the 17th century. It is a fascinating tale of decadence, intrigue and magic.

The Mrauk U of today is frozen in time. With electricity only on from about 6pm to 9pm it is no surprise. On our visit we took books from a local NGO that publishes educational books in Burmese. It seemed a better solution to giving the kids pens, soap, candles or candy, which they often just sell back to a shop owner. At least with a book, maybe they and a few others will read it first!