Page 126 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

124 The DelTa anD wesTern MyanMar Mrauk u and around
the pulse racing. The old-fashioned and rather plain rooms reasonable prices, plus decent service and a good
aren’t particularly good value, and the restaurant is breakfast buffet. $45
humdrum, although the fine location overlooking the Bay Strand Hotel 9 Strand Rd T043 22881. On paper this is
of Bengal partly compensates. Free transfers from airport/ the best hotel in town, and its $60 bungalows are peaceful,
boat jetty included. $95 clean and polished. That said, the standard rooms here
Shwe Thazin 250 Main Rd T043 23579, Wshwe leave much to be desired, with big patches of mould on the
thazinhotel.com. Central Sittwe’s most popular walls despite the hotel only being a couple of years old. The
2 option with passing travellers, the Shwe Thazin has location, opposite the new port but at the quieter end of
small but comfortable and well-furnished rooms at
the street, is great. $50
eaTInG
501 Tea & Cold Garden Main Rd. This is an attractive Mya Tea House Next to the Mya Guesthouse. This is a
local garden restaurant with friendly service and well- friendly garden teahouse, dishing up simple, inexpensive
prepared versions of all the usual Chinese and seafood meals including big bowls of nourishing mohinga (K500).
dishes (mains K1500–4000). It’s a nice place for a beer, Daily 6am–7pm.
even if you choose not to eat. The sign is in Burmese only. River Valley 5 Main Rd T043 23234. Convivial,
Daily 8am–10pm. foreigner-friendly restaurant with seating in a pleasant
May Yu Strand Rd, opposite the new port. A pleasant garden illuminated with fairy lights after dark. Serves a
seafront restaurant (although the new port construction long list of mainstream but well-prepared Chinese dishes
opposite blocks out the waves) in a cheery wooden (mains K3500–5000), as well as a few local specialities like
building painted blue outside and pink within, with a nice a chicken curry served in an unusually tangy sauce. Make
terrace in front. Food includes a smallish selection of local sure you also order one of the delicious fruit juices. Daily
seafood plus all the usual Chinese staples (mains K1500– 7.30am–10pm.
4000). Daily 8am–10pm.
DIreCTOry
Banks There’s an ATM and moneychanger at the big branch of KBZ on Main Rd (but not at the smaller KBZ on Strand Rd).

Mrauk U and around

Hidden upriver amid the watery labyrinths of the Kaladan River, the remote and
decidedly rustic town of MRAUK U was once the last and greatest capital of the
kingdom of Arakan (see p.120 & pp.362–363), its 49 kings ruling for 350 years over
an empire stretching, at its apogee, from the Ayeyarwady to the mouth of the Ganges
and controlling large areas of what is now Myanmar and Bangladesh. Mrauk U also
served as a unique medieval melting pot of foreign influences. Its Buddhist rulers
adopted Islamic titles and customs influenced by the nearby Sultanate of Bengal,
while the city also faced off Portuguese incursions and later served as a major
pan-Asian trading base.
The conquest and sack of the city at the hands of the Konbaung dynasty in
1784 brought Mrauk U’s glory days to an end, while the British decision to
move the provincial capital to Sittwe in 1826 further hastened its decline.
Lasting mementoes of Mrauk U’s glory days survive, however, in the shape
of a unique collection of remarkable fortified temples – among Asia’s weirdest
Buddhist monuments.

MRAUK U: “MONKEY EGG”
one popular theory holds that the name Mrauk u is a corruption of myauk u, meaning
“Monkey Egg”, said to have been offered to the Buddha by a monkey as a sign of his devotion.
It’s pronounced “Mrow-oo” by the rakhine, or as a rather feline-sounding “Meow-oo” by
the Burmese.

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