Sadly, one of the brothers died in prison from lead poisoning after drinking the water there and the other suffered through six years of hard labour.
The Moustache Brothers used to be a duo of two brothers that later became a trio with their cousin, who performed as comedians but frequently got themselves into trouble for making jokes about the government. The highlight for me was watching a ‘Moustache Brothers’ performance. Mandalay is much nicer, cleaner and easier to get around, which we managed easily by bike. The rest of the country has much more to offer.Īfter a rather rough, fifteen hour train journey to Mandalay, I was just happy not to be in Yangon anymore. My advice for anyone travelling there would be to skip Yangon altogether, or spend only one, maximum two nights there. Unfortunately, not a lot has been done to maintain the infrastructure and beautiful buildings they once were and with open sewers, rubbish lining the streets and every nook and cranny, the overpowering stench of the place and the locals spitting out their brown betel saliva, you need a strong stomach to stick it. It still has original architecture from British colonial times, which sounds like it could be quaint and interesting as a city, perhaps even nostalgic like Vienna, but it is not, at all. For the first time ever, I struggled to find something positive to say about a place, in this case Yangon, especially the downtown area.