After the one full day tour of Mandalay, we crossed the new Sagaing bridge to head towards the city closest to the epicentre.
Roads and bridges
Sagaing and Mandalay were separated by the famous Ayeyarwaddy river and there were two bridges to go across the river. The new bridge that we drove through was only slightly damaged and it was operational one week after the quake. But until the Thingyan (Water Festival) time, only smaller cars are allowed to pass through this bridge, Trucks and large vehicles have to use the old car carriers vessels (barges) to go through the river.
The old bridge was not so lucky. It was awful and picturesque at the same time, to see how such a structure succumb to the wrath of mother nature. Along the road from Mandalay to the bridge, we passed through the town of Amara Pura and the disfigurement of the roads that unfortunately happened to be along the fault line has been so enormous that even all terrain vehicles have to be manoeuvred with utmost care along these roads.
Buildings
Surprisingly, the damage in Sagaing did not seem as vast as in Madalay, visually at least. May be due to the lack of large and high rise structures perhaps. Yet it was widespread. Front house, back house, guest house, outhouse, monk house, warehouse, town house, farm house, dog house, hen house, none of them were spared. All suffered some form of destruction.
Markets were back to normal at least. People were starting to go about doing their own daily activities.
Pagodas
We were privileged to have the chance to explore the compound of the most famous pagoda in Sagaing, Kaung Mhu Taw. Other than the main white colour dome-shaped pagoda, the rest of the structures within the compound were turned into a sea of rubble. Our filming team ventured into the compound without footwear (a tradition of respect to pagoda in Buddhism) avoiding broken glasses and shrapnels of various kinds. We believe the footage would represent a unique coverage in Myanmar history. Tunnels and walkways previously aligned with artworks and curving hundreds of years old were destroyed too, as the ceilings and the walls collapsed. Sadly these heritage of the eras of Kingdom dynasties would be lost forever.
The other pagodas starting from the one visible from the bridge crossing point were also equally unlucky. Umbrella sections of all pagodas we witnessed were gone, including Kaung Mhu Taw. The heritage ones suffered more.
Educational institutions
We managed to visit University of Cooperative and Management and Technology University, both in Sagaing. The damage was considerable in both universities. Collapsed roofs, fallen ceilings, broken windows, sharp and uneven broken floor tiles, fragmented stairs and steps, just to name a few.
