-Marco woke up not feeling the best so we requested a short
day so he could come back and rest up. First up was a 30-minute drive to
Amarapura, also known as the “City of Immortals.” It also used to be the
capital of Myanmar at one time or another. Once there we visited the
Mahagandayon Monastery. The monastery is 150 years old and has 1,200 monks. The
monks here do not have to walk around asking for their daily meals, rather
donations are made to the monastery and the monks are fed both meals (breakfast
and lunch). Our guide explained that there is a yearlong waiting list to make a
donation and that each donation costs around $2,500. It does cover the 600kg of
rice that are eaten by the monks each day. Around 10am the monks made a huge
line to receive their last meal of the day. The novices, who dress in white for
their first two years, were just the cutest. One monk dropped his eating
utensils in the line with all the tourists watching, I felt so bad for him!
Mahagandayon Monstery:
-We then walked along U Bein Bridge. The 1.2km bridge is
made entirely of teak wood and is almost 150 years old. From what I could
understand from our guide, the wood was salvaged from old temples when the
capital was yet again moved, this time to Amarapura. During the rainy season
(now) the bridge covers a huge lake, but during the dry season a rive runs
through part of it. However, recently the new highway to Yangon was built so
that may alter the water levels during the dry season.
Marco on U Bein Bridge:
-We then drove back to Mandalay to check out Mahamuni
Pagoda, the most famous pagoda in Mandalay. It was built by a king in 1784 and
has a sacred Mahamuni image in it. I, as a woman, wasn’t allowed to go up to
the Buddha cast, but men come and cover the statue with gold leaf, so much so
that the Buddha has grown throughout the years.
Marco wearing a longyi (the traditional dress in Myanmar that is still worn by many):
I'm always surprised at just how many people go to the pagodas in Myanmar:
Mahamuni image:
-After that we went to take a look at how gold leaf is made.
It really is a crazy process. They start with a tiny ribbon of gold and cut it
into tiny pieces, hammering it until it expands. They hammer it with a 7lb
hammer for up to three hours. They then repeat the whole process a couple of
times so the original gold expands significantly. I think the guide said that
the final gold leaf was only 3 micrometers thick. Five square inch leaves then
sell for around 2,000 chat, or around $2.30.
Making gold leaf:
-We went to eat lunch at a restaurant named Mann, named so
because people often refer to Mandalay as so. The restaurant is considered
pretty famous here because it is mentioned in Lonely Planet and everyone here
carries around the Lonely Planet guide. Interestingly the first Lonely Planet
on Myanmar apparently didn’t come out until 1995. It was a nice little run down
place with some killer spring rolls. We headed back to the hotel afterwards to
spend the afternoon resting.
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