Day 34: Mandalay Day 2

-We had an early start today compared to yesterday and met our tour guide, Jewel (pronounced that way at least, not so sure about the spelling). Our itinerary had planned for us to go across the river to Mingun in the afternoon one day, but Jewel wanted us to go in the morning before the river got too wavy. We took an hour ride over on a little boat. There were some amazing views of the local villages here basically built in the middle of the river on little patches of land. The houses are either floating or built on stilts. It was incredible and so beautiful.

Sone of the houses:

 Marco on the boat:

-Once we made it to Mingun we saw the unfinished Mingun Pagoda. It was intended to be the world’s biggest pagoda but building kind of stopped and then a lot of the pagoda was destroyed in an earthquake. We then walked on over to the tomb of a monk who recited 16,000 pages of scripture. He was a Guinness world record winner in 1992 for memorizing that much. Since then several other monks have been inducted into this semi-hall of fame for doing the same. The statue kind of made him look like a hipster monk.

The unfinished pagoda:

Hipster monk:

-We walked a little further to see the Mingun Bell, which is supposedly the largest ringing bell in the world, supposedly. Then we walked on to visit the Hsinbyume Pagoda, or the white pagoda, as I like to call it. A king built the pagoda for his wife when she passed away. It’s different than the other pagodas because it was created to look like the mythological Mt. Meru, or the universe. Apparently the Buddhists see the universe as a sea with a mountain in the middle. It was said the king’s love for his wife was as big as the universe, so he built the universe for her.

Mingun Bell:

A local taxi:

Hsinbyume Pagoda:

Some adorable local boys:

-We then walked back to the boat but had to wait around for an hour because the waves were too rough. We ended up taking a bigger boat back along with six Spanish women. We ate some delicious pineapple with lime on it. I was skeptical and don’t even like pineapple usually, but this was delicious.

Napping on the boat:

-Once back on the other side we went to a local place for lunch, the Shan Buffet Restaurant. It was actually pretty good. I only have one complaint, which is the company we organized the tour with didn’t mention that they don’t provide meals for the guide. So usually we end up paying for the guide’s lunch. It’s not a big deal but just a little annoying that they didn’t mention that, especially because we tip the guide each day on top of that.

-After lunch we went back to the hotel for an afternoon siesta. Only there did Marco and I realize just how burnt we were. I didn’t even notice getting burnt on the boat because it was so cloudy, but now I look like a lobster with a sunglasses tan.

-We resumed our tour at 4pm when we headed to Shwenandaw Monastery, or the Golden Palace Monastery. It was a beautiful wood carved temple that used to be covered in gold leaf until the rain washed it away. The old king used to love the temple and died in it so his son, the last king, donated the temple to the monks. It used to be located in Mandalay Palace.

Shwenandaw Monastery:

-We then went to Kuthodaw Pagoda, known for having the world’s biggest book. This book turned out to be stone slaps inscribed with Buddhist scriptures. If piled up they would make a 24-storey building and if they were laid down flat next to each other they would cover 14 acres.

A dog taking shelter next to a scripture:

Marco and another pagoda:

-Our final destination for the day was Mandalay Hill to watch the sunset. There was a gorgeous (almost) 360-degree view of the city and the surrounding grasslands. Mandalay is the second largest city in Myanmar but it’s tiny compared to cities in the US. The sun took a while to set and it was pretty cloudy so we left early to go and buy some movies (we’ve run out of ones to watch in the evenings).

Sunset: