Day 36: Mandalay to Monywa

-The next day we drove to Sagaing Hill, which is known for its nunnery’s. We first stopped at Kaunghmudaw Pagoda. It had tons of Buddha statues and a great view over the village/city. We also stopped at two other pagodas- the Oo Min Thonese and Shan Oo Pon Nya Shin Pagodas. From the view we could see even more pagodas! The monks and nuns really take a toll on the economy here as the local people provide for most of their meals.  We then went to visit a nunnery that is based off of the monastery we visited yesterday. Here meals are also provided for by donations, although there are only 160 nuns, compared to 1,200 monks.  There we also saw the nuns take their last meal of the day.

Marco at Kaunghmudaw Pagoda:

Nuns receiving their last meal:

All the flip flops outside of the lunch room:

-We then started our two-hour drive to Monywa, a typical Burmese town located on the bank of the Chindwin River. The Chindwin is one of the two main river systems in Myanmar, the other being the Irrawaddy. We stopped at the Hindu Style Than Buddha Temple, which had a huge dome. Marco and I were shocked to see tons of owlets stuck into small cages to be set free at the temple. Our guide explained it was fine since they were owlets, and that the owls were blind so we shouldn’t let them out during the day. Why were they selling them then? We then stopped for lunch at a local place, where our guide and driver joined us. I wasn’t a huge fan of the local dishes so I stuck to rice and beans, although apparently eating beans in Myanmar is a sign you are from central Myanmar.

Owlets for sale:

Thanaka, a cosmetic and sun-repellent, for sale:

Our local lunch:

-Next on the itinerary was Alantayar Pagoda, where you can find the largest reclining Buddha image in all of Southeast Asia, measuring in at 300 feet long (very different from the 288 feet long reclining Buddha we saw in Yangon). Before the reclining Buddha though we saw the 31-storey standing Buddha. We managed to climb up to the 17^th floor, but you couldn’t go any higher than that due to construction. The lift along the Buddha’s back wasn’t working either. Apparently when it first opened three monks went up but they hadn’t tested out the lift yet so it broke somewhere eon the way down and two of the monks broke their legs and backs. The other one got off just fine.

-We then went to a temple full of tiny miniature Buddha’s all over the place. It was beautiful but there’s a time when you get pagoda and Buddha’d out, and that time had arrived about 3 pagodas ago.

-We drove along to our hotel in Monywa and relaxed by watching some Teranova, our new guilty addiction. We then walked across the street to the local beer garden for some dinner. We were treated like celebrities being the only foreigners there. Our guide had taught us how to say thank you in Burmese and our waiter, a small 13-year-old boy, was shocked.