Our first visit of the day was to the Kuthodaw Pagoda which holds a series of engraved slabs which is referred to as the worlds biggest book. There are 729 of them. The central stupa was again quite grand.
From here we went to an old Monestry that used to be covered in gold leaf - Shwenandaw Kyaung. It started off as a place for King Mindon to live in but as he died in there the following King didn't want to use it. They they made it into a Monestry. It is no longer used as a Monestry but is under the US heritage. The carved doors and inside were rather pretty.
We had a chance to go and see gold leaf being made which was amazing. They take a gold ribbon and hammer it for a long time until it is very thin. The first hammering made it feel like foil but by the end a small breath and it takes off! We also visited where they were making lacquered items and sewing tapestries.
Lunch was included in this trip and we had a variety of dishes provided. Again very impressive. Because of my poor tummy, I only had rice and a nibble of a few bits. I think it is the excessive oil in all the dishes that has caused my tummy upset as I eat/use so little oil in my diet normally. I tried the sugar pieces they had which tasted like fudge and also tamarind sweets which were delicious.
After lunch we got on a boat which was rather different from that in Lake Inle. It was large and moved slower which was very relaxing. This took us to Mingun. As soon as we got off the boat we had a lady attached to each of us trying to sell things like fans, Longyi, jewellery etc. They stuck with us and kept trying to persuade to buy something. This is something I hate and makes me feel uncomfortable. The same lady hassled me on the way back too :-(
On Mingun we visited three key things, the Mingun Pagoda which was 50m high and would have been 150m high if an earthquake had damaged it mid build. The Mingun bell which is the worlds heaviest functioning bell and the Hsinbyume Paya which was a whitewashed structure that our guide called Burmas Taj Mahal. We were approached by a different set of ladies selling things when we got here !
On the way back we passed many places selling Longyi, material, marionettes, fans, jewellery, etc. etc.
Our travel back by boat treated us to a lovely sunset across the water.
Before traveling back to the hotel we took a walk through the fish market and flower market. The fish stank and it was not a pretty sight with dead and gutted fish everywhere plus some dead chickens. The flowers were much more pleasant !
Dinner tonight was in a much posher restaurant and I stuck to grilled chicken.
A late 9am start again tomorrow for some more adventures in Burma :-)
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