Mandalay

 We chatted and took pics with the locals, then liked up for our own group pic, when paparazzi with a spotlight appeared to take their own pics of us, then had a family line up chairs in front of us to have their family picture taken with us. 

Back at the hotel, we couldn’t sit out long because of mosquitoes..no malaria in the more populated regions fortunately, but I had a bloody battle with them in our room and I ended up with my legs covered in red spots.

The next day we went by truck up Mandalay Hill for a view of the city, then to the gorgeous site of the largest book in the world, Kuthodaw Pagoda.  There is one page in each of some 700 white temples. 

We walked from there to the Golden Palace monastery, a wooden building with amazing carvings, rebuilt after bombings in World War II destroyed most of the surrounding buildings. 

We drove to the banks of the Ayayerwaddy River to our boat for an hour cruise to the town of Mingon, site of a massive unfinished pagoda. We were asked not to climb the newly added stairs to the top due to the huge cracks caused by earthquakes. 

 We visited a local home, bought a few things from the locals and returned to the boat for a sunset cruise.

The following day we went to a gold shop to see gold pounded into the gold leaf that coats many pagodas, then went to the most expensive temple in the country, with everything gold plated.  There we saw a ceremony with boys adorned with makeup and pink wraps, Pai told us this was a ceremony for boys going in to be monks but pink is for nuns…I wondered if these were ladyboys who are so prevalent in neighbouring Thailand but I was told no….?? 

We saw the marble carvers street, where the white dust covered men are working mainly on huge Buddhas.

We also checked out a monastery housing 1600 monks.  They are sponsored by families who provide them with necessities (and iPhones) that they may not have themselves.

Along the way we ran across a local festival, so entered the throngs and discovered that we had just missed an ox cart race. The people wanted us to see it, so staged a short race just for us! 

We took trucks up Sagain Hill and visited a couple of the many temples on the hill. Then to U-Bein bridge, the longest teak bridge in the world about 1 km long, where the locals gather to watch the sunset.