This morning we took a plane after an early breakfast and by 10 o'clock we were driving a rather hot and dry road to mandalay. The countryside is quite dry and sandy but with many trees. Farmers are riding bullock carts along dirt tracks alongside a rather shoddily built dual carriage way with beautiful flowering bushes on the central reservation. Upon our arrival in town we are pleasantly surprised that the traffic is not as manic as yangon but with a numbered street grid system you have to be on the lookout for the ubiquitous motor bikes coming at you from all sides. we first stopped along the marble statue workers street where child labour and scant regard for health and safety are the norm. Many buddhas are fully formed apart for their faces which await a purchaser who will decide whether to have a chinese or indian style face.
then we visited the mahamunipaya pagoda which reminded us of the caravanserais in iran where shopping arcades lead to a temple . the buddha is believed to be a living statue and devotees put gold leaf on it daily but the face is left intact as the monks wash it daily. Some interesting bronze statues brought back as loot from angkor wat in the 1500's.a huge trigon and a normal round gong. Locals do seem to love being photographed with us probably due sebastian's resemblance to Father Christmas! For lunch we went to the Unique Myanmar restaurant which we were told is one of the best in the country and they were not far wrong. We arrived at our hotel with a pool and we all had a dip prior to our evening excursions.
Our first stop was to visit the only surviving structure from the royal palace that was destroyed during the war.It survived by being converted from the king's residence to a monastery in the late 19th century. Outside it was all weathered teak but inside there were still traces of gold on the woodwork. There were also some cherub carvings made by the king at the time to ingratiate himself with the British as he sought to unify the country by diplomacy . Unfortunately for him a family coup led to the complete opposite and upper burma became a colony. Next to it is another monastery but this has only an original lower wall with the upper floors being made of brick and it is still unfinished. Across the road is the largest pagoda complex in the world also built by the same king. This has over 750 stupa each one containing two pages of the glory to the buddha sutra although they look like grave stones. Nearby was a monastery where we watched the novice monks process towards the prayer hall for the evening ritual.
For dinner we all piled onto the back of a lorry taxi which took us through the lively back streets to an all you can eat Shan buffet, food being very similar to chinese cuisine , cheap and delicious . Sebastian was pleased to try the local Black Shield stout (8.1%!),it made another change from myanmar lager.