We landed in Mandaly for a boat trip and we started off with a tour of the local fresh produce markets in the morning.  It is a great way to see what the local produce is and all the little treats you can get.

We also saw some monks and nuns in action with their morning routine of getting food.

It was an action packed day and our next activity was on the ferry at 7:30am to Mongon, the trip took 1.5 hrs.  We saw the largest unbroken bell (I am going to say in the world?) and one of the largest temples in Myanmar which was only a 1/4 finished, if it was finished it would have been 400m x 400m.  That is a lot of bricks.

Looking at this photo, it looks like I am being attacked my double chins, apparently this is what happens when you do a selfie in front of a very big bell.  I bought a traditional skirt that was tailored while I waited for 7000 Kyat ($6.80).  We got back on the ferry and had a buffet lunch of curries back in Mandaly, it was fantastic and they had air con.  

We then had free time till 3:15pm so Niels and I went ruby hunting but with no success.  We then piled into two taxis and visited a Teak Monastery.  The most interesting thing about this monastery was there was a mastabating monk, no joke, he had his hands under his robe and there was movement.  Anyway here are some pictures of the teak.

We then went to visit a gold leaf manufacturing business for putting on temples.  The gold leaf has to be beaten by hand and they get 720 leafs out of 1 gram of gold and this takes 6 hours of beating.  It is a 6kg hammer and they earn about $150-$200 USD per month.

Here is a video of this hard, hard work.

gold leaf manufacturing

We then went to a temple which has the big book, all on stone. It is amazing the detail that they get on each tablet. Apparently there is a monk that knows the total book off by heart.

The last destination of the day was Mandaly Hill for another temple and view of the city.

The next day was a bus ride to Kawlaw.  We stopped many times to look at a teak bridge, marble carvings, and saw an elephant dancing.

Where we stopped for lunch, I went to the toilet and this was it.  I thought that it was quite interesting.

We had a quick tour our Kawlaw once we arrived and saw the railway station, we were all pretty gun shy of trains by then. 

The next day was our trekking day, but due to very heavy rain, the walk was changed a bit.  We left at 8am and saw ginger, oranges, tea, and Jack Fruit and had a home cooked lunch in one of the villages.  I started looking at the clothing that was on sale and I was interested in a colourful outfit so they asked if I wanted to try it on, it was a bridal outfit.  The other lady with me was a member of our group, Katja from USA. 

These are some of the vehicles we saw out and about, like the Chinese tractor in North Vietnam.

We rested the rest of the afternoon and had a great dinner at the Noodle Place with a couple of Poms, Phil and Jade.

Our bus the next day to Inle Lake was not until 12pm, so I decided to get my hair washed and a massage.  It is great getting your hair washed especially since I had fallen off my motorbike in Northern Vietnam so the arm above the shoulder was not fun.  On our bus ride we visited umbrella making, a railway bridge and another Teak monastery.  This time all the monks behaved themselves.

Of course I had a bit of a spit on the windy roads in the bus, so nothing unusual there.  We made it safely to Inle Lake and had an orientation walk.  We then split up and Niels and I sat outside a pub drinking and eating pizza watching the world go buy.  On the way back, I got a shirt mended and the lady was not going to accept any money.  Niels also bought a skirt, yep, the traditional male clothing in Myanmar.

The following day was the day for the lake, Lake Inle.  We started off by going through channels which opened up into the lake.  We witnessed foot paddling, they stand on the back of their wooden boat and use one of their feet to move the paddle while casting and pulling in their net.  It is very skilful.

Our first stop on the lake was a walk around a traditional village and then the second stop was silver jewellery manufacturing.  It was 98% silver, 2% copper. We then had our group photo and went for lunch.

After lunch we had three more stops before going home, weaving fabric, boat making out of Teak and a blacksmith.  It takes 1 month to weave the material and it takes 1 year of training.  The blacksmith was using scrap metal to mould into new items and there are only two teak boat makers on the lake.

For dinner we went to a local house that was advertised on Trip Advisor.  It is owned and operated by a single lady who has her 85 year old mother as the waitress.  The food is delicious and she will cook to your taste.  We had a wonderful night there with Mel, Phil and Jade. 

The last full day of our trip had optional activities, so we chose the biking and the hot springs with a Pagoda.  We started with the group and then we were left to our own devices.  It was too hot for the hot springs so we visited a pagoda and found one with lots of puppies.  We also walked up a very steep hill to a pagoda on the top of the hill and it had its own “Hot Air Hole”.  Basically it was a steam vent from geothermal system.  We had lunch and met Phil and Jade and they told us that the Teak Monastery that we had previously visited but had missed the Buddha Temple which has thousands of Buddhas in it, so we biked there.

We had our farewell dinner and prepared for our flight for the next day.

We got on the bus at 7:30am to go to the airport at Heho to Yangon.  Not sure what happened, this bus ride was brutal on me and had a few up chucks.  Our boarding passes at Heho were hand written and they didn’t require any ID and flight time was 1.5 hrs and then we had a 1 hr taxi ride for 10km to our hotel in Yangon.  I wasn’t feeling too hot so I rested and Niels went to the National Museum.  We had a last dinner with a couple of  the tour group and then bid farewell.  It is always sad.

The highlight for me was Bagan and all the temples and I was surprised how modernized the country was and there was an Indian feel to the place with the food, clothing ad chaotic tendencies.  Well worth a visit.

Dates: 28th October 2016 to the 3rd November 2016