MYANMAR PART 1 - MANDALAY

I think most people would agree that Mandalay is not the prettiest of towns.  Sand swept streets, ugly new buildings and a dismal shopping centre aside, there are many beautiful places to see.

The seated Buddha in Mahamuni Paya was worthy of a visit, just to see how much the Buddha has grown, due to the amount of gold leaf that has been applied to it.

The 13 foot-high Buddha is recessed behind a screen and only men may approach it.  They clamber up to the base of the buddha to apply their gold leaf.  Women can watch the action on overhead televisions (see above).

Mandalay Palace (city as was) is in a huge moated area.  Foreign visitors can only enter the site through one gate and must stick to prescribed areas, as the site is also an army camp.   Sadly the palace seen today is a late 1990s rebuild, as the original caught fire in 1945 during WWII.  

There were very few people visiting the palace and the buildings were all empty.  We were stopped by another couple of tourists who asked us whether we had found anything to see yet!  Still, the overall look was impressive.

Palace watchtower.

All the corrugated roofs looked odd and we wondered just how authentic a rebuild this was.  I have since googled corrugated iron roofing.  It appears it was invented in the 1820s, so I guess it is possible that there were indeed corrugated iron roofs on the original buildings.

Kuthodaw Paya and Sandamuni Paya are together known as the world's biggest book.  Against a beautiful blue sky these structures looked stunning.

Kuthodaw Paya.

729 marble slabs like the one below are each housed in one of the little white buildings, which form a grid around a temple.

Sandamuni Paya houses another 1774 slabs

 Giant chinthe guard the entrance to the steps up Mandalay Hill.

A side trip also took us out of Mandalay to Sagaing a town with hundreds (if not more) temples, dotted around the hillsides and countryside.  Everywhere you looked, golden stupas glistened in the sun.  It was a wonderful sight, especially on approaching the town from the river.

This is a new temple.  I found it interesting to see how the stupas are still being built really ornately.  

Boy monk.

Monks queue for their breakfast at Maha Ganayon Kyaung.

Our journey back to the airport was a bit hairy as our betel chewing driver kept falling asleep at the wheel once we had left town.  My shouting "wake up" and Alan's kicking the driver's seat, helped to keep his eyes open.  Goodness knows how he made it back to Mandalay!