Mingalabar is the Myanmar greeting which rolls easily off the tongue and seems to have been created to end with a smile, Burmese people have a wonderful happy character. We tok the short flight to Mandalay, the primary intent being to take the ferry to Bagan. It's amazing what can be packed into a few hours so we visited the Royal Palace (disappointing)and Kathadaw Pagoda, but the highlight was the wooden monastery built as a home by King Mindon, an incredible structure of intricate carving both inside and out.
We finished on top of mandalay Hill approaching sunset. This is a fine pagoda (a pagoda is a collection of any number of structures: stupahs which are solid and temples which can be entered and usually house one or more Buddhas)but it is not as magnificent as the Swedagon in Yangon.
The views over the surrounding countryside were spectacular as the sun set over the Irrawaddy River on which we would set sail for Bagan in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment