From: Helen
Date: April
19 2006
Day 9 – April 19
| After climbing out of the boat, assisted by at least two people we visited the Shwe Yan Pyay Monastery before we travelled to Heho for our plane to Mandalay. | |
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| Shwe Yan Pyay Monastery, a beautiful old wooden building with character galore. | The faithful come to worship. |
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Mandalay Airport is new, huge and empty. It is, however, ready for any sudden influx of tourists, whenever that may be. At the Airport we met up with Mi Mi our local, pint-sized guide, whose English was very good and whose knowledge was excellent. She took us under her wing and we set off to discover the sights and sounds of Mandalay.
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| At the Golden Palace Monastery we not only saw a superb example of a traditional wooden building we also met some pilgrims from Thanbyuzayat. They all thought it was wonderful that I had travelled to their home village to visit my father’s grave. | |
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| The Golden Palace Monastery has been moved three times. The last move because after the king died every time his son entered the building he felt haunted by his father's memory . This is the only part of the royal palace still standing. The rest, in Mandalay, was destroyed during World War 11. | Seventeen men, women and children were piled into the utility along with everything they might need during their pilgrimage. For eight days they travelled visiting some of their country’s religious and tourist attractions. Food, as well as somewhere to sleep, was more often yhan not provided by the monasteries they visited. |
At the Kuthodaw Pagoda we saw the world’s largest book.
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| One of the many alleys of pagodas housing stone pages of the Buddhist holy 'book'. | There are 729 small pagodas. Buddhist scholars inscribe the text onto the tablet housed in each pagoda. The written words were, originally, highlighted in gold. |
In the late afternoon we headed to Mandalay Hill to witness the setting of the sun as well as the pagodas. The trip up the hill was by utility and I'm pleased to say it was nowhere near as crowded as when it carries locals. For me, the most memorable happening on Mandalay Hill was meeting up with the pilgrims again. I was really touched that they recognised me and welcomed me like a long, lost friend. |
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