Day 14 - Morning in Amarapura

We paid in advance for our forth night at the hotel and the front desk guy arranged for transport for a half day excursion.  We went in the back of a Jeep.  First we stopped at the Mahamuni Paya.  It is a very venerated temple in Mandalay.  A lot of legends surround a Buddha statue housed here.  Rituals are performed each morning to wash it.  We didn't visit at 4:30 in the morning, so we didn't witness that odd rite.  We did see lots of men applying thin gold leaf squares.  The area around was amazing for the Buddhist artisans creating images from stone and marble.  Some were just a few feet high while there were perhaps twelve.  Also for sale were the metal temple caps peculiar to SE Asian pagodas.  I found it unique that such high volume industry could be carried out for such an artistic endeavour.



We then went to one of the largest monasteries in Burma.   We were right in time to see many of 1,300 monks queue up for lunch.  They form a procession that takes a half hour to complete.  We ran into many tourists snapping photos, so I went away feeling a little like an intruder, perhaps welcomed, but an intruder nevertheless.



We continued to the final site.  The U Being Bridge is made from teak wood and is over 200 years old.  We walked across the 1.2 kilometer span and back.  It was a nice place to spend time.  We got back in time to eat lunch near our hotel.



The afternoon was rest and afforded a bit of Internet time in our hotel's lobby.  In the evening we walked to the night market not far from the Clock Tower.  It wasn't as impressive as many in Asia, but it was worth the effort.  Tomorrow we have a day of leisure and then a night bus back to Rangoon.