Nov 24, Boat trip to Mingun

Today I show up at the jetty on the Ayeyarwady River to take the government ferry to Min Gun. Here you see me sitting in the waiting area after getting my ticket.

This is a working harbour with all sorts of activity and many boats.

There are always some kids to pose for the camera.

The one in the striped shirt has the Burmese version of sun screen on his face. They make it as they need it by making a paste from the bark of some tree. Many women and children wear it.

I tried it and it is very drying to the skin. It also comes off when you sweat.

Our driver is pumping the water out of the bottom of the boat. They generally all leak a bit.

A view of some homes as we pass along the river.

I wasn't able to tell what they were working at here.

Looking back at the boat as we walk up the hill to Mingun.

These are the taxis in this town.

I could have walked but decided to use a taxi. It came with a guide so I actually got more information that way.

This is the bottom third of a stupa that was never finished because the king died. It is made of brick.

We climbed to the top and found a good view of the surrounding area.

This bell was in another temple. It is purported to be the second largest uncracked bell in the world. I am not even going to check that.

It had a nice tone.

The guide took me to this hospital/home for the aged. This is the exam room.

This is the whole pharmacy.

There was only one nurse and she lived right there with her son. Occasionally they got a visiting doctor.

The conditions were fairly good in the home part although it was dorm style, but the hospital rooms were dismal.

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The white temple.

Stairway to the white temple.

This is my guide.

Back in town I went directly to Mandalay Hill where I set out to go to the top where the Buddha is and where there is an excellent view of the city. One of these creatures (leogryphs) is on each side of the entrance way.

This is the entrance. All you can see further up the hill is trees so I had no idea how far it was, but it turned out to be a lot farther than I thought. The climb was broken every so often by level areas where there were pagodas and monasteries. Each time I thought I was nearing the top another set of stairs would appear behind the next pagoda. By the time I had climbed more than enough for me the thoughts of turning back began to be countered by determination not to waste the effort I had already put in, and so I continued.

This lovely rest area was along the way. It will be my flower for today.

There were people selling snacks, drinks, and offerings for use in the pagodas all along the way. It appeared that some of them lived right on the hill along the stairway.

I made it to the top and was able to see the whole city and the countryside all around. I took a few pictures but none were good enough to share. The view was impressive though.

On the way down I counted the steps and was astounded to discover there were 949. Going both ways is then 1898 steps. I took a wrong direction once coming down and had to retrace 66 steps. That adds another 132 to the number of steps I took so the grand total for me was 2030 steps. My legs are getting stronger. I could go down in that cave now Susan.