The morning we left Mandalay, we stopped upriver at the small town of Mingun. We saw an uncompleted stupa, which would have been the largest in the world had it been completed. And we saw a huge brass bell which was the biggest in the world until the Chinese made a bigger one in 2000. The stupa was not completed because the king was told that he would die when it was finished. He told the workers to go home.
The next day we had a full day tour to Hpowindaung Caves. There were about 1000 niches and caves carved into a sandstone hill, with Buddha statues in each of them. Dating back to the 13h century, many retained their original color. We also went to the Thanboddhay Pagoda, famous for its nearly 600,000 Buddhas--you have to have been there.
The following day we visited two small villages. The first village made clay pots that are used throughout the nation to hold drinking water. The villagers make 2000 a day by hand. The second village was much smaller (maybe 200 people) and made a brown sugar from the sap of the toddy palm tree. We left school supplies in both villages. This brings up a great story. Part of the supplies we brought from the States was a hand turn pencil sharpener to fasten on a wall. When we entered Myanmar and went through security, the officers stopped Kathy's suitcase. They pulled out the pencil sharpener and handed it to 3 different levels of supervisers, not knowing what it was or whether it should be allowed. Finally Kathy pulled out a pencil and shoved in the hole and turned the handle to show them what it did. Everyone had a good laugh about that. It was not a weapon afterall.
Three afternoons during the cruise, talks were given by our guides about Buddhism, Myanmar history and finally Myanmar's current political situation. We can share more if anyone is interested.
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