Arrival in Mandalay

Our next guide, Kyaw Ngwe, ( say – chon whay or John Wayne) met us and swept us into the car to get to Amarapura along very bumpy and incredibly dusty roads to see the Maha Ganayon Kyaung monastery where the monks would be coming back from their alms gathering for breakfast   This was one of the times that we were happy to have a private guide, because he not only showed us around the monastery, but made sure we had particularly good places for taking photos.  It was also a surprise to see so many other tourists – apparently many people arrive as we did, and visit the same places at the same time.  It was interesting to see the hundreds of monks, young and old, file in to eat, but not so much to see what seemed like hundreds of people taking photos, and handing out the rice.  I have to say I found walking past the monks’ laundry - deeply coloured robes hanging on clotheslines almost as interesting!