Thursday 17 February

A wonderful morning.  We left the hotel around 8 to go the jetty for our ‘private boat’ to Mingun.  Not sure what I had expected by a private boat, but it certainly wasn’t this.  We had to walk across planks from one boat to another, and somewhere around the 7^th or 8^th found ours - wooden, fairly primitive, home to a young couple with a baby.  But deck chairs on top and a sun canopy, so we were comfortable.  And riding along the Irrawaddy, with mist on the edge of the river, seeing temples rise out of the mist was quite amazing.  We took photos of everything, including the toddler helping her mother with the ropes as we landed.

On landing, we did not take the ox cart ‘Taxi’, but instead walked the short distance to the Mingun temple, a monumental uncompleted stupa, which we did manage to climb, for great views. On to the ‘white temple’ Hsinbyume Paya, where whitewashed terraces represent mountain ranges, and to the Mingun bell, supposedly the largest hung, un-cracked bell in the world, weighing 90 tonnes.  Managed to give it a thump.