November 16, 2014
Ming-guh-la-ba
An early start this morning as we were off the boat by 7.30 am for a visit to Sin Kyun village. The Sanctuary company, who own our cruise boat, have adopted this village and paid for a school to be built and for a English speaking teacher from Mandalay to teach English, Myanmar and mathematics to the primary school children. As we approached the shore we were greeted by a row of children from the age of 2 up to 10 years old all waving at us. As it was a Sunday they were not at school. Our guide had taught us how to say hello - Ming-guh-la-ba - which I practised saying to everyone we met on our walk through the village much to their amusement.As we were the first paying guests to visit the village - they had a group of travel agents acting as guinea pigs the week before - everyone was very curious to meet us and pose for photos and we were followed everywhere by the children. I am not quite sure how they are going to feel after a few months of weekly visits of tourists traipsing through their village. Will it be worth the price of education? I guess they must think it is. As they waved us off to shouts of “See you later” - it did make me laugh especially as I accidentally added the word “alligator” in reply.
We were back on the boat for a short sail to Mingun. On the sandy shore there were a dozen oxen hitched to rickety wagon carts with the word “taxi” written on the side. We hadn’t realised they were our transportation until we were told to climb into one. Not the most comfortable of journeys! We arrived at the red bricked unfinished Pagoda - Mingun Paya - which was started in 1790 by the King. If it had been finished it would have been the world’s largest Pagoda but he died in 1819 and only the base of the pagoda and the four entrance ways were finished. It is still pretty enormous - so much so that when we initially sailed past I thought it was a flat topped mountain on the side of the river. The structure has some pretty serious cracks running down it from the 1838 and 2012 earthquakes. Some of our group were brave enough to climb up and stand on the crumbling top.
From here we walked to the world’s biggest ringable bell made from bronze in 1808 and commissioned by the same king. It weighs 90 tonnes and is 13ft highland 16ft wide. You can crawl underneath it and admire all the white graffiti while someone hits the bell on the outside with a wooden baton. Once again I was asked by local tourists to pose with them for a photo - I'm getting quite used to feeling famous.
We then stopped at the white washed Hsinbyume Paya which gave us great views of the top of the unfinished pagoda from the top. Our ox and cart taxi drivers were waiting for us when we came out and shoogled us back to the boat.
We now have the rest of the day and evening on the boat to just chill and read our books and as I type we seem to be back where we started in Mandalay. I’m beginning to wonder if this cruise boat is actually going anywhere!
Thankfully we didn't stop and berthed just before dark.
And from David : The locals still find tourists a somewhat curious lot, and are not quite sure what to make to make of us. As we were leaving the site of the bell , this little girl came up to Jacqui and gave her an apple. What we have subsequently experienced is the kids like to make small gifts.. to Jacqui.. I have yet to be sufficiently worthy of a little gift...make of that what you will.