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Published: March 7th 2016
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Elephant dance
The boat next to ours is still partying before its maiden voyage departure. The elephants have two men underneath doing the dance to traditional music. Day 9-Thursday Afternoon-January 21 This afternoon we had a bus tour of Mandalay.
We then went to Shwenandaw Monastery, an architectural masterpiece filled with wood carvings. It's also known as the "Golden Palace Monastery". At one time this building was part of the palace complex and was used as an apartment by King Mindon and his chief queen, and it was in this building that he died. After Mindon's death, King Thibaw Min had the building dismantled and reassembled on its present site in 1880 as a monastery. It is said that Thibaw used the building for meditation, and the couch on which he sat can still be seen.
This monastery is famous for its beautiful wood-carvings. This wooden monastery is carved all over with motifs and mythical creatures. It was once entirely covered in thick gold, but only the interior gold remains due to the harshness of the tropical weather. Some of the outer carvings have been removed, having been damaged by the weather. Inside the monastery, there are 10 jataka scenes taken from the Buddha's life. These are still in a very good condition.
We then went to the Mahamuni Buddha Temple, also called the Mahamuni
Shenandaw Monastery
This amazing monastery is also called the Golden Palace Monastery. Pagoda, it is a Buddhist temple and major pilgrimage site located southwest of Mandalay. It is highly venerated in Burma and central to many people's lives, as it is seen as an expression of representing the Buddha's life and includes the bronze Mahamuni Buddha. It is covered by the faithful with a thick layer of gold leaf. Only men are allowed to get close to the image and place the gold leaf on it.
We also visited the King Galon Gold Leaf Workshop of skilled craftsmen making the thin gold sheets of gold, all done manually. They put the small bit of gold between special sheets of paper and then sledgehammer it for hours, then cut it into six pieces and hammer it for hours again…Amazing.
We then went to the U-Bein Bridge, the world’s longest teakwood footbridge. It's a crossing that spans the Taungthaman Lake. We walked on it for a while. It was a bit crowded. The 1.2-kilometre (0.75 mi) bridge was built around 1850 and is believed to be the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world. Though the bridge largely remains intact, there are fears that an increasing number of the pillars are
A side view
The underneath is open as it is in many of the structures in Myanmar, especially the wooden ones. becoming dangerously decayed. Afterwards we were treated with a gondola-style boat ride on the lake around the bridge area and celebrated with glasses of champagne that were provided by a couple crewmembers in another boat. We were hoping to enjoy the sunset but it was somewhat overcast. We still had a great time and experience. We boarded the bus and made our final stop at a fabric factory and watched several young ladies working magic on their weaves. It was a full day! The bus took us back to the boat. We had an enjoyable dinner and retired for the night after a long day.
The boat departed Mandalay and overnighted in Sagaing.
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