There’s a pretty well trodden path around Myanmar known as the “Big 4” which consists of Yangon, Bagan, Manadalay and Inle Lake. The airlines all of set up what amounts to a circular route that goes between those destinations. The flight from Nyaung U (Bagan) and Mandalay is very short at only about 30 minutes.

Mandalay airport is very modern and quite large. It even has jetways connected to the building. But for some reason these are not used for domestic flights which all park out on the ramp and you are bused to the lower level domestic terminal which is rather small and cramped. The airport is also quite far from the city and the drive takes about an hour.

Another hotel snafu led to my ultimately staying at the Ayarwaddy Riverview Hotel. The hotel is rather new but on the outskirts of town. It seems to be mainly catered to Asian bus tours. But the staff were very nice. The bell boys wear these ridiculous outfits with little hats like something out of the 1940s. But they had a good sense of humor about it.

Our first stop was the Mahamuni Pagoda which is home to a rather famous Buddha image known, unsurprisingly, as the Mahamuni Buddha. It was taken from Mrauk U in 1784 and over the years it has been covered in tons of gold leaf to the point where its now just kind of a giant blob of gold. Only men are allowed into the main sanctum where the Buddha is housed. If you are a man you are allowed to climb up and basically get face to face with it.










It’s a little hard to see, but these photos show how it has looked through the years.



While the name Mandalay conjures up images of the old Orient, the city itself is actually not very old compared to many other cities in the country.

There are separate streets around town for each of various crafts including marble carving which is done today with very modern power tools that make quite a racket and mess.





There’s also a famous shop where they make gold leaf by hand-hammering it. The process is very labor intensive. Not sure why I didn’t take any pictures there....

There are some very large temple sites in the city.

This old teak monastery was built in the 1850s but was moved to its present site.








Kuthodaw Pagoda, home to "the world's largest book" inscribed on marble tablets, one page in each little pagoda


scale model of the pagoda






Kyaukdawgyi Paya on Mandalay Hill overlooking town has this large Buddha carved out of a single block of marble