Afternoon ancient cities cultural tour

5. 45 Buddhas temple - A beautiful gold and pale blue crescent shaped building, with 45 golden Buddhas inside. The driver came with us to visit the temple as his family sponsored a section of the temple. We may have missed the amazing lush views of Sagaing hill from the rooftop if he hadn't.
6. Soon U Poonya Shin - A huge gold Buddha in a mirrored and bejeweled room. Outside had some lovely tile work (and cool to stand on!).
7. Ancient Ava or Innwa - We were dropped at the jetty for a quick boat ride (car engine obviously) over to the other side of the river. The ancient city is now mostly banana plantations and rice fields interspersed with historical buildings, aging pagodas and a monastery. The area is a tourist trap with no signs to tell you how to get anywhere and we had to use the touristy horse & cart. After the first stop we caught the driver punching the horse; so we swapped drivers and refused to pay, he didn't seem bothered.
Throughout the day we stopped at a few factories, including gold leaf made by hand (beating molten gold for 5 hours between handmade bamboo paper!), wood carving and silk weaving. The amount of handmade work is quite insane.Read more