Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the $35 ones are far nicer than the standards, but all have a/c, flatscreen
TV
s and a minibar.
They also rent out bicycles (K3000/day) and motorbikes (K10,000/day).
$30
Mingun
The small, village-like town of
MINGUN
is, for many visitors, the most appealing of the
many attractions surrounding Mandalay. By making a trip here, you'll get historical attrac-
tions, a look at village life and a delightful ferry ride, all rolled up into one ball. The place
wouldlikelybeignoredtodaywereitnotforKingBodawpaya,whoin1790decidedtobuild
the gigantic
MingunPagoda
here. All that was completed by the time of his death, 29 years
later, was the bottom portion - an imposing cube of bricks on top of a huge terrace, its bulk
clearly visible from across the river in Mandalay. There are a few other modest sights around
theunfinishedpagoda,butperhapsmoreappealingisthechancetotakethepulseoflocallife
- you may well have no other option than to do so, since the schedule of the ferries linking
Mingun to Mandalay more or less obliges you to while away a couple of hours here. Merci-
fully, there are a few little places to
eat and drink
.
Mingun Pagoda
Currently off limits • In theory, part of
Sagaing-Mingun combination ticket
Quite possibly the world's largest pile of bricks, it's hard to imagine how majestic a sight
Mingun Pagoda
would have been if finished - using thousands of prisoners of war and
otherslavelabour,theprojectwasoriginallyintendedtoreachafinalheightofaround150m.
Thoughonlyone-thirdwascompleted,it'sstillanastonishingsight-andonemademoredra-
matic by the jagged, lightning-like fissures created when earthquakes hit in 1819 and 2012.
The latter 'quake saw the pathway heading up to the pagoda closed to visitors; it's unlikely
to reopen any time soon, though keep your fingers crossed.
On your way up to the pagoda from the river, you'll pass a pair of
chinthe
- half lion and
halfdragon,thesegiantfigureswerebuilttoguardthegiantstructure.Thoughthey'realmost
entirely ruined, it's still possible to get a vague idea of their shape, especially from the road-
side.
Settaya Paya
Daily 24hr • Free
Just south of Mingun Pagoda, the smaller
SettayaPaya
is a decidedly ugly structure, though
useful if you fancy leaving Buddha some shoes as an offering - inside the small hall you'll
see what locals claim to be
Buddha's footprint
, a metre-long indentation with shells on the
toes and a flower on the heel.
Pondaw Pagoda
Daily 24hr • Free
IncommonwithotherimportantBurmesesuper-structures,asmaller-scalereplicaofMingun
Pagoda sits nearby - it's located just south of Settaya Paya.
Pondaw Pagoda
is certainly
