There is one particular notice inside the golden palace monastery that caught my attention!! Why the prohibition is ordered? May be i didnt fully alert when our official explained, but until now I dont know why? the prohibition that is!

concrete stair leading to the golden palace monastery!

Gold-plated pillars!

gold-plated ceiling!

Golden palace

The golden palace monastery

The Golden Palace

Hi, its been sometimes i have not updated on our visits to Myanmar. Ok, next stop is the visit to the Golden Palace Monastery. the name says it all, it is all about gold!! the walls, the ceilings, the poles, .. all gold, gold-plated that is!!

Myatheindan

built by Myanmar king Bagyidaw in 1816, there years before he succeded Myanmar Burma Bodawpaya as king, this Myanmar stupa was constructed in memory of his senior wife, the Hsinbyume princess. It is built as a representation of the Sulamani Paya, which according to the Buddhist plan of the cosmos, stands atop Mt Meru (the mountain that stands at the centre of the universe). The seven white washed wavy terraces around the stupa represent the seven mountain rages around Mt Meru, while the five kinds of Mythical monsters can be found in inches on each terrace level. This structure was also badly damaged in the 1838 quake, but Myanmar king Mindon had it restored in 1874.

ticket booth in Mingun

many souvenir shops along the track from the unfinished pagoda to the Mingun bell.. well, as Mr. Myo said, I learnt my lesson well here when come to buy souvenirs in Myanmar!!

noh is banging the bell, marion is taking picture and mr. sok is studying the myanmar text!!

more graffitis.. more emotions!!

like any other cultures, this bell is not spared from grafitti!! lots of emotions, expressions were laid down here!! just wonder how they got the gut to go under the bell.. what if the hang broke?? ok, ok, its just me!!

i just wonder how the inside of this bell looks like. suprise! suprise!

the description about the Mingun Bell!!

behind me is a huge bell called Mingun Bell.. it is the 2nd largest bell in the world, after the bell in Russia.. but Mingun Bell still can claim itself as the largest hanging bell in the world that anybody can ring, or rather bang!! it's weight as written clearly on the bell like number 99999 is in myanmar text, saying 90 tons!! hey.. anybody dare to sleep under this bell??? its cool here!!!

it's me at the top of the Pahtotawgyi, the unfinished supposed to be the largest pagoda in the world!

so here we are, the conquerers of the pagoda, hahaha !! at the top of the supposed to be the largest pagoda in the world!!! view from this top just amazing!!

Pahtotawgyi was built by King Bodawpaya in 1819. Pahtotawgyi, was badly damaged by the earthquake during the 1838. If the king had completed the constructions of this Pagoda it would have been the largest in the world. We were told that the king stopped this gigantic project when a monk told him that if he completed this project, he will died!

guess what?? we are going to the top of this unfinished pagoda!!

from our boat we saw this very peculiar object.. its so big and just seemed thrusted out from the gorund!!

Guess Who are shopping here?? no prize for correct answer!! Who is relaxing at the back there?? wow.. our boss, Mr. Myo!!

yeah its me on the top deck.. the view along the river just amazing. the temperature is cold!! and we have the honor of being piloted by Prof. Sok!! sory prof. can't find your pic, i thought i took one!

people and boats at the jetty- we have to walk through many boats to reach our boat

this is the boat took us cruising along the Ayerrawaddy River [ as we always know it as Irrawaddy River]

Another day in Mandalay! today were ae gonna do something very special.. river curise that is!! The cruise took us to a place called Mingun.

Of course, if you were on the Mandalay Hill, you want to view the sun set!!

another view from the Mandaly Hill.. if not mistaken, the picture shows the road leading to a very rich gems mining!!

view from Mandalay Hill, seen is the University of Traditional Medicine, and futher behind in the photo [the semi-circle shape] is the prison!!

Me and Noh, @ Mandalay Hill!

beautiful temple at the top of Mandalay Hill, but the view from the top of this hill is even breath-taking!!

Mandalay Hill, very famous/religious and historical hill in Myanmar history.. we are going to climb this hill.. hehe.. not by foot but by van!!

Another photo session.. inside the palace complex! thank you Mr Myo, but sorry that you have to be our photo man!

The last king of Burma, King Thibaw and his queen, Suphayalat [not sure if I got her name right!] Burma was defeated by British at the end of 3rd Anglo-Burmese Wars, and became British colony! He was King Mindon's son. I'm not sure if he is loved as his father is!

Here is Mr. Sok, couldn't resist the temptation to be picutred with King Mindon! Very popular king of Burma, who modernised Burma! not very sure about this, but i think i heard that he is the king most loved by people of Myanmar!

Inside the palace complex.. look the top roof. you will see like a small "hut" . we were told a gaurd was staioned there to keep away the bird from flying over the palace .. No bird, no nothing should fly over the palace roof.. birds will be shot if they came too close !

the model of the Palace!

Our next stop was at The Mandalay Royal Palace - very big complex and a must visit if you're in Mandalay.. with moth surrounding this magnificinet complex.. I lost word how to describe it..just awsome!!

one of the many types of jeep made in Myanmar, so we were told!! this was in Mandalay, in front of the very nice/tasty "Thai" restuarant where we had our lunch after the Mingun trip! Love to own one, the Jeep, not the restaurant!

This cathedral is the one in the Yangon city- very close to the hotel where we stayed.

I saw a cathederal in the middle of Manadaly city.

the engravings as seen on the wall of the monestry

In Mandaly, we also visited this wooden monestry. the unique feature about this monestry is the engravings on its wall, ceiling, doors, windows, almost everything about it.

the note says, this is the 3rd time beting to increase the size, will will take 5 hours!

making gold process - from the gold ribbon they cut it into the small piece, which latte beaten to form the small round plate [as in the left of pic] this the fist time beating that takes about 30 mins.

the first place we visited in Mandalay was this workshop making gold leaf.. mostly used for Buddha images.. from a small piece of solid gold, these guys will in beat it in stages of process for about six hours when the gold leaf is made and ready to use!! 6 hours?? wow..

I thought i saw bigger planes at yangon airport, called Bagan Air.. we didn't [at least me and Noh} expect that we were going to fly with this small thing!!! i doubt if i will fly.. or it is safe? but at the end this small planes [fwe had full house that day about 60 people on board] landed safely at Manadaly international airport!!

our next stop was Mandalay. this is mandalay international airport seen from our plane, of course when it landed!!

someone is having a very relaxing day.. its very warm out side there but quiet cool in here!! the word "saved by the bell" struck into my mind,. not sure if it can be applied here.. what if the bell fall down.. what if...

One of the house we stopped, because someone wanted to buy Myanmar textile.. and here is the technology still in used by them! simple but realiable!!

The cultural village we visited in Bago.

this picture has a very significant story.. no, not the guy but the bell. During the British time, they tried to take this bell home, to England and to melt it and to make it into canoon?? but during the moving process to their ship, the bell fell into the sea, and they [the british soldiers of course!, tried to bring it up but failed] then the Myanmar people made a deal that if they able to bring this bell to surface, the bell will stay at Myanmar, and they succeeded to do so.. I just wonder how they were defeated by those British soldiers during the Anglo-Burmese Wars??