MYANMAR – MANDALAY D2-- FEB 2016

 

Myanmar Feb 2016

Mandalay Day 2

02 Mar2016

 

Mandalay Royal Palace is the last palace built by Burmese Royals.  It was a large complex with dozen of buildings including audience halls, throne halls, monastery, a watch tower, court building and a library where Buddhist scriptures were kept.  Teak wood was used entirely. The opulence, elegance and grandiose of the palace are in full display.

As we walked we felt the massiveness of this majestic palace.

Myanmar is blessed with abundance of good quality wood especially teak and so they had the blessing to built huge palaces.

With such a massive palace, there must also be a very huge number of subjects serving the Kings.

Panoramic views of the palace from the watch tower 

                                 

Walking around the Palace compound.

The palace was built in the middle of a fortress consisting of four 2 km long walls with turrets. Outside the walls was a 60 meter wide moat, access by many bridges.

The city of Mandalay, the streets and the people

Mandalay hill

Su Taung Pyae Pagoda is on top of the Mandalay Hill and a short walk from the Royal Palace. A colourful monastery with glass mosaic covering many surfaces. On the terraces, a fabulous view of the surrounding city and countryside is refreshing.

                                    Viewed from Irrawaddy River

                                               

                                             

                                              

                                   

View from the temple terraces

Shwe Nandaw Kyaung  Monastery or Golden Place Monastery was built in the 19^th century and was relocated from Amarapura to Mandalay. This monastery features unique gilded interior and with extensive and intricate woodcarvings. It is considered the most beautiful and one of the most visited tourist sites in Myanmar

Maha Atulawaiyan Kyaungdangyi

This was the third Shin Pyu  Ceremony we saw in Myanmar.

                                      

                                         

                                             

                                           

                                              

                                                                   

                                           

Our Myanmar adventure ended the next day. We took a domestic flight on Air KBZ to Yangoon. From there, we flew on SIA to Singapore