We had a fairly late departure, and we lazed around the resort for part of the morning before the boats, and of course Tun Tun, arrived to pick us up. Boat to bus to plane…old hat for us now. On the way, Tun Tun stopped the bus in Nyaung Shwe so that we could visit an unusual monastery, Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung.
The worship hall in the monastery itself has unusually beautiful light.
And the adjoining pagoda is interesting for the hundreds of small Buddhas in niches, each with a named donor, and for the unusual glass mosaics that cover the walls. One of the Buddhas had a famous donor…although my wife would very much like to know more about Peg Armburg and what I was doing in London.
Our flight from Heho to Nyaung U–the airport that serves the Bagan area–had an intermediate stop in Mandalay, so we really covered some ground. It was unfortunately too dark to see the pagodas as we drove to our hotel, the Thiripyistsaya Sanctuary Resort. Sue and I were a bit nervous because Tun Naing had convinced us to switch from the Bagan Thande Hotel, which we love, but this hotel was just as nice if finally with different strengths.
We had dinner together on a large deck overlooking a particularly wide place in the Irrawaddy. As we returned to our rooms, we heard a distant chanting…and went to bed wondering what it was and where it came from.