Mandalay
We used Mandalay as a base for going to a lot of different places in the area. I can tell you that there is no shortage of pagodas or shrines in that city. We went to different places outside of the city mostly as we were there for three nights. We watched the sunset from a Buddhist Temple on the mountain, walked around the old fort in the middle of the city, went to a Buddhist Monastery to see how they lived there life and then our biggest trip was nearby to see what I call the land of 1000 shrines. There was literally pagodas all over the place that you would see everywhere. Another thing of interest was festivals they were having in which kids get dressed up with a lot of makeup and they are paraded around the streets. It was awe inspiring to see this happening as it does not happen that often. We left Mandalay in the early morning on a 12 hours boat ride down the Irawaty River to Bagan which proved to be too wild for me….