Irrawaddy River, Burma - 2

Hi, After our visit to the Jade market, covered at the end of my last post, we returned to the ship for lunch during which we departed Mandalay for the last time.

After a couple of hours we docked again and some of us disembarked for an optional (at additional cost) shore excursion.  Our first stop was a silver workshop.

Silver and copper is hammered into a variety of shapes (below) and decorated (above).  All of the work is done by hand.

While the others on our shore excursion were shopping I went outside to photograph traffic on the road.  This truck, powered by a tractor engine, was interesting to me because the engine is bigger and is mounted transversely.  All the other vehicles like this had the engine mounted longitudinally.

We next drove to see the world's longest wooden bridge, only a portion of which is shown here.  It is 1.2 kilometers or about 3/4 of a mile long.  The area attracts many tourists and locals to view the sunset.

As I walked out on the bridge I noticed this back lit pagoda and

these two locals herding a raft a ducks, a portion of which can be seen at the left.

About 45 minutes before sundown we boarded boats like the ones pictured (above and below).

This provided some different views of the bridge.

Locals used the bridge to fish.

Sunset from the boat was spectacular.

Above and below are two views of the village where we were tied up for the night.  Note that there were few navigation aids on the river and none that were lit.  Therefore, most of the boats anchored during darkness.

Small boats are to the Burmese as cars are to us.  Note the "long tail" on the nearest boat.

While we were tied up I went up to bridge of our boat.  Control is via a joy stick.  There is no wheel or throttle.

Our first activity was to visit another pagoda.  This one was located on top of a mountain.  The road was not suitable for our bus so we climbed into some local transport.

As with all pagodas, there is a statue of Buddha.

There were statues and reliefs of animals all over the temple.  I don't know why except that the the temple was laid out in the shape of a frog.

All of the temples had vendors selling crafts.  I bought a black and white painting from the artist whose work is shown above.  It was done on an 8X10 piece of photo print paper and cost all of $3.00.

The stupa again was covered in gold.

Numerous other pagodas were visible from the top of the mountain (above and below).

Thanks for looking.