After visiting the Cracked Pagoda or Mingun Paya, we walked the short distance to the White Pagoda, Hsinbyume Paya. Along the walk there are were many shops and stalls selling food, clothing and handy crafts. I bought myself a beautiful lonygi (traditional skirt) from an very friendly (and not pushy at all) elderly lady and her friend. Jives bought himself a t-shirt with the Burmese alphabet on it, as well as a hat to add to his dad’s hat collection.

The white pagoda was absolutely stunning. The paya is circular, with many layers. All around each layer there were wave like borders. The paya is said to have been built to look like the sacred Buddhist mountain range, Mount Meru. There are seven layers to represent the seven mountains of the sacred range. To me, the paya looked lace like, with the ridged decorative borders.

We explored this paya for quite awhile, climbing to the very top for an amazing view of Mingun. We took A LOT of photos before running away to escape the heat of the day.

The tuk tuk ride back to Mandalay was just as gorgeous as the ride to Mingun.

Back at the hotel we swam and had a refreshing beer, to cool down. We then set out to find a road side restaurant to enjoy our last night in Mandalay.