Our next stop was a monastery to see the monks line up for food. I didn't like this because there were so many tourists there, it felt like we were exploiting the monks to me... I got an icky feeling about it.
After that we visited marble carvers and then were off to a monastery where they have a large Buddha made of solid gold who keeps getting bigger because people keep adding very fine, thin gold leaf to the statue. We were lucky that today, they were having a novice party, which is a big celebration for the kids who are going to become novice monks (the following day). They were all dressed up, and there were horses and elephants... It was crazy town!
After that we had lunch and then visited an old wooden monastery (now just a national monument). The wood carving was extraordinary. After that we visited a large collection of over 700 pagodas where inside each is a huge marble slab with two pages of a story on it. If stretched end to end, these marble slabs make up the biggest book in the world, according to Guinness Book.
After that we returned to the hotel, but some of us went shopping for rubies. I bought several and had a great time looking!
Afterwards we returned to the hotel, had some downtime, then dinner. Tomorrow we board a boat that will eventually get us to Bagan!
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