Jan 31, 2005 - Day 209 in Mingun, Myanmar (Burma)

We took an hour long boat ride to a town outside of Mandalay called Mingun. Mingun is a primitive town with many ancient temple ruins. The large brick structure, called Mingun Paya, was built in the 12th Century but was cracked by an earthquake in the mid-1800’s. In the evening we made our way to Bagan. The taxi driver from the airport was accompanied by a guide - this struck us as unusual but his English was so good and he was so knowledgeable about Bagan that we decided to hire him for the next day.