We had nothing booked for today originally but having seen Mandalay on our first day we realised that self-guiding would be a complete waste of time. The city is large and has a population of 2 million. It is very dusty and walking anywhere would be pointless. We decided to engage our guide and driver for an additional day but it is a real stretch to fill a second day around Mandalay touristing as there is just not that much to see. Nevertheless, we did travel upriver by boat to Mingun to see the world's second largest bell (but largest ringing bell) at over 90 tonnes and what would have been the world's largest pagoda (had it ever been finished). It was impressive at 60m high which was only 1/3 of it's intended height but it has been severely damaged by earthquakes and looks like the next big one will bring it down so see it while you can if you are so inclined. Interestingly the thing is built of solid brick all the way through which was obviously slow and expensive to build which is not too smart and not earthquake-proof either. Back by boat to Mandalay and lunch at a riverside restaurant before going on to a wood carving and embroidery workshop and jeweller before the final two cultural attractions which were a teak pagoda and "the world's biggest book" which comprises 742 stone tablets inscribed with the Buddhist scriptures. If that isn't enough "world's biggest or bests" we also visited a monument to a monk with the acknowledged best memory in the world. He is recorded in the Guinness book of records as having recited the whole 16,000 pages of the entire Buddhist scriptures! And I can't even remember all the things we saw yesterday!