Morning shore excursion to Mingun Temple that was an attempt of the worlds biggest temple by King Bodawphaya who was the 4th King of the last dynasty of Burma. The donor King started the construction in 1790 but halted after 25 years when he fell sick. It is an unfinished pagoda and became the greatest pile of bricks in the world after an earthquake broke out in 1838. We walked to visit Myatheintan pagoda, founded in 1816 by the crown prince Ba Gyi Daw for his deceased beloved chief queen. With its plan in Burmese cosmology of the great seven mountain ranges and the great seven rivers, representing Mt. Merit equivalent to Mt. Olympus in western mythology for his beloved queen, Sinbyume. So it is the Burmese version of Taj Mahul in the contemporary period of 19th century. The largest ringing bell in the world, weighing 90 tons with a height of 4m and a diameter of 5m at the flare which dedicates to the great temple.

We sailed further down stream during lunch and moored at Sagaing which is our final point for departure tomorrow. During the afternoon we drove through the Sagaing hills to the hill top for an amazing view over Sagaing and the Irrawaddy. On the way up we visited a silversmiths which was very basic whilst being very skilful and very expensive. Sagaing is a centre for Buddhist believe and the centre of meditation in Myanmar. Over 10000 monks and nuns live here and there are over 1000 hermitages and sanctities. On the way back to the boat we visited some nuns who sang to us and answered questions.

In the evening we had a farewell dinner and were entertained with some Burmese dance performance by the Mandalay University of Culture.