After the palace things turned to the spiritual side again.

We were now heading for Shwe In Bin Monastery (ရွှေအင်းပင် ဘုန်းကြီးကျောင်း), built in the late 19th century and made entirely from teak wood with loads of detailed wood carvings. The ravages of time are clearly visible, parts of the monastery are in dire need of being renovated. Yet the monastery makes a nice change to the average blindingly golden stupas and pagodas elsewhere.

Our next stop was at Kuthodaw Pagoda (ကုသိုလ်တော်ဘုရား), also known as the world’s biggest book. The main pagoda comes with a total of 729 small stupas around it, each of it containing a text-inscribed marble slab. The slabs are inscribed on both sides, yielding in a total of 1458 pages, which together combine to the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism (or in other words the full Tripiṭaka).

After a bit of a read (and the question of what to do with those lotus flowers), we continued for the Shwe Kyin Min Kin Monastery (ရွှေကျင်တိုက်). This monastery is an actual monastery – and we were here to witness the monks getting to their evening prayer.

We got here well before sunset, quickly checked out the main temple – before respectfully lining up in front of the little bell building. In time a monk did come out to ring the bell and call the other monks for prayer. We made it up to the temple area and waited in the background to watch the monks pass by and head towards the praying room.

Overall it was interesting to watch, however – given the number of tourists at the place and their behavior, it really felt a bit like in a zoo. I guess, it is just a matter of time until either stricter rules will be put on the tourists or until tourists will be forbidden to attend religious activities here.

From the monastery we made it back to the hotel and then on to a local gastro bar for some good drinks and bar food.