I did not feel too well today, so had a slow and lazy start.

We left the community lodge mid-morning and were on our way back to tourist country – essentially (and literally) on the road to Mandalay. Our first destination though was the town of Sagaing, essentially facing Mandalay from the other side of the Irrawaddy river.

We got here in the early afternoon – and after a late lunch made our way up Sagaing Hill by truck. We first stopped at Soon U Ponya Shin Pagoda (ဆွမ်းဦးပုညရှင်စေတီ), which supposedly goes back all the way to the 14th century. The pagoda however was … well … yet another pagoda – the real interesting bit was the view down the hill – toward plenty of other pagodas, temples and stupas – all with the Irrawaddy in the background (and depending on direction) even Mandalay.

From the Soon U Ponya Shin Pagoda we made it over to the U Min Thonze Caves. This temple of the 30 caves features 45 Buddha images, presented in a curve-shaped colonnade / string of images.