A travel vlog documenting the final day of a 10-day Irrawaddy Explorer river trip in Myanmar. The hosts visit a pagoda housing a revered Buddha image covered in thick gold leaf, tour Mandalay’s gold-leaf workshops, see the world’s largest book (729 marble slabs), share a travel packing tip (versatile scarf), and finish with an inexpensive Burmese BBQ street meal.
Questions this video answers
10 days
Said to be "over 7 inches thick" (as stated in transcript)
Transcript gives: 24 grams of solid gold; 72 inches divided into 200 parts; 3-inch square paper; deer leather pounded with seven-pound hammers; after processes: 306,000 pieces
Starts as 36 grams of gold, which is cut and described as turning into over 4,000 gold leafs
729 marble slabs
Chapters
Okay.
Tell me when.
This is what true sadness looks like.
Sadly, today is our last day aboard the irrawaddy explorer. Our 10 day trip up the river is coming to an end. We're about to be kicked off the boat for good.
Ten days is a long time for us and we've spent so much time with the people on this boat. I feel like they're my family and we're just leaving them forever.
Even though we have to leave the boat for good, the trip isn't over yet. We still have a half day of its four mandalay.
Bye.
Bye.
I'm Milani, spoke English. So I want to practice with you.
You have great English.
Yeah.
Yes.
Okay.
Nice to meet you. I wish you nice first. So we just met a very nice monk. I'm not exactly sure what he was trying to tell me, but our first stop of the morning is at a pagod that supposedly houses the only Buddha image that was created during Buddha's lifetime. So this is one of the most holy Buddha images in all the world. And people from all over come. They put gold leaf on this Buddha. It's said that the gold leaf is over 7 inches thick. So there is literally tons of gold on this Buddha image. And it's so holy that even the women can't go inside. So I was able to go in and get a little bit of video but Kara had to stay outside.
The really cool thing is after this we're actually going to go see how the gold leaf is made. And we hear that it's a very labor intensive process.
On the right side you will see this is a stone carbon waters.
This is the process. Six hours, the whole process. 24 grams of solid gold. 72 inches divided into 200 parts. The 3 inches square paper turned into the round shape. Deer leather pounded with the seven pound hammers. Expanding and thinner golden coin. 1200. Beating time to six pieces again. 1200 pieces deer leather pack 30 minutes and after this 306,000 pieces.
Oh wow. How do they do this?
We are in the gold leaf quarter of Mandalay where They pound gold into 009 millimeter sheets all day every day with this huge heavy hammer. Apparently it does all the work for you, but that's not really how it feels to.
That's hard work. Did it for about 30 seconds. Broke a pretty good sweat. These guys do it for six hours also. They don't trust clocks and so they use a coconut water clock to time how long they're beating the gold medals.
So this is what the gold starts as this is 36 grams of gold. So they take this little square and then they roll it out into this longer piece of gold and they cut this up into a bunch of little pieces. And this is going to turn into over 4,000 gold leafs. This is already like paper thin.
We are at our last stop of the day and the last stop of our entire day tour. I can't believe it. This pagoda complex houses the largest book in the world. It's 729 marble slabs. Each one has Buddhist teachings on them and each one is inside its own little pagoda. It's crazy. If you read every day for eight hours a day, it would take you a year and a half to read them all. Go check them out.
It's over. Been back on the bus for the last time.
Our guy told us that Mandalay used to be known as the city of bikes, but now it's known as the city of motorbikes. Makes it really hard to cross the road.
I can't. We need to like go. Not to an intersection. I can't do it. You have to move.
All right, let's go. Halfway, halfway, halfway, halfway. All the way. All the way. All the way.
Yay. Since I've been wearing this a lot lately and the sunset light is really pretty right now, I thought I would share a little travel hack. This is basically just a big piece of fabric. I bought it like a scarf. So I wear it like this a lot. But it comes in handy in countries where you're supposed to cover your knees and your shoulders when it's really hot outside.
So.
If I'm wearing a tank top, I'll wear it like a shawl if we're going in a temple or something or if it's cold. And then recently I've been wearing it as a skirt. So just wrap it like this.
And.
Stick it in my pants and then it's a skirt. And then I feel like I can wear it as a bathing suit. Covered up. Cover up if I wanted to. Like this. It just has so many uses. I can wear it over my head sometimes. I haven't had one of these in until this year and it's really come in handy. So I just thought I would share in case any girls needed a little packing cat.
Maybe I should have found a quieter place to share this.
We found it. We just have one more street to cross.
Oh God.
Okay. I'm gonna go before this.
Ok. So the way that it works is you get one of these plastic baskets. They have all of these skewers of Meats and veggies sitting out. You grab whatever you want. They all cost, like, a slightly different price. I think they range anywhere from, like, $2 down to less than 50 cents. We're gonna go through. We're gonna grab some stuff that looks good, and then they're gonna cook it up on a charcoal grill for us. Should be fun. Definitely wear that one. I think that's definitely chicken. Ooh, look at this. I love these. The way these mushrooms look. I want some of these asparagus that looks like some kind of intestine. Ooh, I want some okra. You want the.
What is this?
We sat down at our table, and our bowls and spoon are wrapped in, like, sanitary plastic. I looked around, thinking maybe they only give these to the jurors, but everybody gets them. So you know your stuff's clean.
Yes.
How beautiful is this? I love things cooked on a grill. This was, like, made for me. We're being honest. I was a little nervous about our first meal off of a boat. I didn't think there was anything in Myanmar that was as good as what we've been eating for the last 10 days. But I'm so excited about this.
How do you think you eat it? I think I'm most excited about this. We had these little mushrooms on the boat. I don't know what kind they are. And they're wrapped in bacon. Yum. I have no clue how to eat this. Do you have any suggestions? Think I have to eat it all in one bite. Okay.
Yum. These mushrooms are a little spicy. And then the bacon is so juicy. And these kind of mushrooms are, like, crunchy. I love them. And then, of course, with the little charred edges. This is gonna be so good. I also got okra, some bok choy, some more veggies wrapped in meat that I'm not positive what they are. And a kebab looking one with peppers and chicken and onions. I'm so excited about this.
Wow.
That was so good.
I feel like a lot of times.
Like, Cara loves everything on the video, and so maybe, like, stuff kind of blends together. Like, was that really as good as she made it sound? This was as good as she made it sound. And the best part is this entire meal cost $9. We each had three veggie skewers, three meat skewers. It was as much as we could both eat, and we paid a total of $9 for this. That's just, like, the best value. Okay. Myanmar is really over.
All of the.
This is basically.
Okay. So I think I'M gonna open up a fork. Wait. Use my trapstick. Yeah.
