This YouTube travel vlog (uploaded May 13, 2018 by Nate Buchanan) documents days eight and nine of an Irrawaddy River cruise in Myanmar. Day 8 audio was partly lost (mic unplugged) but the hosts recount visiting a site of some 900 14th-century sandstone caves with many Buddha statues and a pagoda housing over 550,000 tiny Buddhas; they describe aggressive monkeys and local interactions. Day 9 (on-camera) covers arrival at the town of Mingwe, an unfinished massive pagoda described as the "largest pile of bricks," a large bell, a white "Taj Mahal of Myanmar" pagoda built in memory of a wife, the world's longest teakwood bridge, and a sunset boat ride.
Chapters
Foreign.
Today is day nine on our journey up the Irrawaddy. If you've been paying attention, you may that we missed day eight. And that's because yesterday we ran around filming all day without having the mic plugged in.
It happens. We're sad about it, but we're honestly, we're a little surprised it doesn't happen more often. So we're gonna fill you in on what we did yesterday. First, we got on a bus and drove about three hours way off the beaten path to this area where there's 900 caves carved into this sandstone cliff. There's all these Buddhas inside. Some of them are huge. You can walk in them. Some of them you can just stick your head in. They're from the 14th century. They're super old. And there were no other tourists there. The locals were super excited when we pulled up. They were so cute.
The scariest part of the caves were the monkeys. They were super aggressive. I leaned over to try to film a little segment with one of them and he jumped up on the seat and we made eye contact and looked like he was going to attack me. I was trying to get out of the way so fast that I almost fell down. But thankfully, the locals there will sell you bananas and you can give them to the monkeys. And that kind of like, helps appease them and keep them off your back while you're going around the caves.
The second part of the day, we went to a pagoda. And yes, we've been to tons of pagodas, but this one had over 550,000 Buddhas inside.
I had no clue what to expect with 550,000 Buddhas, but they basically covered every square inch of walls and columns with little tiny Buddhas. And then there were also some massive Buddhas.
When we got back to the ship, we switched cameras and that's when we realized that our mic hadn't been plugged in all day. So the last part of the day has audio. After a long bus ride, we are happy to be back on the ship. And we are extra happy because tonight is a special night.
Steady getting started.
Wherever you are, I believe.
And that brings us to today. We are currently pulling up to the town of Mingwe. Sadly, this is our last full day aboard the ship, but we have a lot of fun things planned.
Behind me is what would have been the largest pagoda in the world. A king started building it several hundred years ago. And then after phase one of the project, which is what you see behind me, he went to a soothsayer, and the soothsayer told him that if he continued building it, once he completed it, he would die and his kingdom would crumble. So he halted building it. And now this is known as the largest pile of bricks in the world. So this building is completely solid. You actually can't go in. There's four doorways, but they're just kind of like niches on the side. So now there's just a pile of millions and millions of bricks. But the pile is so grand that tourists still come here to see it.
And this is as far inside as you can go. Not much to see in here.
Smells like somebody went to the bathroom.
Yeah, smells like a toilet.
I don't think I've stressed enough how much I love the Myanmar people. They are just so genuine and kind and adorable. Even if we're not exchanging any words. We just sit there and talk to each other and then everybody starts laughing. Then I take their picture and then they think it's funny. I just love it. Now we're at a temple and there's a big bell in here. It used to be the largest striking.
Bell in the world.
It is mad.
You can actually come inside while people are ringing the bell. It's so loud.
Ouch.
I know.
Kind of hurts. This thing's hard, obviously.
How beautiful is this white pagoda? I haven't seen any that looked like this. It's basically the Taj Mahal of Myanmar. A man lost his wife. He was very sad. And he built this for her. It's so pretty. And a nice lady let me borrow her umbrella.
It has been such a good morning. And now it's time to walk back to the boat and get some lunch. I do not think we've made the food on the ship a big enough deal. It is so good. Like every single meal is.
Now it's time to go work off all of our lunch. So we went from our ship to a bus, from our bus to a small boat. And now from our school to a horse carriage. All kinds of transportation. Okay, I'll see the name.
That's a bummy's cowboy right over there. What the heck?
Our last stop is the world's longest teakwood bridge. It's actually really impressive. And to end the day, we are renting these boats and we're going to float around while the sun is setting. It feels amazing. And we have coconuts as a sundowner.
