Mingun it’s a city in Myanmar that I pity I didn’t visit the last time I was in Mandalay. Fortunately, I’m back and I can visit this wonderful place. From Ostello Bello it is a 30 minute bicycle journey.
I decided to go by ferry boat and take my Ympek bicycle with me to explore the area with it. To buy the ticket, you just need to go where the river meets the land at the 36th road. The ticket is 5000 kyats, and I paid extra 1000 kyats to take the bicycle with me. This is the price for the way there and back. The boat departs at 9 AM and returns to Mandalay at 12.30 AM. I could stay in the area for longer, so in my personal opinion, the boat turns back to Mandalay too soon. The ride takes around 1h as the boat is going really slow. I was with my bike, but there you will find tuk-tuks and taxi cows to take you to the places. To get inside the area you need to pay a 5000 kyats fee.
So, I have visited the most famous attractions of Mingun and they are all pretty close to each other. First stop was Migun Sayadaw Memorial, a very distinctive building from anything else I have seen before. Basically, it looks like a giant old rock with some plants growing on the top with 4 different doors, but the main one is in white. The temple was used to be open to climbing to the top, but nowadays the entrance is closed due to degradation issues. It is totally worth a visit as from many pagodas I have seen before, I haven’t seen one like this before.
Another main attraction of Mingun is Mya Thein Tan Pagoda or the white temple. And also this one is very distinctive from any other pagoda you will see in Myanmar. Here you will find many souvenir sellers and other people trying to get some money from tourism. There was a little guy that made sure to show me his secret photo spot that has a great vi- he states. Actually, it is a very nice picture. You can climb to the top of the temple and have a 360 degrees view of the city.
I also visited the Lions of stone, besides looking like elephants to me, they should have been really nice and impressive statues in the past. They are falling apart and the damages avoid you to understand the figure lying there. The statues are giant, so you will see them clearly from the main road.
There is another temple that I visited but it’s not bookmarked on google maps. It is actually very architectural similar to the white temple regarding the outside part. It is worth to see and is the first temple you will see on the street after paying for your ticket in. I also saw the Mingun Bell but is pretty much a giant bell inside a typical Asian architectural building.
Mingun is definitely worth a visit if you are going to Mandalay.
