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Destinations: Mandalay
Hot Air Ballooning
At about 5:00 am, the hot air ballooning team will pick you up at the hotel and transfer to the launch field. Before your wonderful flight, receive the safety brief by pilot and enjoy coffee, tea and cookies. With a Balloon Ride, you will be able to witness breathtaking landscapes, rural villages and ancient monuments from a different perspective – all from a hot air balloon. After making the amazing experience, you will be greeted by a dedicated crew, and can celebrate your flight with a glass of chilled sparkling wine, in true aeronautical tradition and accept the Ballooning cap and personally signed flight certificate. Thereafter, you will be transferred to a hotel.
Sunset Boat Trip on Thaungthaman Lake “U Bein Bridge”
15:00-15:30: Our guide will pick you up at your hotel in Mandalay and transfer to Amarapura U Bein Bridge. 16:30-18:00: Walk on the bridge and take a boat trip on Taungthaman Lake. Enjoy the beautiful sunset and watch red-robed monks stride across and villagers wearing straw hats cycle back and forth across the Longest Wooden Teak Bridge in the World. You will have a complimentary drink. 18:00: Transfer back to hotel.
Meet with your tour guide, who will tell you all about the city's cuisine. Stop by several stalls, all chosen by your guide, and savor the taste of a variety of dishes like Shan noodles, rice noodles tossed in a sweet-and-spicy sauce, and the Bein Mont Pancake, a fluffy rice pancake topped with nuts and seeds. Once the tour is over, you'll be dropped off back at your hotel, free to spend the rest of the day as you like.
Morning Alms to Monks
In the morning, drive ahead to the Mahar Gandar Yone Monastery, where you see a thousand of Buddhist monks and novices line up every morning, at about 10:30, to receive their meal of the day. They had one meal earlier around 2 am, while at around 10 am, the monks were lining up for their second and last meal of the day. They do it every day though now it has become a tourist attraction where not only monks line up but also tourists line up on the two sides with their hands up shooting a photo with their phone. There are many young monks with light coloured frocks. People can do alms giving – putting food/money in their bowls.
The Face Washing Ceremony of Mahar Myat Muni Pagoda
At about 3:30 am, pick you up and drive to the Mahar Myat Muni Pagoda to learn about the morning ritual of face wash to the Buddha Image. It is an elaborate task performed by a senior monk, assisted by several lay helpers dressed in white and wearing formal headdresses. As soon as the drums strike, the senior monk residing in the adjoining monastery enters the sanctum and starts the formal face-washing with a succession of fresh towels offered by devotees. He then cleans the Mahamuni's teeth with a large brush, followed by one more sequence of cleaning the face with fresh towels. After this, sandalwood paste is applied to the image and it is again cleaned with towels and finally sprinkled with scented water. After the ceremony is complete, more than one hour later, the used towels are returned to the devotees who keep them with reverence in their home shrines. Thereafter, enjoy your breakfast at the local tea shop, you can taste some of its famous tea, snacks, or Mandalay 'Monte' noodles.