Inwa

Inwa is situated on an strategic location between the AyeyarwaddyrRiver and the smaller Myit Nge river, the other side being a canal thus creating an artificial island. It served as a capital of Burma from 1364 when it was founded until 1841, but with many intervals as it was common practice for many kings to relocate the capital. For more information check out the links at the bottom of the page.

Today, history is still touchable. There is a fine, relaxed atmosphere on the island and a visit is highly recommended. It is common practice to follow a standard tour: take a ferry from near the Mandalay side of the Ava Bridge. After arriving at Inwa, horse carts are waiting, I paid a standard tariffe of 5 dollar (September 2008) for a trip that lasted about 2 and a half hour.

After a few minutes on the semi-paved road a row of 4 or 5 pagoda's appear on the right hand side, then on the left hand side a partly ruined temple made of brick of which I did not write down the name.

When the road turned left, soon there is another remains of a temple, but we skipped it at first in order to go to Bagya Kyaung at the end of the road (after turning left again). Bagya Kyaung is a monastery built out of teak wood and is certainly special, but in my case, special feeling failed to occur.

Riding back the same road, we stopped at the second brick temple (so now on the right hand side). As you can see at the pictures, the thrilling beautiful landscape drew even more attention than the temple. On the other side of the road several pagoda's are visible and farmers wer planting rice.

The driver complained little that I took so much time, so we went on , turned left to the Nanmyin watchtower. Before entering, I spent 10 instead of 5 seconds to the gem sellers at the entrance of the tower, so they went on haunting me later on. The tower itself is all that remains of a royal palace, and even the tower is leaning but it still appears to be safe to be climbed. There's a nice view from the top, among others Sagaing Hill with all its pagodas is visible as well as the Ava Bridge.

After climbing down we went further in the same direction to Maha Aungmye Bonzan, a yellow stucco plastered brick monastery which stands next to Htliangshin Paya. The mother and daughter gem sellers were running behind the horse cart as fast as they could, sometimes making a shortcut through a field. Because the batteries of my camera were as good as exhausted, I made only a few pictures of the yellow monastery. Not near as exhausted were the two pursuing ladies - it seemed me to be rewarding to them to still buy something from them, fake or not. Those eyes, their culture and mine in a universal bargaining game - that is what makes travelling to such a wonderful experience. I am sure I did not spent enough time there, breathing in the moments.

Eventually, we went back to the ferry, to another, larger boat, with a big German group. Lucky for me, because the jewelry sellers at the pier were awaiting them so I had a chance to escape to my taxi, see the last picture. He drove me back to my hotel, passing the golden spires of Sagaing Hill.