Horse-cart

Up at 7 so we could catch our taxi. We had breakfast which was disgusting. The butter looked like scrambled egg, jam was dodgy and toast tasted of oil!
First stop was an old monastery. Had to walk barefoot around whilst avoiding a lot of creepy crawleys on the floor! We went to a big pagoda called Mandalay Mahaumuni Pagoda. Had some pictures with some people that asked if they could have one with us. So I got them to take some with my camera except the silly women couldn't work mine and realised later on that there were none there! We bought some longyis in the market which are skirts out here that every women wears. We saw golden Buddha in the pagoda, lots of people were putting gold leaf onto it. In the market place there were masses of huge chairs and gold things that they make and then people buy them to donate to the monasteries.
The taxi man then took us to look at people carving stones into Buddhas. There were some cool elephants as well. The men didn't wear masks around their face and were completely white from all the dust! Must be awful for their lungs. There were then girls who were buffing it up after they had been carved. Apparently they only get 3000 Kayt a day, which is less than £3! Morag found a little broken elephant in the floor which we asked to take back with us. Wood carving place next. We both bought a cool pillow case. Tried on every crazy hat they had in the shop. The man that explained everything to us was very funny. Had fun with spears and other weird stuff.
Next stop was Mahagana Yone Monastery. Watched them cook (huge saucepan like things with a big fire underneath) for the monks and novice monks. Saw them showering (not literally) and cleaning their robes. Watched them get their offering which consisted of pink notebooks, toothpaste, toothbrush, can of coke, crisps and other stuff we couldn't work out. They were all carrying their rice pot they carry around most places. So surprised with how young some of them are. They walk along without stopping and the people giving stuff had to be super quick to put stuff in their bag. It was very regimented.
Next stop was a silk weaving place, it was crazy how fast they could do it all. They had huge crazy wooden machines.
We then took a long drive to Saging hill. It was completely tipping it down. The taxi man gave us his umbrella to take up. Massssses of stairs to get all the way to the top. There was such a weird man following us up with no teeth! Slightly freaky as there weren't masses of people around. At the top of the ridic amount of stairs the view was incredible. It was super slippy even in bare feet. It was a shame about the clouds otherwise it would have been more impressive. Buddha was big and not surprisingly gold. Trekked back down and our legs were extremely wobbly at the bottom.
On the way to the next place the man was talking about snakes eating people in Burma. He talked a about a snake that had eaten a school teacher in a car but it was specifically half of her!! We had lunch before horse carting. It was a cute riverside 'cafe' Had fried noodle chicken.
Took a short boat to Inwa palace. Boat was rather dodge. Got onto our little pink horse cart which dragged us through the mud. Quite uncomfortable as the roads were rubbish. A girl chased us on a bike and gave us a free tour and insisted on us being beautiful and buying her bells! The palace places were really nice as the views were amazing surrounding them with huge tall palm trees. Climbed up a tower which had a good view from the top. The stairs were extremely scetchy! The man was clearly not happy as we hadn't bought a ticket and he kept saying 'no ticket, no ticket, no ticket' and also kept saying 'mooowneymo' (money more) when we realised we pointed it out and then suddenly converted back to not realising as we definitely didn't want to give him more money!
Morag's screened cracked on her IPhone oh oooooo! He returned us and said mowneeey more but we refused and jumped on the boat.
Taxi to Amarapura teak bridge (longest teak bridge in the world) . The water in the rainy season rises covering the whole area under the teak bridge. There was even a restaurant that had water flowing in but people still ate there. We had 9 different groups of people come up to us and ask if they could get a photo with us and 100 cheeky photos behind our bag. We tried water chestnuts, boooak! After a good long chat we walked all the way along the 1.7km teak bridge with 1087 wooden pillars! Had some refreshing pineapple with lime juice which is awesome. Watched a water snake be fished out they then put it on the bridge to let it slither away. Morag and I both ran away! Monk tripped up and nearly fell into Morag. We found a spot on the bridge to watch the sunset. A lovely old monk started chatting to us. Photographs don't do the sunset justice! It is amazing as there are huge trees that are covered half way up with water. The monk has invited us to his monastery tomorrow at 7am. But we have asked for 9am!! Walked back after sunset with him and said our goodbyes. Taxi back to hotel. Took a motorbike to Golden Duck. Was rather awkward as I was squeezed up completely to the man and Morag got a nice spot behind me on it. The restaurant was quite nice but the food we had wasnt the nicest. Had fried crab with cabbage. There were lots of bones. We walked back and a guy got of his motorbike to practise his English with us! There was then one motorbike behind us and the other one carried on beside us. We were a little freaked out but in the end they almost escorted us back. He told us about the streets and apparently we were walking to the gang street that was dangerous. Which is actually the street where our hostel is! When we got back I flumped onto my bed and screamed as a cockroach ran across my leg. I tried to flick it outside when it was on my towel but I flicked it onto Morag and then another one ran across my foot that was even bigger. So there was a bit of dilemma going on. Morag went to get the men running the hostel to remove them but instead of that they gassed our room out! Made our throats so dry! We both slept in our sleeping bag lines very aware of the 2 cockroaches roaming the room!