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TACTICS FOR MINGUN VISITORS231Mingun is so small that it can feel oppressively touristy, especially if you arrive with the9am boat and follow the crowd along the main drag, overloaded as it is with drinks sellersand oil-painting vendors. But you can easily bypass most of these by simply walkingaround the monuments on dusty paths to the west. This route makes particular sense inthe afternoon when the sun lights the west-facing side of Mingun Paya. By then touristnumbers will already be greatly diminished following the return of the 1pm boat. But thebricks of Mingun Paya will be scalding hot after soaking up a full day’s sun.In the past the Mingun-Sagaing combo-ticket was sold as you boarded the ferry inMandalay. However, since the Sagaing- Mingun road has been upgraded, the $3 fee isnow half-heartedly collected instead at the east side of Mingun Paya. If you don’t want toclimb the stupa, you’ll probably avoid paying anything.5EatingThere are half a dozen snack shacks aroundMingun Paya entrance, but only Poing, furthersouth, has a river view and draft Spirulinabeer (K700).8Getting There & AwayBOAT The Tourist Boat Association (%63596)has a daily riverboat service from Mandalaydeparting at 9am (K5000 return) and takingabout one hour from the western end of 26thSt in Mandalay (Map p 202 ). These boats returnfrom Mingun at 1pm. If there are less than fi vepassengers or if you want different departuretimes, you can rent a small/larger boat forK25,000/40,000.MOTORBIKE Now that the road has beenmostly asphalted, it is increasingly popularto ride to Mingun by motorbike (around 25minutes from Sagaing) as part of an ancientcities loop.Paleikplip'%02 / POP C2500At 11am daily, local families and tourists convergeon Paleik’s modest temple, the ratherkitschy Yadana Labamuni Hsu-taung-pye,to see the bathing and feeding of three giantpythons, which give it the widely used nickname,the Snake Pagoda (Hmwe Paya).The pythons appeared from the nearby forestin 1974 and never left. Predictably muchof the statuary now celebrates Buddha gettingcosy with snakes.Arguably more impressive than thepython-fest is Paleik’s almost entirely overlookedcollection of over 300 close-packedstupas in varying states of repair, manyfrom the Konbaung period. They’re easy tofind. Simply walk five minutes south fromthe snake temple.Paleik is about 12 miles south of Mandalay,a mile west of the annoyingly busyMandalay–Yangon road. If you’re heading toInwa or Sagaing, there’s a tree-shaded crosscountrylane that links the Yangon road toAva Bridge, so you don’t need to go all theway back to Amarapura.Yankin Hillrn'k='"et;='Around three miles east of Mandalay, thispagoda-dotted hillside lacks the historicalpedigree of other regional attractions butmakes a pleasantly simple, untouristy shortexcursion from Mandalay.Yankin PayaBUDDHIST TEMPLESAfter crossing a long, flat swath of paddyfields, 19th St suddenly swings abruptlyright at the foot of Yankin Hill. A coveredstairway here takes you steeply up in 10minutes to a pagoda where feeding a coupleof domesticated stags supposedly bringsyou Buddhist merit. Pagoda walkways turnsouth along the ridge-top, eventually duckingdown into a rocky cleft where devoteessplash water on tacky gold fish statues thatlie at the feet of a Buddha image. The mainattraction of the hill is the view, which takesin a wide sweep of rice fields to the west andthe Shan foothills behind.Mya Kyauk KyaungBUDDHIST MONASTERYFrom the foot of the Yankin Paya accessstairway, backtrack 300yd towards Mandalaythen turn north and go another 300ydnorth to find this modern monastery with itsdazzlingly distinctive brassy stupa. Mya Kyaukis famed for its subterranean source ofMANDALAY AROUND MANDALAY & AROUND PALEIK EATING