There was a little misunderstanding, since the driver actually took us to a pagoda farther away, Kyaik Hmaw, which, happily, turned out to be more interesting than the one we had intended to visit, tho we got to that one as well, since it was on the way. It was on a little island...
and was being visited by more Myanmar pilgrims (some carrying flowers) than tourists.
Some were accompanied by monks...
they're laughing because I had just asked our driver to step out of the way for the photo, the monk thought I meant him, and he's just responding to my request to step back into the photo - never stopped talking on his cell the whole time...
and some were just covering their bases.
The stupa and other buildings on the island were impressive...
but I was most intrigued by a series of paintings in one hall depicting scenes from Buddhist hell, together with the sins that send people there.
Who knew that Buddhism is a fire and brimstone religion?
We did stop at the festival pagoda, which was set on a hill (with the required elevator), and overlooked the staging area for its "festival" which appeared to be a carnival type thing, like that at the Ananda Pagoda in Bagan, where the action takes place at night.
The description of the festival I read said that part of the tradition is for the temple to offer water to pilgrims, and that appeared to be this set of pots, each inscribed with blessings.
We also stopped at a National Cultural Identity park, with houses from various Myanmar ethnic groups, but it was not well interpreted and was a poor substitute for visiting the actually areas, which we are doing.
In Yangon we encountered a really bad early rush hour traffic jam, but met it with mindful equanimity - easy when you're in an air-conditioned car with a good driver.
On Day 19 we will head to a wetland for some wildlife viewing, quite a change from what we've been doing.
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