Monywa

Monywa is a large, rustic trade town found on the hot, flat plains of Central Myanmar. Roughly equidistant to Mandalay and Bagan, it makes a reasonable overnight stop breaking up your road and/or boat journeys between the two more-established tourist destinations.

The town itself is rather dusty, with few attractions besides an interesting market and some good river views. Principal attractions lie outside of the city, with the impressive Bodhi Tatuang (home to both the largest standing and reclining buddhas in the country) and Thanbodday Paya (a pagoda complex of Disney-like colour and imagination) situated just to the east. To the south and west lies the even more engaging Hpo Win Daung cave network, an ancient site housing murals dating back as far as the 14th century, plus reputedly over 400,000 individual Buddha images.  

Other sites in the area include the volcanic crater of Twin Daung, which through a complex natural process produces the health-giving algae Spirulina. A crater side factory has been set-up which makes an rather interesting short stop. Further west of the city is also the little-visited Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park. The Park (down a long and fairly poor road that is inaccessible outside of October-April) is home to large herds of Asian Elephants, and is a good centre for elephant trekking, bird-watching, and jungle-walks.