The largest reclining Buddha in the world

The words wow and why so quickly spring to mind but I have not only seen it, but climbed inside the largest reclining Buddha in the world. The sad fact is that they spent 17 years building it and it is facing the wrong way, so opposite they are building another facing east as planned. There was the greatest fundraising technique ever,  you buy a tile for the build - genius!!!!

I'm writing this on my I touch in my favourite local restaurant here. There's a small crowd of waiters over my shoulder watching me and I have just freaked them out by passing round my headphones as they watched a video of mr Tinie Tempah!!! Although today I did see an older woman in a temple reading her Buddhist chants off an iPad! There's even a Christmas tree in the corner and flashing lights on the surrounding trees, very festive. 

I went on an organised trip today with a couple of Americans and had to do a lot of translating  between the softly spoken guide and us. My favourite misunderstanding of the day was that one of burma's biggest export was jams .... Really it's gems!!!