The second of Myanmar’s great backcountry river towns after Mandalay, Monywa clings to the banks of the meandering Chindwin as it flows between the verdant flats of the country’s northern tropical savannahs. The town itself is a lively trading outpost cum provincial capital, encompassing bustling markets packed with rough textiles and Buddhist trinkets, all next to water-side jetties where local farmers alight with bags of pulses and palm sugar straight from the fields. It’s also a prime place for finding a Monywa tour guide to head out and explore the striking facades of the Thanboddhay Pagoda, where more than half a million statues and icons of the Buddha cluster beneath one gloriously colourful display of religious art and architecture. The Maha Bodhi Tahtaung is also not to be missed, famed as the home of the second highest freestanding Buddha statue in the world – and that’s not even mentioning the scintillating golden reclining Buddha that’s also visible on-site!