In the morning we rose early to find the riverboat already underway. And just as the dawn broke we disembarked and climbed aboard horse-carts for a gorgeous ride through fields of sunflowers to an ancient and seldom visited town called 'White Elephant Island'. Ground transport was waiting for us there and we continued by road to Salin. In Salin we had breakfast on a pagoda platform right in the middle of a gorgeous lake and were transported on trishaws to Salin's bustling market. From there we continued by road past expansive rice paddies, quaint villages and World War II Bailey Bridges to the Barwut (Frog Croaking) Monastery for a light lunch on the temple terrace. In the afternoon we crossed the fabled Mone River and rode a bullock cart through fields of sesame to a nearby village, and had tea with the people and learnt about their daily lives. Then in the gorgeous light of the late afternoon we entered the incredible Kyaungdawyar Monastery - reputedly visited by the Lord Gautama Buddha himself! We toured the monastery's libraries with the red robed Chief Abbot and soaked up the atmosphere on the pagoda platform. Then in the late evening we floated gently down the Mone River in traditional canoes to its confluence with the Irrawaddy River where we rejoined the riverboat, and had a Burmese barbeque dinner by a fire on a sandbank in the middle of the Irrawaddy River.