Captured by the British from the last of Burma's kings, Mandalay conjures images of Southeast Asia at its most elegant and genteel. Though today it is Myanmar's second largest city, home to 1 million people, it is still possible to glimpse the enchanting land that beckoned Rudyard Kipling: "For the temple-bells are callin', an' it's there that I would be - by the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea." One of the cultural and spiritual centers of the nation, Mandalay can also be enjoyed as the start or end point of a cruise on board The Road to Mandalay. Perhaps the best sights of Mandalay are the Shwei-in-bin Monastery, a regal teak structure that is a rare example of traditional Burmese design; the iconic Mandalay Palace, a reconstructed, restored complex that was once home to a line of Burmese kings; and the surreally elaborate Kuthodaw Pagoda, a white marble structure dating from the 1800s.