Well, I learned a painful lesson about blogger, and that is, if you're not ready to do a complete post and publish, don't bother starting, because the posts disappear into thin air...at least the one I spent time writing last night did. Oh well, that just spares you from having to read about our cab ride from hell to the airport in Yangon traffic and heat, and my crankiness about flying on small planes. That's the encapsulated version.
We arrived in Bagan, in the north of Myanmar around 5 pm, and were too tired to drive out to the plains for the perfect spot to see sunset, as our taxi driver wanted us to. I think it involved climbing up lots of steps on a pagoda, which wasn't going to happen for us. So we watched a nice sunset from our hotel, Ostello Bello, a charming new guesthouse in new Bagan.
Yeah, I know, it would have been much more spectacular from a pagoda...
Having only two nights here, we had to decide what was the most important thing to do, and of course we had to spend time seeing a few of the 10,000 pagodas that dot the plains of Bagan. Yes, you read that right, over ten thousand pagodas! What a spectacular sight it is today, but even more so when these pagodas were newly built!
We had a choice of transport, from push bikes( too hot)to e bikes ( ditto)to horse drawn carriage ( hot and slow) to taxi, which was faster and had the advantage of air con between stops. So, taxi it was.
Our first stop was at the mighty Ayerwaddy river, a popular spot with the locals.
Nope, no time for the boat ride this trip...
Oops, I said I wasn't going to show a photo of me in my elephant pants! They are the perfect comfort attire for touring pagodas though.
We had a few friends who wanted their photos taken..
Flower vendor. I just can't stop myself from buying these delicate, sweet smelling flowers, which I leave as an offering at the pagoda.
First stop, pagoda with niches( not its official name)
Outside were stations of Buddhas life. I liked how the change in wording, from " blinking" to " winking" completely changed the tone. As Jim said" yeah, Buddha was quite fond of winking at the ladies"
This a typical view into the distance, with brick pagodas as far as the eye could see. It was pretty amazing, especially from the tower, which only Jim climbed.
We saw the tallest pagoda and the biggest pagoda, etc, etc and they all have numerous Buddha statues within them. Can you imagine how many Buddhas that would be? I can't. No doubt someone has counted them.
They're big, too. This one is maybe 18' high.
And at each pagoda there are the earnest artists, trying to see their wares. It's really hard to keep saying " no thank you". You want to buy something from everyone, just to help them out.
And sometimes you just have to buy something from one of them! She was my favorite vendor, maybe of the trip so far. She worked at her mothers lacquer ware spot, really nothing more than a cloth on the ground with some pieces of lacquer spread out on it, pretty much exactly what everyone else was selling. But she engaged me in conversation, spoke excellent English and was smart as could be. I told her to keep studying English. Maybe one day she can do something besides sell to the tourists.
The paste on her cheeks is a kind of wood paste that we originally thought was some kind of
blessing, but were told it is used as sunscreen.
Ok, enough for one day...it's getting hot!
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