’15 Feb: Myanmar

…might not prosper, but they do have fun! I looked on the internet and it seemed to me as if everyone else did this too.

Although it took two images to make each of these pictures happen it looked EXACTLY like this and I could hardly close my mouth for hours.

Bagan!

I love this introduction from Lonely Planet: “The Bagan Archeological Zone stretches 26 sq miles across central Myanmar. Despite centuries of neglect, looting, erosion, regular earthquakes (including a massive one in 1975) not to mention dodgy restoration, this temple-studded plain remains a remarkably impressive and unforgettable vision.

“In a 230-year building frenzy up until 1287 and the Moguol invasions, Bagan’s kings commissioned more than 4000 Buddhist temples.”

Another source put the number of temples at 10,000.

Sunset on the wall.

Hi Rome! Hi Lilly!

Another huge and fabulous Myanmar meal. We can’t stop!

January 31

Today’s program: “Bagan. Breakfast at the hotel and then sightseeing around Bagan today to Tharabar Gate, Nyaung Oo Market, Shwezigon Pagoda, Wetgyi Inn Gubyauk Gyi, Htilominlo Temple, and Kyay Min Ga Temple. In the afternoon visit Lawkananda Temle, Manuha Temple, Mam Paya, Myinkaba gubyauk Gyi. Then visit Mya Zedi, Thetbyin Nyu Temple, Shwe Gugyi Pagoda, Gawdaw Palin Pagoda, the Roseeta STone. In the evening enjoy the sun set from Shwesandaw Pagoda, and transfer to Kumudara Hotel to overnight in Bagan.”

I wrote this all out so you can get of an idea. We saw places in a different order, adding some and deleting others. When we could find a sign to identify the temple we took a picture of it. We’ll see next week, I’ll do my best when I can settle down to finish the writing.

I’m identifying the pagodas the best I can, corrections welcome!

Mingala Zedi Pagoda. That is 100 very steep steps up and Merlyn is on the phone talking to Hilda while he looks out over the plain of Bagan.

Tourists pouring up to the various levels to get the best view. Tourists climbing UP…

…and jockeying for position to get the shot.

Sunrise, temples, and $300 balloon rides.

Merlyn, on his phone, where we’re doing a Facebooking Photo.

What temple? We went to SO MANY, in an order we’re not sure of, took pictures in some and not in others…I will probably give up trying to name them.

Another tasty Bagan sandwich that needs some work. This is more a ‘proof of concept’ than a finished work.

Temple street food.

We take our shoes off and on 100s of times each day. I just kick off my flips.

Lunch. We’d order two ‘main’ dishes and this is just what you get. It’s the way it works and we looooved it.

So many temples, so many pictures to choose among.

Many of the temples had paintings on the walls – most probably, and most had sections of very imperfect restorations. This one was probably restored at some point but not recently.

The only bit we saw of the old city wall.

I looked up the meanings of the Buddha images and their hand positions. This is ‘Calling the earth to witness the truth’.

More.

Our last outing with this driver. We’ll get a new driver in the morning to take us to Mt Popa and on to Mandalay.

We Love this driver. He was a perfect driver, a mind-reader in that every time we looked up, coming out of a temple, finishing dinner, leaving in the morning, EVERY time there he was waiting to open the door for us.

Was he an English speaking driver as advertised? He could communicate our schedule no problem, but any conversation off topic of our schedule was not possible.

We ran into cows and goats often. But not like in India where the animals share the main highways. Here they do have full use of the rural roads.

Our sunset viewing location. Notice the crowd gathering at the top.

Everyone was having so much fun!

There it goes.

Interesting how the color changed.

February 1

Today’s program: “Bagan to Mt Popa to Mandalay. Breakfast at the hotel then drive to Mt Popa. Visit Popa Taungkalatt (a volcanic plug) and environs the drive for 6 hours to Mandalay. En route visit Bago then transfer to Yuan Sheng Hotel for overnight in Mandalay.”

This is a picture of the restaurant at the Kumudara Hotel in Bagan where they were serving a nice buffet breakfast. We liked this place too with its rustic charm set among the fields of temples in New Bagan. Kudos to Myanmar Delights for coming up with all very good accommodations and all within budget.

Feed for the animals we think.

Hi!

Heading home with the shopping from the local market.

Mt Popa. I’m going to copy in the Lonely Planet highlights.

“Considered the spiritual HQ to Myanmar’s infamous ’37 nat’. Mt Popa is the premier venue for worship of these pre-Buddhist spirits and an easy day trip from Bagan.

“A gilded Buddhist temple accessed by 777 steps teeters atop a tower like 2418 foot volcanic plug. The 20-minute climb up goes past devout pilgrims, cheeky monkeys, and occasionally slow-stepping hermit monks called yeti.

“From the temple there are mammoth views back towards the Myingyan Plain and beyond.”

A cool looking sign and an arrow to somewhere.

I don’t know!

The monkeys are cheeky all right. I saw this guy swipe the soda can from a kid and head up to the roof to finish it off.

Another cool looking sign and an arrow.

Many of the temples have these dining options of usually rice and a few of the side dishes that we’ve been eating all along.

Fording a river while they build a new bridge.

What a cutie.

A paved road.

The cars can have the steering on the left or the right, usually it seems on the right having come directly from Japan and all marked in Japanese.

The thing is the cars also drive on the right side meaning the driver is over on the curb side and can’t see the oncoming traffic. True.

So if you want to pass you honk at the blinding truck who then blinks his right turn signal if it is unsafe to pass and blinks his left turn signal for an all clear. Then everyone honks at each other as you pass.

It all works ok except it is a little disconcerting when the truck actually wants to turn left. You need to be constantly aware of that possibility.

February 2

Today’s program: “Mandalay to Amarapura to Sagaing. Breakfast at the hotel then vist the Mahagandaryone Monastery for offering alms food to the thousand monks. See the Mahamuni Image, a bronze Buddha image cast during the lifetime of Buddha himself, Mahamuni Pagoda, tapestry works, woodcarving and bronze casting workshops, marble carving workshops, Kuthodaw Pagoda, and Shwenandaw Kyaung Monastery.

“Then vist Sagaing environ, U Min Thonze Pagoda, Sun U Ponya Shin Pagoda, and Kaungmudaw Pagoda. Enjoy the evening sunset at U Bein Bridge, then transfer to Yuan Sheng Hotel for overnight in Mandalay.”

This is the view out my window of the hotel.

I was expecting for no reason at all that Mandalay would be a lovely and gracious colonial city along the lines of Hanoi but no, it seemed rather a thick collection of villages jammed between the boulevards with extraordinary temples and monasteries crowding the landscape.

The Mahamuni Pagoda. Notice the men applying gold leaf to the Buddha and a video of them is showing on the screen above.

These are the Mahamuni Bronzes and adorable little girls.

ShopING.

Loading up in the public taxis. The roof is often packed with people too. It’s actually really clean inside because they lay down a carpet, everyone removes their shoes and jams in there like you wouldn’t believe.

Our driver told us foreigners are not allowed in these vehicles but I can’t find any confirmation that it’s true.

Mahagandaryon Monastery (Maha Aung Mye Bon Zan Monastery) in Amarapura, the onetime capital of Myanmar from 1783–1821 and 1842–1859.

In this monastery over 1000 monks live, teach, study, and work. Every day at 10am the monks line up and volunteers provide breakfast. There were, it seemed, as many tourists taking pictures as there were monks in line.

What it looks like at the end of the line.

Young ones waiting to get in line.

Younger ones already served. I’m using a full telephoto and photoshop blow-ups but still, they’re just trying to eat their breakfast.

It’s a very busy operation as you can imagine with more than 1000 residents.

We drove on past the tapestry works, woodcarving and bronze casting workshops, and marble carving workshops so we’d have time to visit…

…Inwa. You have to take a little shuttle boat to get there across a tributary of the Irrawaddy and Myitnge rivers…

…and then horse carts are at the ready to take you around.

Wiki: “Inwa was the capital of Burma for nearly 360 years, on five separate occasions, from 1365 to 1842. So identified as the seat of power in Burma that Inwa (as the Kingdom of Ava, or the Court of Ava) was the name by which Myanmar was known to Europeans down to the 19th century.”

Ahh, the Chinese buffalo at work.

Our driver. There were men drivers too, but we randomly got one of the women.

An 1839 earthquake finished them off as an important city.

What an unexpectedly delightful ride through the countryside!

I might not have featured these oxen(?) teams yet. We have seen them all through Myanmar, in the fields and on the roads.

A leaning watchtower, another of the sights along the way.

After our return to the mainland, lunch poured out of this kitchen.

More pagodas, more Buddhas.

More more more.

Last stop for the day – U Bein Bridge, looking down at a pick-up soccer game of mostly barefoot skins and shirts.

It’s really gorgeous.

Wiki says the bridge was built from wood reclaimed from the former royal palace in Inwa which is a nice tie-in to earlier in the day. Lonely Planet says it’s the longest teak bridge in the world – this isn’t all of it by any measure.

Looking for our sunset views. There were sunflower fields planted as a crop all along the way.

Pretty.

A lady moving product on her head, a man out for the view, a couple of monks, a tourist – a great combo!

Another group including a couple of monks and kids on the phone.

The sun setting through the U Bein Bridge.

February 3

Today’s program: “Mandalay to Mingun to Mandalay. Breakfast at the hotel then transfer to the jetty to board your boat to Mingun. Visit the unfinished Pahto Daw Gyi, Giant Mingun Bell, and Mya Thein Tan Pagoda. After that take a boat back to the jetty for the transfer to Mandalay. Visit the Palace compound and enjoy the evening at Mandalay Hill. Transfer back to Yuan Sheng Hotel for overnight in Mandalay.”

But first, we had a little excitement along the way. We were stopped by THE POLICE. Merlyn was snapping away and that guy you see came up to the car window and make him delete all the photos. I had snapped this one quickly and then stashed my camera.

The driver had to produce his documents. Were they in order? We don’t know, but they were stopping many cars who then drove right on.

That’s the back of our driver going over to the little table. He returned saying that “for the sake of his relationship with the officer at the table he gave a little tip and we were free to travel on.”

On with the program, we boarded our boat to Mingun…

…that we shared with this couple from Australia and their sweet and delightful guide.

What a pleasure to be able to ask a question and then get an answer!

Mingun Pahtodawgyi, the largest stack of bricks in the world, or so they said. It’s solid bricks since the top of the unfinished pagoda collapsed into itself during the 1839 earthquake.

Also destroyed in the earthquake, the lions pictured on the Myanmar money.

Mingun Bell, the World’s Largest Uncracked and Ringing Bell. From the outside and then I scooted inside too…

…and the top-piece.

Taxi! Taxi anyone?!

Painted white and modeled on the physical description of the Buddhist mythological mountain, Mount Meru, Hsinbyume Pagoda has a story, according to the guide, similar to that of the Taj Mahal, built in 1816 by a ruler in memory of his dead wife.

The boatmen created a welcome handrail.

Mom and Dad and Grandma and the Baby,

A marvelous teak pagoda in the Palace complex…

…beautifully done…

…and a golden treat.

Kuthodaw pagoda and The World’s Largest Book!

Here’s what the complex looks like. Inside each of those small buildings is a stone tablet, part of the World’s Largest Book.

Another view.

The Palace (I think…I don’t remember seeing the book before the palace but that’s the order of the pictures.)

Then we went up Mandalay Hill for a look around. We got separated but it was worth it for this picture of Merlyn.

February 4

Today’s program: “Breakfast at the hotel then transfer to Mandalay International Airport.”

Skipping breakfast at the hotel as we did almost every day, we had a big adventure in the morning before heading out to the airport for our flight to Chiang Mai.

We went out in search of what Lonely Planet calls “The best three-wheel street trolley” in Mandalay serving mohinga, a dish Merlyn has been trying to eat since we got here.

Here’s one of our co-diners who, after asking us where we were from, produced this amazing phone and phone holder.

It was So Much Fun, and totally delicious too.

A quick snap on the walk back to the hotel.

Goodbye to our Mandalay driver, and we’re off to Chiang Mai Thailand. What an AWESOME ADVENTURE we just had.