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Published: January 2nd 2009
(Day 272 on the road)From Mandalay, it is possible to take a slow boat (14 hours) to Bagan down the mighty river Ayeyarwady. The boat was due to leave at 0530h, and we arrived 45 minutes early to be on the safe side with tickets. The taxi drivers to the jetty ripped us off blatantly, charging four times the normal rate we had paid previously, and at the boat we had to pay 20 times as much as the locals do for the ride (it was goverment-owned boat, so the extra money didn't even go to the local people). On top of that, the boat didn't leave until 0630. Not the best start into the day.
The boat ride however was great. I had imagined it to be a foreigner boat with maybe a few locals riding along. But quite to the contrary: The boat was packed with locals, their luggage and cargo, and it was all pretty tight. I especially enjoyed the spectacle whenever the boat stopped to exchange goods with the people living along the river, which was almost always complete chaos both on the boat and on land.
And then Bagan. Imagine a vast plain, flanked
by mountain ranges on three sides in the distant, and the whole plain is littered with ruins of temples and stupas. There are thought to be about 2500 of them left today, from its height of 13.000 temples when they were built about 1000 years ago. They are of varying size and in different states, some in a very good state, others little more than ruins. The majority of the temples were built in 1057 after the conquest of Thaton by King Anawrahta when Bagan was the capital of the First Burmese Empire and until it was overrun by Kublai Khan's forces in 1287. The river has washed away nearly one-third of the original city area, thieves have torn apart many temples in search of treasures, while earthquakes and the ravages of time have reduced many more to great piles of crumbled stones.
One is free to roam the area and climb the temples at will. Some of the bigger temples are quite popular and can get a little crowded, especially at sunset, but with so many temples to choose from it was easy enough to find one just for me alone on three afternoons in a row. Just
sitting up their, thinking about how these ruins were once built and taking in the incredible view of all the temples around me was an incredibly inspiring and refreshing.
On the first day in Bagan, it was my birthday. I had planned to treat me to a round of golf at the local golf course (built against UNESCO's protests right in the middle of the temples). However, the green fee was prohibitively expensive (for my budget at least and certainly in comparison to the cost of living in Myanmar), so I just hit a few balls on the driving range, which was fun experience. They have neither balls nor a machine collecting the used balls. Instead, you have to bring your own practise balls (which I didn't have) and someone to to stand on the range and pick the balls up after you hit them (which I didn't have either). But there was a government official hitting a few balls, and he lent me some of his balls. After e had hit all the balls, his caddy had already picked them up (minus the two that I had managed to hit into the rough grass on the side -
sorry!), and we started hitting again.
Travelling in beautiful Myanmar with its friendly people it is easy to forget what is going on behind the scenes and in what conditions people here have to live. Whilst finally having my beard shaved off at the local barber we chatted a bit and I found out that his monthly salary is less than ten dollars, about the same price of the cheapest double room we had managed to find in Bagan. In Mandalay, our guide had told us how afraid everybody was of the suppressive government, who apparently has its informants everywhere, even (or maybe especially?) in the temples and monasteries. The hardship the people have to endure under the military junta and due to the international sanctions is hard to describe and heartbreaking.
The income of my barber also made me realise just how much foreigners are being charged here for everything. I think in the past few weeks in the country I have only once been charged the local price (in a supermarket with marked prices). The rest of the time I (and every single foreigner around me) have been paying way too much in comparison, up to
20 times the real prices. It is a difficult subject and the country and its people are certainly very poor so that I generally don't mind paying a little extra, but when I am reduced to a walking cash machine that goes a little too far and ruins the whole experience for me a little. Recently, I had read a few articles by and about the famous philosopher Immanuel Kant, best known for his
categorical imperative: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law". I wonder what happened if everyone always charged everyone else 5, 10 or 20 times the real price for all goods and services... But I guess there are numerous viewpoints on this complicated topic.
Bagan was also the first place in Myanmar where other people and I have had some quite bad experiences with regards to being scammed. We have heard from quite a few people who have been scammed and relieved of quite a bit of money. We also had a similar experience ourselves, but were lucky and smart enough to walk away just in time. I don't want to go into detail, but if you are reading this and are going to Bagan, just be careful about overly friendly locals inviting you to their home, for instance for dinner. Some of it might be genuine offers of course, but everything we heard and experienced first hand were blatant scams. The actual practise might vary, but in essence they spend a lot of time with you, possibly the whole day, and in the end ask for a lot of money (say 100 Euros for a sick relative or to go to university). At that time, it is psychologically very difficult to simply walk away as they have been so nice to you all day, so more often than not people end up giving money against their will.
But to finish this entry on a positive note: How did I end the old year and greet the new one? Well, pretty much like I had imagined it: I spent a solemn afternoon on a deserted temple, reading and watching the sun set, then I had dinner with Silke and Richard (whom we had met in Mandalay and we were sharing a room with in Bagan), and around 2200h we climbed another deserted temple. We sat on top of the temple and welcomed the new year up there, with a perfect view over the ruins below us that were lit by the millions of stars and the moon above us.
Next stop: Chaungtha Beach (Southern Myanmar).
To view my photos, have a look at
pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete
book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).
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rossi92353
Edward M
From Mandalay to Bagan
Sorry you had a problem with the taxi drivers. That's not my experience in Myanmar. And not the experience of other people I know that have traveled this route. Bashing the country is doing nothing for the people.