Blogs from Bagan, Mandalay Region, Burma, Asia - page 9

My dream came true!!! I saw Mt. POPA! Arrival in Bagan was really tricky because it took about 20min. and 5guest houses to find available room but luck stuck and I had lovely single in the Motel. I set the alarm at 7 (2,5hours more) and went to sleep. But before I started to think about how very tired of travelling (great news for my mum and friends who want to have me closer) I am and how long can I go for. Well the alarm didn’t really work cos I overslept. I took shower, put on fresh clothes and went to the reception area to find out about Popa because I was not very keen in paying 50000 for a taxi to get there. My lucky star struck again - Austrian couple wanted to go ... read more

Bagan Bagan was once the capital of a great civilization dating from 849 AD to 1287, when it was believed to have been destroyed by Kublai Khan’s Mongol army. At its height, it was a mighty city, as is evidenced by the THOUSANDS of archaeological sites still remaining. Over 2 000 temples dot the plains by the banks of the river Ayeyarwady. There is an old and new Bagan. Old Bagan is the former site of the village that moved to 2 miles south to the New Bagan in 1990. The government forced the villagers to relocate due to “treasure hunting” around the ruins during the 1988 street protests when the authourities attentions were distracted by the unrest. Between the two is Myinkaba, a village renowned for its lacquer ware tradition. The two towns are connected ... read more

So next chapter of travelling!!! Happy to get away from Hsipaw we went to Mandalay again, stayed one more night there just to recover - Mandalay was also not the cleanest city - to catch the local slow boat to Bagan. That was a nice experience, sitting on top of a quite big boat with all the locals together on the floor. The first time fresh air because we drove along the Iradawady river, a mighty stream in Burma. We passed bathing kids, farmers with oxcarts, loads of teakwoodtrading ships and loads of piles of teakwood along the river - and not to forget, lots of stupas everywhere - Burma, definetly the land of stupas!! My motto for the country - stop building stupas - plant trees!!! After 13 hours on the boat we arrived in ... read more

The main objective of our visit to Myanmar is BAGAN. Of more than 4000 Pagodas, now remaining about 2000. The people are lovely, you always feel safe under any condition. Tourists are not allowed to drive motorbike and no motorbike driver takes tourist. You either take public bus ( there is none after 5PM) or bicycle or the best for us horse carts. We enjoyed the pagoda area two days and had the sun set at a pagoda near the river Ayayewaddy. The second day the sun set at the pagoda side. We also visitedMyin Ka Par village near Bagan to lacquerware works. The last day we went to Golf Resort and spent the whole day there swimming in their pool. Tomorrow we are leaving this impressive town for Thazi via Meiktila. The next day we ... read more

After what has seemed like months of successive, agonisingly long journeys which have taken us from A to B on our travels, we opted for the less scenic, but certainly more manageable six hour bus ride from Mandalay to the town of Nyuang U in Bagan. Originally, our plan was to taken the government owned and operated slow boat down the Ayeyarwaddy River to Nyuang U. However, in this instance we simply did not in any way desire the 5am start nor the fifteen hour travel time. I could have fabricated a falsehood at this juncture, painting ourselves as democracy demanding crusaders who would not allow a penny of our hard earned money to fall into the pockets of the tyrannical military Burmese government, thereby giving them the proverbial middle finger – but we all know ... read more