On our arrival in Bagan we were met by Mr. Moo, a friend of our driver in Mandalay. Mr. Moo's English proved excellent, but chatting with him was a bit disconcerting visually. Like many Burmese he is addicted to chewing Betel nut. As a result, when he smiled, it looked as if he had been drinking chicken blood. During our short drive to our hotel we observed that Bagan, which is located along the Ayerwaddy River, is hot, dusty and desert like, with nothing but sand, and dry scrubby bushes....and, oh yes, more than 2,500 pagodas and temples dating back more than 1200 years! There had been some 5,000 temples, but a brief and violent visit from Kublai Khan in mid-13th century reduced the number of temples by half. While in Bangkok, we had pre-paid 6
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