Advertisement
Published: July 10th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Returning from Hsipaw, we stayed overnight in Mandalay (no Bay) before our boat ride to Bagan. We, of course, visited our favorite 'Chapati Stand' for a final dinner in Mandalay.
The boat ride lasted approximately five hours down the Ayerwaddy River. The distance between Mandalay and Bagan is not actually far at all but the river is extremely shallow at many points. As if our boat wasn't slow enough, it needed to traverse (read: zigzag) from bank to bank for virtually the entire trip. Regardless, as the boat is only for tourists - we're probably the only people who could afford the $15 ticket - and there are hardly any tourists, the boat was empty outside of a handful of foreigners. It was a beautiful day and we were able to enjoy the riverside scenery and catch some sleep.
We arrived in Bagan in the afternoon and proceeded to our hotel in Nyaung U. Patrick, Jill and I took a short stroll around Nyaung U (where our guesthouse was located) before finding a local restaurant to have some dinner and plan our next day. Bagan is made up of several towns and within its perimeter are over 2,000 temples
no later than the 13th century. The temples are spread out over a vast dusty and desert-like area.
The next day we woke up early for breakfast (if I haven't mentioned, big perk of Myanmar is the free breakfast available at every guesthouse/hotel - this is throughout the country) and rented our bicycles for the day. Bicycles were at least ten years old - no gears, old-school crooked handlebars and baskets. We started down towards Old Bagan - about 10 km down the road - to see all the temples within the walls of Old Bagan. Old Bagan was is the easiest area to manage since there is a paved road cutting through the walls. Jill and I hit up all of the worthwhile temples in this area as well as a couple outside of the old city walls - we also tagged along with a group of young Myanmar studying to be guides. They invited us to join and it was nice to have some historical information for a couple of temples but our attention-span for tour guides is limited, very limited, so broke off shortly after their invite.
At some point during the day, a man
Temple # 1
The temples are names but for my purposes, we'll use numbers. and his son on their scooter told us to come to their restaurant - San Thi Dar (in Old Bagan) - for lunch. We had planned to take a long lunch to try to stay covered during the hottest part of the day. We found their restaurant, which doubles as their home in the evening. They treated to complimentary fruit, fruit shakes and tea not to mention enormous portions of the vegetable curries we had ordered. Needless to say, we had found our lunch spot for the next three days. As far as we can tell (we being very suspicious New Yorkers), out of the goodness of thier hearts, day-after-day they treated us to free plates of food and even a couple of gifts for Jill. As a result, we recommended their restaurant to the few people we had met and on our third night, the family invited us to dinner (along with another couple) which was more like a feast. I've still not gotten use to the hospitality of some people; and it has not ceased to stun me each time.
Quick story about the father: The father studied geology but cannot find a job in the current
situation; basically, if you have a university degree in a certain subject, the only group that will employ you in the government. In order to work for the government, you need to bribe someone. So you need to pay someone off to get a job you might be qualified for, and if you don't have the cash, you're out of luck. The corruption is rampant throughout the country and severly affects many Myanmar people. It was at least very obvious during our ride north earlier in the trip where policeman would stand on the side of the road for a toll, except that it was going into their pockets.
For the next two days, we woke up early, picked up our bicycles and cruised to a new area in Bagan to explore. During lunch time, we rested and rehydrated for a couple of hours and then continued until sunset. There certainly is only so-much temples that one could see, however, Bagan's charm encouraged us to motivate for three straight days of temple sight-seeing; what motivated me was visualing life and the temples 1000 years ago in Bagan and that it probably wasn't much different than what we were looking
at. During our final afternoon, Jill and I found a resort and for $3 we gained access to their pool for a few hours in the afternoon.
The landscape and people of Bagan were unforgetable and a highlight of our trip thus far. In addition, the shopping in Bagan for lacquerware or other traditional items was extensive (and cheap). After three full days in Bagan, we jumped on a bus heading back to the capital, and the start of our trip, Yangon. We broke up the long bus ride by stopping in Pyay for a day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0716s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb