Blogs from Bagan, Mandalay Region, Burma, Asia - page 18

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Bagan Bagan is one of my favourite ancient cities of Asia, although its relatively unknown to much of the world, it's an awesome cluster of 1,000 year old Buddhist temples and monuments covering an area that is measured 40 square kilometers, you can find dozens... no, hundreds... oh well, in fact over four thousand temples, stupas, and other strictly religious buildings, resulting from the millenium-old Burmese frenetic habit of trying to buy a better reincarnation. Sat in the back of a cart, pulled by horse power we set off to explore in the blistering heat. Bagan is often compared to Angkor Watt in Cambodia as a major south-east Asian historical religious site. The scale is not the same, here in Bagan buildings are smaller, but ridiculous in number and they often house century-old wall paintings. The ... read more

Another day and another early start (the concept of sleeping in doesn't exist in this country!) saw us stumbling somewhat bleary eyed onto the 5am boat from Mandalay to Bagan. By the time the Ayeyarwady river reaches Mandalay it's huge and initially the scenery wasn't that impressive - the river was so wide and the cloud low that it was difficult to see anything along the flat river bank and surrounding plains. As the day progressed though and we moved closer to one bank or the other, we got many glimpses of river life..... water buffalo grazing as they rested, people washing themselves, their clothes, fishing for dinner, kids playing in the river and everyone just getting on with life. Almost everyone we saw stopped whatever they were doing to wave, smile or laugh and shout ... read more

The long painful bus ride The taxi (a 1960 Zepher) picked us up at 4:45am and took us to the bus pickup. The bus came at 5:25, 25 minutes late. It was a small mini-bus. The fact that there are 24 seats in it is ridiculous. Our seats were right behind the driver. And these seats were small! Unfortunately for us, there was also some kind of compressor right in front of us and the engine was just below the floor. We started driving and it quickly became apparent how uncomfortable the ride was going to be. Not too long into the trip, the bus stopped at a place for people to get breakfast. Neither of us wanted anything. A half hour later, the bus picked up some people who apparently were moving just about every ... read more

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 ... read more