Land of Pagodas

Bagan. Wow. There is no other way to explain the vastness of the pagodas, stupas, caves and buddas as they cover the skyline beyond where the eye can see (and that is from the top of a temple!). Long gone are the days of walking the streets and hearing “tuk tuk” or “moto” – here in Bagan we have “horse cart horse cart”. Mr E (also a chewer of the red stuff) guided us around on his horse and cart for the day, stopping to visit the highlights. 

Me and Mr E hanging out

In Bagan you are woken by happy music streaming from people’s homes and a sweltering heat. There are over 4000 pagodas within the Bagan area. Mr E said temperature reached over 40 degrees (and the day before when we arrived was rumoured to be over 45) before 1pm. We called a break for both Lucky the horse, Mr E and ourselves for a few hours and retired to the guesthouse before heading out for sunset. The evening brought Rambo the horse and a rest for Lucky (Mr E gave us Lucky’s horse shoe that got changed on our morning journey which was pretty cool). It was a cloudy evening, but all the same sitting on top of that temple is probably the most peaceful place I have ever been. With the Ayearwady river stretched out to the right and temples to the skyline in every other direct. So beautiful.

We found some good food and an amazing Indian restaurant in Bagan. A welcome relief to the challenges in our short time in Yangon. An Mr E took us to an amazing vegetarian restaurant too on our day out. As a Budda he is on a month’s vegetarianism currently. They also served Tamarind candy after all Lunch and Dinner. Tasty wafer thin slices of dried fruits. 

Getting some local sunblock

Bagan was also our first taste of lovely lovely Burmese people. The guy who owned the Indian was so kind and friendly and his staff were constantly checking to see if everything was ok and bringing us a never ending supply of food. Chaptis, Rice, Curry  - all for less than $4NZ each. And Mr E was knowledgeable and sharing. Some ladies at the temple also shared their sunscreen with me. Here they use the root of a tree made into a paste and spread it all over their small amounts of exposed skin to very very successfully protect them from the sun.

It was also in Bagan that some of the people first spoke to us about the government and their dislike. It is not something often spoken of, as a consequence there can (and often) be imprisonment. When we went to buy our train tickets at a vendor he couldn’t accept one of the $20US notes as it had a small ink mark on one of the corners. He was very sorry and said to Spike “It is the government!” Any markings on the notes take three months for the banks to process. Just one of the many many issues regarding money here. Mr E and myself were waiting on the cart as the exchange took place and Mr E commented on the “stupid government” and that it was nowhere else, just Myanmar. The frustration the people feel is under the surface and there is so much they wish that wasn’t so, but there is little choice.