Bagan

Thousands of temples are spread across the plains of Bagan which was the capital of the Mandalay Region from the 9th to the 13th century.  Devotion to the Buddha resulted in over ten thousand temples built.  Now after earthquakes and wars and general erosion, only a few thousand remain.  Happily our small hotel, the Blue Bird, was a serene and welcoming respite after the “party boat” and the ensuing onslaught of touts vying to take you in their rundown cars to town.  Ron and I rolled our bags up the muddy riverside and casually made our way through the crowds to the more quiet part of the town.  We eventually found a young boy to drive us the fifteen minutes to the hotel in the town of New Bagan.  Once we settled into our very modern and cozy room, we took a walk on the dirt street to the nearest restaurant and had a surprisingly good meal.  It was colder than we thought and we had to request extra blankets and in the morning we needed to wear our jackets to breakfast.  Breakfasts here are wonderful as all hotels provide them as part of your room rate.  The feast usually includes fresh fruit juice, sliced fresh papaya, watermelon, banana, melon.  Homemade yogurt served in little jars, toast and croissant, freshly made crepes and French omelets.  There is always a selection of local food, especially the Mohinga, a rice noodle and fish soup which is the national dish of Burma.  I had it once but truthfully found it hard to eat fish soup for breakfast. Surprisingly there was also champagne, so we would have a glass in the garden sitting in the sun, warming up.  There are several ways to visit the temples, stupas and pagodas spread across the dry red, dusty plain.  You can hire a driver with a car.  You can ride a bicycle.  Or you can hire a pony cart and travel in a slow “romantic” but not so comfortable journey down the rutted roads.  We used the bicycles one day from our hotel.  They were old one speed bikes that were incredibly hard to peddle.  I thought it was me being weak, but when we traded Ron said my bike was especially difficult to peddle.  The new way to visit the temples is to rent an electric motor scooter.  Once we did that we traveled all over and it was fun.  We’d putt putt along at about 25-35 K and really got down some dirt tracts that we wouldn’t see any other people.  The temples were scattered all over, as far as you could see,  and you were free to wander any where you choose.  It was magical.  Inside each temple or pagoda were Buddha statues, usually four, facing north, south, east, west.  Many had beautiful faded detailed frescos on the walls.  How many places can you go where old relics and temples are free to be wandered and entered with no supervision, or rules?  The only new restriction was you cannot climb on the temples, which prevents destruction, but now you cannot capture any sunset views.   By mid day it was getting very hot.  We would return to our cold pool and the peace and quiet of the garden.  Upon returning we would receive a cold jasmine scented face towel and a cold glass of water.  Very refreshing as it is so dry and dusty.  You breathe in a lot of dust.  Bagan is my favorite place in Myanmar.  People were bright and kind.  There was no hard sell of anything.  We could walk around or drive our scooter down the narrow tree lined back streets and see people’s homes and qlimpse their simple lifestyle.  Many would smile and wave and call out “ Mingalabar” which is the greeting here.  It’s like a song.  Sunsets were colorful.  Sunrise we awoke to balloons lifting off over our hotel for those who wanted to pay $500 apiece for the pleasure of seeing the regions glorious temples from above.   We liked the intelligent woman who did our laundry for $3 and her husband who drove us to the airport, and hugged me goodbye!  We enjoyed the staff at our hotel who never seemed to mind my questions and laughed at my jokes.  I never said anything other than a greeting to the guard who stood to attention every time we came and went, but he had such kind soulful eyes.  And the waiters at the restaurants who brought us our food and beers who seemed genuinely happy at our reaction to the Burmese food, even though our meal probably cost more than they make in a day, or two!  Not everything is pretty or easy.  There are the bumps in the roads, both literally and figuratively, but they pale in comparison to the sweet simple things you learn from people who have it much harder in every way than we do, work harder every day than we do, and always seem to be at peace and happy.  Only once did I hear someone raise their voice.  It was totally out of character.  While I complained and grumbled getting gassed riding in the ancient broken down tuk tuk, spewing fumes and bouncing in every pothole, the driver was singing.  I am grateful for the experience.  Now off to Ngapali Beach, on the 72 seat turbo prop, and another experience to begin...