10 days in Burma (Myanmar) - men in sarongs (longyi)
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These 2 images - the National Museum on the left and the mausoleum of General Aung Sun on the right - leads us into the (inevitable) History Corner.
I'm discovering that Burmese history is, not surprisingly, long and complex and this will just be a trite overview.
The National Museum isn't bad - fairly gloomy inside but with some nice displays (no pictures - everything checked into a locker at the entrance). Most displays have at least an English label, sometimes more. Lots of gold objects from the past Kingdoms, and artefacts from the rulers, mostly 18th and 19th century, but good cultural stuff also from 500BC through to the 'Middle Ages'. Fossil 'man', excavated from a number of places over a considerable time span along the Ayeyarwady (AKA Irrawaddy) River valley, in a sequence starting about 45 million years ago, could indicate that Man originated from Asia, not the African Rift Valley.
From 1,000 BC to about 1,000 AD there were a succession of 4 ethnic based Kingdoms, interacting (mostly negatively) with the Indian, Chinese and Thai kingdoms around them. Bagan was founded about 850AD. From about 1020 AD, the first of three Burmese Empires was founded, based on Buddhism and at Bagan. Successive Kings moved their capital round a bit, hence many centres have collections of historic temples. The third Empire ended in the 1800s with the British colonisation. British rule was completed in three bouts of war through the 1800, the last one in 1885; the capital was established at Rangoon (Yangon).
The self government movement gained strength in the 1920s/30s, but this was hindered by in-fighting between Burmese factions. An independence leader was Bogyoke (General) Aung San (father of Aung San Suu Kyi). He worked with Japan in WW2 and came with their invasion force (which did great damage to the country) but realised that they were the worse of 2 evils, and changed sides to the Allies, assisting them materially.
immediately after WW2 he went to Britain and worked on Independence. In 1947 elections his "Anti Fascist Peoples party" won an overwhelming majority. However the General, and 6 comrades were gunned down in their offices by a rival group in June 1947. It is their mausoleum pictured above. He is today known as the "National Hero".
Independence was granted in January 1948 and the country immediately splintered into many ethnic and political groups, with armed battles in Yangon and in the countryside. The government just held on until 1958 when power was voluntarily handed to the military under General Ne Win, and this went well at first. But after elections in 1960, the military staged a coup in 1962, jailed the government leaders, confiscated private property, banned foreign enterprises and went on a 'Burmese style' socialist path.
In the 1970s and 80s a series of uprisings, some led by monks, were crushed and many thousands killed. Ang San Suu Kyi's party participated in elections in 1990 (the military thought it had things under control) and did well, so she was put under house arrest and the election results largely ignored. She was released a while ago and the country appears to be inching towards more liberalisation.
The General and his comrades were buried at the site of the red mausoleum, above.; it was a wooden structure until, in 1983 the North Koreans attempted to assassinate South Korean general Chun Doo-Hwan with a bomb. Twenty people died, but not the General. The red concrete structure replaced the wooden one. These no actual mausoleum vault open to the public as far as I could see.
End of history. Its been a sad 60 years or so, but hopefully things are on the way up.
First off today, continuing looking about Yangon. There is the Chakhtatgyi Paya in the suburbs (taxi ride), where a 65m long reclining Buddha is housed in an iron shed that resembles a railway shed. On the head is a crown encrusted with diamonds and stuff.
Not far away is the Ngahtatgyi Paya, where we see a 15m high seated Bhudda. And our happy mate from yesterday with the rakish set to his pants, makes another appearance.
Walking back to the hotel from the National Museum, there are a couple more reminders of the British Colonial period. On the left, the former Pegu Club - it was a very exclusive club in its hey-day and Kipling as supposed to have written is poem Mandalay here. Its built of teak, and was obviously once magnificent, but probably beyond repair now. On the right is Yangon Hospital, another colonial masterpiece. Its twice as big as the photo makes it appear (ie same behind me as in front).
I headed south some more, through Chinatown. Here things went of the rails for my admiration of Yangon. Very crowded and smelly; for the first time I felt uncomfortable and went as fast as I could through several blocks. It wasn't easy as the footpath was very broken up (the pic below doesn't show the worst of it, by a long shot) and once I had to step over a dead rat. Towards the waterfront end it resolved into something a bit more 'normal' with lots of fruit, veg and spices for sale.
Hmmm ... time for a gin & tonic, I think.
I'm discovering that Burmese history is, not surprisingly, long and complex and this will just be a trite overview.
The National Museum isn't bad - fairly gloomy inside but with some nice displays (no pictures - everything checked into a locker at the entrance). Most displays have at least an English label, sometimes more. Lots of gold objects from the past Kingdoms, and artefacts from the rulers, mostly 18th and 19th century, but good cultural stuff also from 500BC through to the 'Middle Ages'. Fossil 'man', excavated from a number of places over a considerable time span along the Ayeyarwady (AKA Irrawaddy) River valley, in a sequence starting about 45 million years ago, could indicate that Man originated from Asia, not the African Rift Valley.
From 1,000 BC to about 1,000 AD there were a succession of 4 ethnic based Kingdoms, interacting (mostly negatively) with the Indian, Chinese and Thai kingdoms around them. Bagan was founded about 850AD. From about 1020 AD, the first of three Burmese Empires was founded, based on Buddhism and at Bagan. Successive Kings moved their capital round a bit, hence many centres have collections of historic temples. The third Empire ended in the 1800s with the British colonisation. British rule was completed in three bouts of war through the 1800, the last one in 1885; the capital was established at Rangoon (Yangon).
The self government movement gained strength in the 1920s/30s, but this was hindered by in-fighting between Burmese factions. An independence leader was Bogyoke (General) Aung San (father of Aung San Suu Kyi). He worked with Japan in WW2 and came with their invasion force (which did great damage to the country) but realised that they were the worse of 2 evils, and changed sides to the Allies, assisting them materially.
immediately after WW2 he went to Britain and worked on Independence. In 1947 elections his "Anti Fascist Peoples party" won an overwhelming majority. However the General, and 6 comrades were gunned down in their offices by a rival group in June 1947. It is their mausoleum pictured above. He is today known as the "National Hero".
Independence was granted in January 1948 and the country immediately splintered into many ethnic and political groups, with armed battles in Yangon and in the countryside. The government just held on until 1958 when power was voluntarily handed to the military under General Ne Win, and this went well at first. But after elections in 1960, the military staged a coup in 1962, jailed the government leaders, confiscated private property, banned foreign enterprises and went on a 'Burmese style' socialist path.
In the 1970s and 80s a series of uprisings, some led by monks, were crushed and many thousands killed. Ang San Suu Kyi's party participated in elections in 1990 (the military thought it had things under control) and did well, so she was put under house arrest and the election results largely ignored. She was released a while ago and the country appears to be inching towards more liberalisation.
The General and his comrades were buried at the site of the red mausoleum, above.; it was a wooden structure until, in 1983 the North Koreans attempted to assassinate South Korean general Chun Doo-Hwan with a bomb. Twenty people died, but not the General. The red concrete structure replaced the wooden one. These no actual mausoleum vault open to the public as far as I could see.
End of history. Its been a sad 60 years or so, but hopefully things are on the way up.
First off today, continuing looking about Yangon. There is the Chakhtatgyi Paya in the suburbs (taxi ride), where a 65m long reclining Buddha is housed in an iron shed that resembles a railway shed. On the head is a crown encrusted with diamonds and stuff.
Not far away is the Ngahtatgyi Paya, where we see a 15m high seated Bhudda. And our happy mate from yesterday with the rakish set to his pants, makes another appearance.
Walking back to the hotel from the National Museum, there are a couple more reminders of the British Colonial period. On the left, the former Pegu Club - it was a very exclusive club in its hey-day and Kipling as supposed to have written is poem Mandalay here. Its built of teak, and was obviously once magnificent, but probably beyond repair now. On the right is Yangon Hospital, another colonial masterpiece. Its twice as big as the photo makes it appear (ie same behind me as in front).
I headed south some more, through Chinatown. Here things went of the rails for my admiration of Yangon. Very crowded and smelly; for the first time I felt uncomfortable and went as fast as I could through several blocks. It wasn't easy as the footpath was very broken up (the pic below doesn't show the worst of it, by a long shot) and once I had to step over a dead rat. Towards the waterfront end it resolved into something a bit more 'normal' with lots of fruit, veg and spices for sale.
Hmmm ... time for a gin & tonic, I think.
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The local PMUR deserved a thread of its own.
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A bit more on the Shwedegon Pagoda, that I re-visited today. Turns out that they are applying a new coat of gold to the stupa - taking about 5 months. Not spraying it on either - nailing it on 
See the stupa, with the hti at the very top, beyond the bamboo scaffolding ...
I took my pocket Sony out, and maxed the zoom to about 120x .. and there's the Vane at the top. You can see the ruddy rubies and diamonds set in the gold!
immediately below the vane are hundreds of golden bells and more jewels.
Over the road is another pagoda, pretty impressive in its own right, but almost totally deserted: its own crown of gold and bells and jewels ... Beneath each bell is a lotus leaf.
Chooks seem to be significant here, with a number of large gold ones lording it over everyone. Exiting that Pagoda, I liked these, um, anatomically correct chinthi
See the stupa, with the hti at the very top, beyond the bamboo scaffolding ...
I took my pocket Sony out, and maxed the zoom to about 120x .. and there's the Vane at the top. You can see the ruddy rubies and diamonds set in the gold!
immediately below the vane are hundreds of golden bells and more jewels.
Over the road is another pagoda, pretty impressive in its own right, but almost totally deserted: its own crown of gold and bells and jewels ... Beneath each bell is a lotus leaf.
Chooks seem to be significant here, with a number of large gold ones lording it over everyone. Exiting that Pagoda, I liked these, um, anatomically correct chinthi
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My last walk around town continued to deliver the goods. I was curious about what is called the 'Ministers Building'. I knew it was abandoned now, as in 2005 the Junta here announced that the Capital of Myanmar would be moved to Naypyidaw, a green fields site about 320km up the road from Yangon; its growing rapidly and the government has relocated. That's affected the economy of Yangon quite considerably.
Well, what a building :shock: . At about 400,000 square feet, its 2/3 the size of the Louvre and undoubtedly bigger than Castle Howard in the UK (it reminds me of that building). It was completed in 1905 to be the seat of the British administration of Burma and housed the Burmese Parliament from independence in 1948 to 1962 (coup). General Aung San and comrades were assassinated here in 1947.
Its very hard to see from the street due to encirclement by 1) two layers of fencing (I guess the junta didn't want to happen to then as happened to Aung San!) and 2) lots of trees, but this is what it used to look like (source - Wikipedia)
and today, including a Google Earth view (the pic on the left is of the top LH corner of the aerial view and I'm standing on the RH street in the top pic):
There were plans to turn it into a hotel, but this was met with a significant local outcry, so now the plans are for a museum, galleries etc and a hotel. hard to see it ever being filled though. After being neglected for some years, and already deteriorating, some maintenance and restoration work is now underway.
A block or so away is St Mary's Cathedral. A sign out the front says that the Catholic Church celebrated its 500th Jubilee in Myanmar in 2011. Absolutely stunning inside.
That's it for Yangon. This morning I'm meeting the others and its a 9 hour drive upcountry to Bagan. Oh, I didn't get my G&T last night either - no tonic water :shock: :evil:
Well, what a building :shock: . At about 400,000 square feet, its 2/3 the size of the Louvre and undoubtedly bigger than Castle Howard in the UK (it reminds me of that building). It was completed in 1905 to be the seat of the British administration of Burma and housed the Burmese Parliament from independence in 1948 to 1962 (coup). General Aung San and comrades were assassinated here in 1947.
Its very hard to see from the street due to encirclement by 1) two layers of fencing (I guess the junta didn't want to happen to then as happened to Aung San!) and 2) lots of trees, but this is what it used to look like (source - Wikipedia)
and today, including a Google Earth view (the pic on the left is of the top LH corner of the aerial view and I'm standing on the RH street in the top pic):
There were plans to turn it into a hotel, but this was met with a significant local outcry, so now the plans are for a museum, galleries etc and a hotel. hard to see it ever being filled though. After being neglected for some years, and already deteriorating, some maintenance and restoration work is now underway.
A block or so away is St Mary's Cathedral. A sign out the front says that the Catholic Church celebrated its 500th Jubilee in Myanmar in 2011. Absolutely stunning inside.
That's it for Yangon. This morning I'm meeting the others and its a 9 hour drive upcountry to Bagan. Oh, I didn't get my G&T last night either - no tonic water :shock: :evil:
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A 10 hour drive from Yagon to Bagan yesterday. Bit of a white knuckle ride in places.
Internet here very thin so I'll just post this pic of the view upon arrival at the hotel
Taking a balloon over this lot at dawn, in an hour.
Internet here very thin so I'll just post this pic of the view upon arrival at the hotel
Taking a balloon over this lot at dawn, in an hour.
robd
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A 10 hour drive from Yagon to Bagan yesterday. Bit of a white knuckle ride in places.
Internet here very thin so I'll just post this pic of the view upon arrival at the hotel
View attachment 38815
Taking a balloon over this lot at dawn, in an hour.
Ripper photo.
Yes, Bagan is a great place to take Photos at sunset and sunrise, so I have a few very similar to this. You'll love the Balloon ride!A 10 hour drive from Yagon to Bagan yesterday. Bit of a white knuckle ride in places.
Internet here very thin so I'll just post this pic of the view upon arrival at the hotel
View attachment 38815
Taking a balloon over this lot at dawn, in an hour.
Youll get some great photos from that too, the light is just amazing but I can vouch that that is really what the light is like!
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As mentioned above, we drove 10 hours yesterday from Yangon to Bagan. it would have taken us only about 6 if we took the freeway some more, but for the first 4 hours we used National Highway 1, which is mostly only 1 lane each way and is choked with trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians, and many towns.
First stop was this banyan tree which apparently is possessed of sprits who look after travellers. So the thing to do is to park, buy some flowers and place then on your vehicle - be it a car, bus or whatever. if you get a new car, bring it here and the spirit will look after it.
Then the Rangoon War Cemetery (still called that as far as I could tell). I actually couldn't find an Australian section, but undoubtedly there. Very placid, in spite of being just beside busy highway.
Traffic was heavy over the highway. Here are kids on the school bus and a random obstacle.
Lunch was at a large roadside stop. You select from the buffet and then they bring it to you. Most of the RH pic we didn't order; its just 'sides' that come with every meal; tea (of various sorts), tofu and veg, various other greens ( the tamarind sauce was terrific) and a couple of others I didn't catch. I had Myanmar style beef curry and rice. Tasty enough and all for $5.
What you have to understand about the pic below is that I'm in a RH drive vehicle, with driving ALSO on the right side of the road. Pic taken by me, in the LH passenger seat. So when pulling out to overtake, as we did dozens and dozens of times, the driver is 'blind'. I decided to navigate :shock: . So here we are third, over-taking the truck with a load of rice. We did have a number of close calls, but I think at the extreme, some-one would have pulled over a bit more. 90% chance it would have been a motorcyclist, not us that lost out.
The RH pic is of the freeway, which goes from Yangon to Mandalay. Virtually deserted, trucks are banned on it, which is crazy of course. I am led to believe that the private enterprise owners (read - cronies of the Junta) don't want the road surface (concrete) damaged. Both the freeway and the highway have tolls. We did about 120- 130km/hr (limit is 100) on the freeway, Vs about average of 60 on the highway.
First stop was this banyan tree which apparently is possessed of sprits who look after travellers. So the thing to do is to park, buy some flowers and place then on your vehicle - be it a car, bus or whatever. if you get a new car, bring it here and the spirit will look after it.
Then the Rangoon War Cemetery (still called that as far as I could tell). I actually couldn't find an Australian section, but undoubtedly there. Very placid, in spite of being just beside busy highway.
Traffic was heavy over the highway. Here are kids on the school bus and a random obstacle.
Lunch was at a large roadside stop. You select from the buffet and then they bring it to you. Most of the RH pic we didn't order; its just 'sides' that come with every meal; tea (of various sorts), tofu and veg, various other greens ( the tamarind sauce was terrific) and a couple of others I didn't catch. I had Myanmar style beef curry and rice. Tasty enough and all for $5.
What you have to understand about the pic below is that I'm in a RH drive vehicle, with driving ALSO on the right side of the road. Pic taken by me, in the LH passenger seat. So when pulling out to overtake, as we did dozens and dozens of times, the driver is 'blind'. I decided to navigate :shock: . So here we are third, over-taking the truck with a load of rice. We did have a number of close calls, but I think at the extreme, some-one would have pulled over a bit more. 90% chance it would have been a motorcyclist, not us that lost out.
The RH pic is of the freeway, which goes from Yangon to Mandalay. Virtually deserted, trucks are banned on it, which is crazy of course. I am led to believe that the private enterprise owners (read - cronies of the Junta) don't want the road surface (concrete) damaged. Both the freeway and the highway have tolls. We did about 120- 130km/hr (limit is 100) on the freeway, Vs about average of 60 on the highway.
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Balloons Over Bagan - its been operating for 15 years. I've been lucky to see a lot of the world in my 50+ years, but this would make it to the top 5 travel experiences, maybe top 3.
The day began inauspiciously at 5:10am when a 1930s bus came roaring into hearing and then sight, to collect us. Nicely fitted out in teak and bus cushions. Hmmm...
Taken to launch site and treated to (good) coffee and biscuits, then watched as the balloons were inflated BOB have 8 in the air today; 4 at this site; other companies will launce 3 in the vicinity.
Before we board, we are given a thorough safety briefing - and I mean thorough. Our pilot is ex UK air force and there was no mistaking he knew what he was about ... and what he expected of the pax. We didn't lift off until everybody - we had 5 nationalities on board, and I was the only English as first language - EVERBODY could show him that they understood what he was saying. Airline briefings should be this thorough!
But then - magic.
We went up, down, flying around .. every pic a commercial for BOB!
Our pilot ... in as safe hands as JB747 To change direction we went down to catch the winds abt 20 ft off the ground .. yes, we had the basket below tree level on several occasions :mrgreen: FANTASTIC!
The day began inauspiciously at 5:10am when a 1930s bus came roaring into hearing and then sight, to collect us. Nicely fitted out in teak and bus cushions. Hmmm...
Taken to launch site and treated to (good) coffee and biscuits, then watched as the balloons were inflated BOB have 8 in the air today; 4 at this site; other companies will launce 3 in the vicinity.
Before we board, we are given a thorough safety briefing - and I mean thorough. Our pilot is ex UK air force and there was no mistaking he knew what he was about ... and what he expected of the pax. We didn't lift off until everybody - we had 5 nationalities on board, and I was the only English as first language - EVERBODY could show him that they understood what he was saying. Airline briefings should be this thorough!
But then - magic.
We went up, down, flying around .. every pic a commercial for BOB!
Our pilot ... in as safe hands as JB747
To change direction we went down to catch the winds abt 20 ft off the ground .. yes, we had the basket below tree level on several occasions :mrgreen: FANTASTIC!
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So we continued tootling over the temples of Bagan. The temples were built by all and sundry - kings, important persons, ... anyone who could afford it. Some are not much bigger than a garden shed.
But others are a bit larger! This is not a UNESCO World Heritage site. UNESCO had a major falling out with the junta I think in the 1990s. The junta were restoring many of the temples but not necessarily as they should have been. For instance, the fancy bit I showed on top of the Shewdagon Pagoda (with the umbrella, vane, bells etc) was only characteristic of later Pagodas but they were being added to 11th century ones here. (Although Shwedagon is very old, it, like others has been 'upgraded' through the centuries so it has a hti at the top. Many of the ones at Bagan are unchanged - or should be - from the 9th to 13th centuries). There was also a very damaging earthquake in 1975. UNESCO has been back owever and has sponsored a fair bit of restoration of original painings in the temples, and is considering listing 7 temples which are in good original nick.
On the right, coming in to land. The locals, in their field, completely unimpressed and keep heads down.
We assumed landing positions (seated, head back, hanging on for dear life) and it was smooth-ish, and upright! The recovery crews were waiting for us of course, and they really worked hard, grabbing the ropes and corralling the balloons. This is where a few Pacific Islanders would have been handy. The guys here aren't exactly big! On the right, we see the crew through the top of the now open balloon.
They took pics of us - some staged (like this one on the left), some not, throughout the trip and you can buy the collection on a USB for $15 / 15,000 kyat, so take some cash! On the ground it was cold towels, champagne and croissants while they finished packing up the balloons and a last group shot.
This was a really, really professional job. Turns out my pilot was the very first one on the ground, 15 years ago, and he told me a bit about the interesting facets of working in Burma. When one of the new companies proposed opening up last year, they did a 21 balloon mass take-off to demonstrate to local Air Traffic Control and the authorities that additional traffic was safe there are only about 13 possible launches at the moment.
But others are a bit larger! This is not a UNESCO World Heritage site. UNESCO had a major falling out with the junta I think in the 1990s. The junta were restoring many of the temples but not necessarily as they should have been. For instance, the fancy bit I showed on top of the Shewdagon Pagoda (with the umbrella, vane, bells etc) was only characteristic of later Pagodas but they were being added to 11th century ones here. (Although Shwedagon is very old, it, like others has been 'upgraded' through the centuries so it has a hti at the top. Many of the ones at Bagan are unchanged - or should be - from the 9th to 13th centuries). There was also a very damaging earthquake in 1975. UNESCO has been back owever and has sponsored a fair bit of restoration of original painings in the temples, and is considering listing 7 temples which are in good original nick.
On the right, coming in to land. The locals, in their field, completely unimpressed and keep heads down.
We assumed landing positions (seated, head back, hanging on for dear life) and it was smooth-ish, and upright! The recovery crews were waiting for us of course, and they really worked hard, grabbing the ropes and corralling the balloons. This is where a few Pacific Islanders would have been handy. The guys here aren't exactly big! On the right, we see the crew through the top of the now open balloon.
They took pics of us - some staged (like this one on the left), some not, throughout the trip and you can buy the collection on a USB for $15 / 15,000 kyat, so take some cash! On the ground it was cold towels, champagne and croissants while they finished packing up the balloons and a last group shot.
This was a really, really professional job. Turns out my pilot was the very first one on the ground, 15 years ago, and he told me a bit about the interesting facets of working in Burma. When one of the new companies proposed opening up last year, they did a 21 balloon mass take-off to demonstrate to local Air Traffic Control and the authorities that additional traffic was safe there are only about 13 possible launches at the moment.
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Fantastic photos on your TR. Now I am regretting my decision to postpone my Burma trip that was planned for Jan 2015 to Jan 2016!
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The temples, payas and other structures on the Bagan plain we saw from the air previously. here are just a few pics on the ground. First the Ayeyarwady (formerly Irrawaddy) River, near its low level. Next to it was this Paya with a nice golden stupa.
One of the products to buy here is lacquer wear. Now I hate shopping but the others were keen, so we asked the guide for a good quality one, and were taken to Mya Thit Sar in New Bagan. They showed it how it was made and invited us to go upstairs to see it being made.
Really beautiful stuff, and I bought a bunch! Light and not bulky, except if you buy the furniture of whole elephants!
Many of the temples were 9th to 13th Century and were in various states of decay, but some were fascinating. Unfortunately our guide did a bad job of explaining the succession of temple styles and overall history - always getting bogged down in minute history of this king, his grandson's brothers' wife .. this or that Buddha .. which temples have been changed, which 'restored', which re-built.
One thing we could not miss was the murals in a number of the temples. These, all original, from the 9th to 12th centuries have been variously cleaned up by UNESCO. Unfortunately no permanent light is permitted, so had to make do with torches, which didn't do the murals justice. Various themes, mainly the Kings and Buddhas. A downside of seeing dark temples is that you are barefoot (always) and dodging bat and pigeon dropings - and not always dodging it, I'm afraid! :shock: Our driver provided foot wipes after every stop!
One of the largest temples (or was it a monastery? ...) In another one, this carving. Sorry about the blur ... it was quite dark, but I thought the concept of a King so exalted that his horse needs to be carried while he's on it, is somehow appealing
One of the products to buy here is lacquer wear. Now I hate shopping but the others were keen, so we asked the guide for a good quality one, and were taken to Mya Thit Sar in New Bagan. They showed it how it was made and invited us to go upstairs to see it being made.
Really beautiful stuff, and I bought a bunch! Light and not bulky, except if you buy the furniture of whole elephants!
Many of the temples were 9th to 13th Century and were in various states of decay, but some were fascinating. Unfortunately our guide did a bad job of explaining the succession of temple styles and overall history - always getting bogged down in minute history of this king, his grandson's brothers' wife .. this or that Buddha .. which temples have been changed, which 'restored', which re-built.
One thing we could not miss was the murals in a number of the temples. These, all original, from the 9th to 12th centuries have been variously cleaned up by UNESCO. Unfortunately no permanent light is permitted, so had to make do with torches, which didn't do the murals justice. Various themes, mainly the Kings and Buddhas. A downside of seeing dark temples is that you are barefoot (always) and dodging bat and pigeon dropings - and not always dodging it, I'm afraid! :shock: Our driver provided foot wipes after every stop!
One of the largest temples (or was it a monastery? ...) In another one, this carving. Sorry about the blur ... it was quite dark, but I thought the concept of a King so exalted that his horse needs to be carried while he's on it, is somehow appealing
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At Bagan, we stayed at the Aureum Palace Hotel, with no material complaints. Its rather sprawling and there are many individual villas, which we regretted we didn't book as a group, but rather got 'delux' (AKA standard) rooms, which were all done out in teak, and very nice. WiFi in the rooms was sketchy at best, but quite usable in the open-air (but covered of course) reception area.
The second afternoon they mosquito-fogged the entire place. Gawd help any mozzies that were in that lot! Probably despatched the odd dog and cat as well :shock: Still, it made sitting on the gorgeous terrace for drinks and dinner in the open air that much more re-assuring.
Did I mention the views and sunsets from the terrace?
... and I snuck in an extra shot here.
The second afternoon they mosquito-fogged the entire place. Gawd help any mozzies that were in that lot! Probably despatched the odd dog and cat as well :shock: Still, it made sitting on the gorgeous terrace for drinks and dinner in the open air that much more re-assuring.
Did I mention the views and sunsets from the terrace?
... and I snuck in an extra shot here.
robd
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Another RooFlyer TR masterpiece! 
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