Myanmar-Day 6: Bagan

Old Bagan is littered with thousands of stupas, pagodas, and temples from around the 11th and 12th centuries, a similar time frame to when the temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia were built. The experiences in Old Bagan and Siem Reap are often compared, and I will give it my best shot here. Both have pros and cons, obviously. Siem Reap's temples were restored beautifully, as such earning them a place on the UNESCO World Heritage sites list. Old Bagan, not so much. It is very obvious in most places what is new versus old, and alot of the temples on the inside have been completely blocked off in the middle, or totally covered over with plaster. So no UNESCO for them. Also, the temples in themselves are very different. In Siem Reap, the temples are very ornate, with elaborate carvings both inside and out. They were also very large. In Old Bagan, the outsides of the temples were carved well, but the insides were not. Some were painted, but some were very plain. They were very tall, on average, but not necessarily that large. In Siem Reap, most of the temples were in the shape of a cross, with lots of passageways to explore. You could spend hours at a temples, wandering around, getting lost and enjoying being lost. In Old Bagan, the temples were in the shape of a large square. Since most of the temples were blocked off on the middle, you could only walk around the outer pathway of the square, so not too imaginative or exploratory. For the temples themselves, I liked Siem Reap's better. However, Old Bagan has the upper hand when it comes to the overall experience. Because there are much fewer tourists, you don't get harassed at every temple to buy stuff like you do in Siem Reap. Also, the terrain in Old Bagan is very dry and desert like, with few trees. This means you can climb to the top of a temple and see the thousands of other temples in the surrounding area. The sight is magnificent. In Siem Reap, you could only really see the temple you were at due to the abundance of jungle. Finally, in Siem Reap, you have to get around by either bicycle (impractical due to how far apart the temples are) or by a hired tuk-tuk. That means you go where the tuk-tuk drivers suggests by the paths he chooses. In Old Bagan, we rented electric bicycles, which were essentially wussy scooters. But, it gave us the freedom to go where we wanted, by whatever route we chose. The freedom made the temple touring really, really fun, as was actually driving the electric bicycles. However, half the time we didn't know the names of the temples we were at, and rarely were there English signs. So, from an educational experience, Siem Reap was better.

This is me getting the hang of the e-bike. Drew of course was a natural. It may have taken me a time or two to not accidentally rev the engine when I was trying to park the bike etc. There was alot of deep sand, so that took some getting used to also. Those small tires can get a bit squirrelly in the sand! But, I have to say, I was way better than all of the Chinese ladies we saw tottering around. They would go so slow you could walk faster.

All of the temples in Old Bagan were Buddhist as opposed to those in Siem Reap which were mostly Hindu, so all of the paintings showed Buddha in some form or monks. 

A stupa with more gorgeous weather.

Nicely carved entrance.

Gorgeous temple. The outside was always nicer than the inside. They were beautiful just to took at from the lanes as we buzzed around.

Just like the Shwezigon Pagoda in Yangon, you have to take off socks and shoes before entering any temple. So, we actually just wore flip flops all day, as you were constantly taking your shoes on and off. However, because we were scooting around so much in the sand, it meant our feet were filthy by the end!

You also burned your feet anytime you walked on a sunlight path. It was a good lesson in the heat retention of materials. In the picture below, the red brick would burn in an instant,  while the white marble was bearable.

Golden statue of Buddha. Most of the temples had a large Buddha statue in them, but they were not original. 

About halfway through the day, Oh no! I got a flat tire! We took a picture of the temple we were at, left the bike there, and drove together back to the e-bike shop. They were so nonplussed, it must happen all the time. They gave us two new e-bikes to use, saw the picture of where we had left the other e-bike, and went to retrieve it themselves. No muss, no fuss, and no charge to us! Funny enough, the exact same thing happened to Drew the next day, so it was nice they were so relaxed. 

Lunch was at a vegetarian place, and it was fantastic! Myanmar version of guac with Indian papadum.

Also had Shan noodles, tea leaf salad, papaya salad, and pumpkin curry. Plus about three lime lassis for Drew. Yum yum!!

At the end of the day, we stopped at a temple with a good view to see the sunset. Well worth it!

Myanmar-Day 5: Inle Lake to Bagan

The next morning, I was getting over my own small stomach bug, so we took it easy. This was actually the first trip in all of our travels so far that either of us had gotten sick, which I think is pretty impressive given our fondness for street food. But it was weird, as we both had identical symptoms, but about 36 hours apart from each other. Anyways, that afternoon, we went for a nice walk outside of Nyuang Shwe into a smaller village further up the hillside. Each family seemed to have their own garden with corn or pumpkins etc. The weather was, once again, gorgeous, and we had some nice views of the surrounding hills. 

See the two little piglets running around? Once they caught sight of us, they high-tailed it back under their owner's house into the cool shade and protection.

A giant tree we saw while on the walk.

After our walk, we took a taxi back to Heho Airport. These were some cow herders we saw along the way.

From Heho Airport we took another domestic flight from there to Bagan, with one layover in Mandalay Bay. When we arrived at our hotel in Bagan, the first thing we see outside of the reception was a giant scorpion! Neither of us had actually seen one in real life. Other than the scorpions, this hotel was actually the best of the whole trip, and here's why. The first hotel was more of a hostel, so we didn't have a private bathroom. Not nice when you are dealing with stomach bugs. The room was also right next to the check-in counter, so we could hear them talking and answering phones at all hours of the night. Also the breakfast consisted of cold eggs. COLD. eggs. The second hotel in Nyuang Shwe was actually very beautiful, but it didn't have air-conditioning. Major negative. Also, the town was having that festival, so the music and loudspeakers were blaring all night long. Literally all night. But, it had a private bathroom, so it was an improvement. Finally, by the last place, we had our own bathroom, air-con, and a quiet atmosphere. Finally. I didn't even care that our room actually had two twin beds that we had to push together to form a lopsided king with a gap in the middle. Didn't mind one bit.

Myanmar- Day 4: Inle Lake

The thing to do at Inle Lake is to hire a boat to take you around the lake for the day. We found at guy willing to drive us around for $17 total for about 6 hours. Not a bad deal, considering in Cambodia we went on a boat trip that was $20/person for 2 hours. About half of the time you are actually boating around. The other time you are checking out local craft shops and villages. Below is the boat we hired out. Notice the color of the water in this canal. Almost orange! 

The boat in this picture is the same size as ours, except theirs is filled with probably 20 local people while ours had 3. It almost looks like the water will spill in at any moment!

The area itself was gorgeous. We had a beautiful clear day, and while it was hot, it was nice on the boat with the wind. There were hills all around the lake, at an elevation about half a mile above sea level. It reminded us of a very green Colorado.

Inle Lake is known for fisherman who stand up to get a bird's eye view of the fish which hide amongst tons of plants that live on the surface of this shallow lake. So they use their hands to throw their nets, and they use one leg to hold the oar and row around. Really amazing. 

Drew taking a cap nap in the sunshine. 

After boating across the lake, we went up another estuary to the town of Indein. Along the way there were all these small villages that live right on the water's edge. Lots of bridges connected these tiny pieces of land that their village was on. Our driver, Mu, was an expert at threading through the bridge supports without hesitation. 

Once in Indein, we followed these little kids up to a lookout, and I'm so glad we did. Looks like CO doesn't it? 

Indein is known for having another pagoda with roughly 1,000 little stupas surrounding it. The stupas were all shapes, sizes, and colors.

These are some school kids crossing another bridge. It was around lunchtime on a weekday, so maybe they were going home for lunch?

This lady was from the Padaung tribe somewhere in the Kayah state. They essentially bring a few of these women in to a shop to demonstrate traditional weaving to tourists. It feels weird, as they are essentially using this lady like a zoo animal, but she was very friendly and seemed happy, so maybe it wasn't too bad. Maybe she was actually there on her own terms; it's hard to say. My neck hurt just looking at her though.

This guy is using an old fashioned lathe to turn and carve the handle of an umbrella. It's essentially a giant pulley system that takes advantage of the bendiness of a wooden stick.

These guys are making the long boats we were riding around in. It takes them about 3 weeks to make a long boat, and only 5 days to make a short one. They were using hand drills that my grandfather had.

A lot of the smaller boats were simply rowed with paddles. They were all quite shallow.

Surprisingly, the homes out on the lake had electricity for the most part, as seen here as the transmission wires are supported with rickety wooden structures.

Probably the best part of the day was when Mu drove us to his home in a small village on the lake. His dad ran a mechanic shop, and his boat motor needed an oil change. While we waited for that, the family actually welcomed us inside of the home and served us these flat, large rice wafers that they would cover with oil and then eat as a snack along with tea. We also got to meet Mu's sister who just had a newborn baby, only 20 days old. I couldn't  believe how bundled up both the mom and the baby were, multiple layers, jackets, hats, and blankets. Drew and I were sweating in t-shirts and shorts. Maybe this is a way they help keep mom and baby healthy while still very young, as I doubt they have access to good healthcare. Don't be deceived by how young the girl looks. Mu looked to be 14 and he was actually 27. This sister is probably in her early 20's, so not as young as I originally thought. Along with the sister, we met Mu's mother, who was one of 9 children, a cousin, and an aunt. They took out photo albums to show us all of their family. They seemed so happy even though their home only had two rooms, a living room/kitchen and the sleeping room. But, they had a cell phone! They were such warm and gracious people. It was really cool to experience that.

We stopped at another shop where local women were making cigars wrapped in cheroot leaves. These women could make a cigar in 20 seconds! Fascinating to watch. 

The last stop of the day was to see the floating gardens. Locals essentially made a floating structure of wood that they covered in seaweed and lake plants. They then grow mostly tomatoes on these floating beds. The tomatoes grow like crazy as they have all of the nutrients from the lake water right at their root tips. It's actually an ingenious system, but it takes alot of manual labor to take care of them.

The result is millions of tomatoes! All of the bags in this boat are filled with tomatoes. And we saw boats like that cruising past us all day long.