Beautiful Bagan

We've been so flat chat over the past few days, we haven't had time to blog.  It has been sooooo hot here - around 44-45 C every day so when we've had an hour for "rest time", we've thrown on the togs and jumped into the pool - and had the obligatory bottle of Myanmar or Tiger.

So, we started out on 1st May on a twin prop plane from Yangon heading for the delights of Bagan with the temperature already above 40 C at 9 am.  And once again, our guide took us to the market place - it seems that's one the itinerary for every place a tourist stops as there were plenty of others who were on our small 68 seater plane at the marketplace too.

Personal service!

Clearly many tourists have travelled here to Bagan as unlike the locals down in the south at Mawlamyine and Thanbuyzayat, where we were greeted with warmth, the locals here had no qualms whatsoever about jostling and bustling us.  Children and adults clamoured to get us to buy whatever trinkets it was they were selling - "Original, original", they claimed as they thrust their mass-produced screen prints, longy's, lacquerware, postcards, wood carvings, and genuine antiques (probably from a 'genuine antique factory'!) at us.

Antique puppets and brass

Burma has been buffeted throughout its history by the rival claims of competing kingdoms and cultures - and its ethnic groups and of course it's been subjected to colonial occupation.  At its peak,  the Burmese empire grew through conquests of Thailand (Ayutthaya) and India (Manipur), and shrank under attacks from the Mongols and of course, they've had numerous internal rebellions and conflicts. 

We drove past some of the 3,000 odd pagodas for which Bagan is renowned.  They say that you can point a finger in any direction at any time and you will find a pagoda, stupa or temple.  And it's true! 

We visited so many of those pagodas, stupas and temples during the four days we spent in Bagan.  This Shwezigon Pagoda is truly magnificent and it gave us an insight into the Burmese traditions.

Shwezigon Pagoda

The history of these magnificent structures dates back to the 9th century and reached its peak during the 11th and 12th centuries.  Pagodas were built as symbols of victory to display the various captured treasures such as statues of Buddha, gold, gems and artefacts. 

The people have a strong faith in Buddha but they are also influenced by some fairly eclectic beliefs that pre-date Theravada Buddhism.  For example they worship nats (spirits) and have a strong belief in astrology.   Nats have been thoroughly integrated into Burmese Buddhism, and nat shrines or images can be found in most temples in the country.  We saw some of their popular nats when we visited Mt Popa; the 'Drunken Nat' has whiskey bottles and cigarette packets all around him in homage to his life spent boozing and smoking.

The nats

The people generally have a pretty hard life here; they work long hours for generally very little money, using rudimentary tools and equipment.

An ox-driven dray taking cotton to market

Picking chillies

This young woman was working in the field starting at 7 am - 11 am, and then from 4 pm until sunset - all for 700 kyat per day (70 cents).



Women working making cheroots

These women work in a factory making cheroots (cigars) and make approximately 1,000 per day each.  For this back-breaking work they earn 4,000 kyats per day.  The women were chanting a Buddhist prayer praying to get married so they would be 'looked after' and not have to work so hard.  They sit on mats cross-legged all day.  But the boss does provide them lunch.  Compared with the field workers, they probably have it good. 

A balancing act

We passed by an ox driven grinding wheel and decided to stop for a photo.  Peanuts and sesame seeds are ground to produce peanut oil for cooking.  The residue is fed to the cows and also used to make "Myanmar snacks" which the locals enjoy.

Sunsets over the Bagan pagodas are world renowned so we decided to see if we could capture a National Geographic photo of our own. 

Bagan sunset

Who'd have thought!!!

What a wonderfully exhilarating way to travel around to see the pagodas at dusk.  And yes, I know - never ride without proper boots, a helmet and leathers.  The risks one takes when overseas!  Swimming with sharks, feeding stingrays ... another one to add to the list.  Thankfully I survived.