It never rains in Bagan

Day 8: Bagan.

At about 3 AM, Moira and I both awoke to the sound of rain pounding on our villa. It woke Steph up at some point as well. Lallande slept through most of it but did hear it as white noise. It apparently stopped for a bit but it was full on raining when it was time for us to leave for the day. So much for no rain here! I guess the gods (or the Buddhas?) wanted to justify us bringing our rain coats half way around the world. Either that or it was the storms that were out at sea, we heard about a typhoon, made their way inland. While it was an inconvenience, when you have one day in a location, you can't let it deter you. And I am sure it was much more of a hassle for all the village people (no, not the 70s group that sings YMCA) who were arriving in Bagan to celebrate the yearly full moon festival.

Ananda Phaya was our first temple stop. It has four standing Buddhas, each facing a different direction. The North and South ones are originals, made of one piece of teak. Both are in the teacher's pose. The south one looks like it is smiling when you are far away. When you get closer and stand under it, it appears serious. It was built in the 11th century although there have been some repairs since then. They have discovered amazing wall paintings here (and in other temples) showing various stories of the Buddha. They were painted over and are working now to restore them. In front of all the Buddhas in this temple are two statues. The outer hand is held palm out, to say stop. The inner hand beckons you forward. The message is, "Stop and see the Buddha."  There were also all kinds of Buddhas displayed on the wall along with other types of small statues. They tell various stories of the Buddha's life, almost like the stations of the cross in Catholic Churches.

As we left there, the rain stopped momentarily so we headed to the climbing pagoda, Shwesandaw Pagoda. This is a pagoda with steep stairs that allow you to climb to the top and get an amazing 360 view. Even with the clouds, we got some great photos. We also got a group pic which we haven't done since our first day in Yangon. And I would post it if I could figure out how to get that to work on blogspot from here. Or if they even had Internet which is not working at the hotel. When we descended we took a look at a reclining Buddha inside a structure (dates from the 11the century). It was impressive but done incorrectly as Buddha's face is supposed to face north. As with many of the places here, there were lots of locals hawking their wares. This area is also known for its sand art, which is really a painting I think but done on a certain kind of paper with sand.  One of the boys, or a young man I guess, who was selling some beautiful ones, helped Swe with our picture so we looked at his stuff which was quite nice. He spoke excellent English and told me he studied for 3 years at the British consulate in Yangon. He then took us through his love of rap music...Drake, Jay Z, Kanye, Nicki Minaj, etc. He knew the name of Jay Z and Beyoncé's baby (Blue Ivy) as well as Kanye and Kim's (North West). Never let it be said our culture doesn't influence the world. And yes, I ended up buying from the rap loving Bagan vendor.

I am not doing this justice but we also visited Dhammayangyi Pahto temple, which is from the 12th century. It is the only temple with side by side Buddhas. It is said that they are like this as the king had them placed there to atone for killing his father and brother. He also executed one of his wives. Nice guy. Bad karma. We went to a pagoda grove, which I don't think is an official name but was a good place to take pictures of multiple pagodas at one time. Except it started to rain here which was a bit inconvenient. Another stop was Sulamani Pahto which has amazing carved stucco and painted monastery cells.

This area is known for lacquer making (although the materials come from the Shen state). We visited the Golden Cuckoo lacquer factory (and I use the word factory loosely as all is done by hand). While we learned about this in Vietnam, it is still amazing to see the process that goes into it. There are many steps to get to the final product and days in between the various steps for drying. It is a family owned business and the man who took us around (who seemed to have few teeth due to chewing whatever it is they chew here...I thought it was cheroot but I think we learned it was wrong) told us there are 50 workers but many weren't there because it is a festival day. Since we didn't get to see all of the production, he gave us a DVD to watch about it. If anyone wants to come over the first Saturday night I am home with a bottle of wine, we'll pop it in.

For lunch, we hit the Queen restaurant for traditional Myanmar meal. This is kind of like a bento box, although it is circular. There is rice in the middle, surrounded by things like meat, veggies, spices and egg. One area is left empty where you mix the ingredients and make your meal.  It was very tasty. Not as spicy as we would have expected. For dessert, they brought the typical fruit but upped the ante with a tamarind chew thing that was delicious. It is hard to believe this area only got electricity 3 years ago.

After lunch was siesta time. Of course, this was the first day where we didn't necessarily need to come back and cool off. But we still took advantage of the downtime. I actually soaked my legs in the pool, hoping it would help with the itch. By now, the sun was starting to break through, giving us hope that we may actually get to see the sunset. Or at least abandon our rain coats.

Our afternoon activity was a horse drawn carriage ride through the pagodas, towns and temples. Steph and Lallande were in the first cart, with an English speaking driver. Moira and I were behind them, with a man who pretty much said nothing besides instructions to the horse. Our ride was just picture taking with occasional stops. Their ride was slightly different, learning about the area. Here is what they shared:
- There are nearly 4,000 pagodas, stupas and temples. That may also be the number of bug bites we have cumulatively.
- Bagan is nearly 26 square miles.
- 500 people live in the little village we drove through.
- The electric blue pagoda we drove by was just painted 3 days ago. Boys were playing volleyball outside. There was a stage for dancing. The village owns it and takes care of it. They paint it once a year.
- The corn they are growing isn't really corn for people. It is maize for the horses.
- The area is really covered with small chunks of brick in the fields. This is due to pagodas that are no longer there (toppled to create fields, make way for bigger ones, etc).
- There are pagoda minders, families paid by the government to tend them and keep them tidy.  It seems to be a family tradition handed down.
- The number of visitors today was out of proportion to what is normally here due to the festival.
- It is hard to make a living as a cart driver. The driver that Steph and Lallande had rents the cart and horse and even though he doesn't own it, he has to take care of the horse. He has been doing it for 14 years. We were his first customers in 4 days. Since there are more organized tours now, they take people out by van. But there are places that the horse carts go that vans and buses can't.

The ride ended up at the T (not sure the name) pagoda where we were able to climb to the top. The intent was to see the sunset and while it was a nice night, there was too much cloud cover. No matter. We still got to take nice pictures. We also got to see the different pagodas and temples lit by candles to celebrate the festival. When we climbed down, we saw the Buddha surrounded by candlelight and it was quite beautiful. Swe and our driver has what was like a tailgate for us - watermelon juice and potato chips - to celebrate.

Our driver is so nice. Whenever we get in and out of the van, he says "Please mind your head" and puts his hand above our heads so we don't hit the top. At the tailgate, Steph said "Our driver is so sweet. Is his name Frank?"  She said it so sincerely that we all cracked up. She knew his name wasn't Frank. Or so she says.

Dinner at the hotel again. Steph and Lallande split a pizza.  Steph also got a green salad and asked for it to be brought the same time as her pizza. Moira and I both got pad Thai. Given it was the best I ever had, we figured two nights in a row was ok. Moira also got a salad but didn't ask to get it at the same time as her entree.  They brought all our food out, but only one order of pad Thai which they placed in front of me. It looked bigger than last night so, when we all finished everything else, we thought they either forgot Moira's order or combined it with mine. I gave her less than half of mine. Meal finished. Or so we thought. After they cleared our plates, they brought a new fork and chopsticks. Oh uh. More pad Thai coming! Moira made us all promise to eat at least three bites. They placed a plate of pad Thai in front of Moira. I just came from videoing the "tie a chellow ribbon" guy so I turned to Moira with the camera on. And I said, "you get more pad Thai!" And then I turned to Steph and Lallande and said. "and you get pad Thai! and you get pad Thai!"  Oh, Oprah. The gift that keeps giving. It was funny to us. Moira's description of the pad Thai was that "it is a creamy, yummy, richiness."

Day 9: Bagan to Yangon (via Heho) to Bangkok

Early flight to Yangon - 8:05- but not as early as tomorrow will be. Today we got a yellow Garanimals sticker to indicate our correct flight. We were flying to Heho first (where you fly for Lake Inle) and then on to Yangon. This is as good a time as any to describe the flights within the country. They seem to go in a loop, starting and ending in Yangon, with various stops at the places we have been. We were lucky with our loops as, up until today, we only had to do one segment. Most of the times we have boarded the planes, there were already people on them. It is all open seating so you grab what you can. It is pretty orderly though, not a frenzied free for all. People seem to prefer the back a bit, as on all planes we were on, you enter and exit from there, often accompanied by a big blast of hot air from the plane engines. Flight times seem a bit haphazard. Guides always call prior to confirm. For instance, today our tickets said 8:55 arriving in Yangon at 10:15. They changed the flight time to 8:05 but we took off 10-15 minutes early. We had a small wait in Heho as they refueled and took off from there around 9 so we still may arrive at the scheduled time. There are three airlines in the country - KBZ (the expectations one), Air Mandalay and Yangon Airways. Yangon Airways which we flew today has a tag line of "you're safe with us." We certainly hoped so. But it did give us pause they had to reiterate this.

Upon arrival at Yangon, we spotted our guide from the first day, Cha. It was nice to see a familiar face. He asked to check our tickets for the flight out and seemed a little surprised it was so late - 7:45 PM. Especially because it was about 10:30 AM and we didn't have a lot ahead of us. It was warm (surprise) so I asks Cha what he thought the temperature was. He said...wait for it...32 degrees Celsius. The standard answer.

We drove into the city to visit the Scott market, as the locals call it. We have visited markets around the world...from the Grand Bazaar in Egypt to the spice markets in Turkey. They tend to blend together. There are rows and rows of stands, some with good things, some not. And it is often difficult to tell what is quality and what isn't. Knowing we had time to kill, we wandered a bit and eventually bought a few things but I won't mention specifics as there may or may not be some gifts involved.

It was around noon when we left and Cha had arranged for us to go to a local restaurant for lunch. This was actually a nice treat and something he didn't have to do. We had told him we like authentic experiences, he remembered and he took care of us. The place was called Aung Thukha and specialized in traditional Myanmar food. The man who runs it is from the south and all his workers are as well. Once a year, he shuts the place down and they go back south to cook and donate things to the local monastery and people. The place was hopping and full of locals. Cha took care of ordering for us. They first brought us rice, some soup, veggies and sauces. Then out came various curries - pork, fish, prawn, eggplant and even frog (spicy but good...we all tried it). We got some water and our last Myanmar beer (two big bottles). The beverages cost a whopping 3,300 kyat, or $3.30 US. They brought us this awesome dessert, made of plan sugar, that tasted like brown sugar or maple. It was so good. Cha saw how much we loved it so he had the waitress bring us a bag to go. The restaurant was enclosed but only had fans so it was a bit steamy. While we were there, the heavens opened up (we'd seen the dark clouds earlier) and it was a tropical downpour. One of the workers had a big umbrella that we all fit under and he walked us to the van. We got our own PUH (personal umbrella holder)!

We went to visit a store we stopped by our first day that has all locally made goods. It reminded us of a Burmese Jooneechees. Cha was then very excited to drive us by the lady's house on the lake. There really wasn't much to see but we got our picture taken there. A couple of years ago people couldn't even mention her name without reprisal and now her house is a tourist destination. Cha said she was in Europe accepting an award. He also said she is going to open her home up to the people before the elections in 2015.

There was one last Buddha to see before leaving the country - the Loka Chantha Abhaya Laba Muni (trying saying that 10 times fast...or even once). This is a relatively new Buddha. In 2000, one of the stone workers in Mandalay and his family discovered a huge slab of marble, over 600 tons, 37 ft long and 24 feet wide. They donated the stone to the government who then had it carved into a Buddha. All from that one piece. It was carved and then transported from Mandalay to Yangon by barge. It was then lifted to the top of Mindama Hill where it is now. It is one of five marble Buddhas in the country. It is also quite impressive. The only problem is that it is encased in plexiglass, which we understand, but the plexiglass had these horrible metal things sticking out which made good pictures difficult. How dare their sacred images not meet our photographic standards.

The airport was close by so Cha dropped us off. At around 3 PM. For a 7:50 flight. Alrighty then. We had two hours until we could even check in. But it wasn't his fault for how the flights were booked. He, and all the guides we had, kept telling us that they hoped we would come back again and tell our friends. In particular, Cha said we have to come back after the 2015 elections. They have so much hope riding on those. We hope it works out as this is a lovely country filled with sweet people. I would definitely recommend visiting.

Nothing momentous happened at the airport other than us sitting a lot and eventually eating some French fries.

Things we learned:
- They call motorcycle/bike helmets "crash helmets".
- 10,000 people live in New Bagan. 18,000 people live in Nyaung.
- There is only more gas station so gas is hard to come by. People buy and sell it on the black market. There is also one golf course but no one was out there in the rain.
- The walls around old Bagan were built in 9th century.
- Tse climbed the highest pagoda once to look for his lost cow.
- The full moon festival is only once a year.
- They use sesame oil and peanut oil in food preparation. They cook with sesame and fry with peanut.
- I should have mentioned this earlier but practically everyone here wears open toed shoes. Mostly flip flops. Or makes it easier at the temples and pagodas. Lallande and I have keene's which makes us slower.
- They grow corn, peanuts and beans here but not rice. It doesn't rain enough for rice. Except today where there were huge puddles everywhere. The economy is most dependent on tourism. There were a lot of tourists last year but this year has been a little slower.
- There was a big earthquake here in 1975 that damaged a number of the temples and pagodas.
- Lallande has asked every guide we have had if they have ever left the country. None have.
- I should have said this before but the wraps/skirts that the men wear are called longyi.  

Number of flight segments to date: 9
Number of airport bus rides: 7
Number of boat rides: 3
Number of horse drawn carriage rides: 2