Bagan is an extraordinary place. It's an ancient city with thousands of temples dating back to the 11th century. The city was attacked in 1287 by Kublai Khan and the people fled. There was an earthquake in 1975 which destroyed 2000 of the 4000 structures but 1000 have been rebuilt.
A week before we arrived a nearby village had been wiped out by a flood. Over a hundred people had been killed and many more had been made homeless. They were asking for donations and we donated some plates, pans and some other items, that Aung Zaw's fiance bought for us at the market. We had our names and donation read out over tannoy sytem.
The horse cart was the perfect way to see Bagan. We saw dozens of temples, amazing Buddhas and ancient wall paintings. We took hundreds of photos and here is a very small selection.
Here's me trying the Thanaka, Myanmar make-up.
This is the temple that we climbed to watch the sunset. The scale of the place is mind-blowing.
We went to see the lacquer ware being made; layer upon layer is put on and it takes around 8 months. The designs in Myanmar are really beautiful. We wanted to buy so many things.
After our long wonderful day of visiting temples, we had a day pottering around the town and meeting some of the lovely locals:
Here is a very old sign. The NLD is Aung San Suu Khi's party. This party won 80% of the seats in the late 1980's whilst Aung San Suu Khi was under house arrest, however they were never allowed to govern. Scandalous.
The following day we went out again with Aung Zaw and his horse to see some more mind-blowing temples.
We also visited a traditional village and saw this 80 year old lady making cigars:
Some of the ancient paintings in the temples are still very clear.
On our final morning in Bagan we got up at 4.30am and Aung Zaw and his horse took us to a temple so we could watch the sunrise.
Many of the rich package-tourists pay for balloon rides.
Our friend Aung Zaw, saw us off at the bus station and we had an insanely bumpy ride for 6 hours to Mandalay. They played some hilarious music on the bus including 'Una Paloma Blanca'!
1 comment:
Loved reading your posts and seeing the interesting photos, especially of the sunsets. We are going next month and I've been trying to decide on whether to go on the outrageously expensive balloon ride. Your photo and comment helped me make up my mind. Thank you for writing.
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