BAGAN

Ok, I finally tackled some of the many, many Bagan photos. Trying to keep the continuity going on the blog! Bagan was awesome. There were so many different temples, buildings, sights to see, it was unbelievable. I will try to sort out which are which and give better names and descriptions as the time goes by. I'll post more pictures later. These are basically a random selection of photos from our 3 nights in town. Many more Bagan pictures to come!

Lots of cool views. I'm jealous of the professionals with unlimited time and money. We wanted to take a hot air balloon ride, but it's 350 dollars a person! We spent many a sunrise/sunset running around trying to find the best viewing angles!

The center of most of the buildings is usually solid, or without access. There are usually doorways on all four sides of the building leading in to giant Buddhas. The Buddhas are located at the center of each of the four sides. Inside the buildings there are corridors connecting the four sides. I hope that makes sense. It's basically a smaller square inside of the larger perimeter square.

This is our third scooter. Bagan is really big. It's about a 15 or 20km wide square filled with sights. They only allow electric scooters. This one was by far the best and was pretty much a very slow normal scooter.

This is the very first temple we went to on our first day. It is one of the biggest temples in Bagan. There are no shoes allowed in any of the temples, so there is tons of walking around barefoot!

One of the many Buddhas inside one of the many temples.

Shwezigon Paya

Another of the many Buddhas inside the temples. There were four of these in this temple. One in the center of each of the four side.

There are lots of dirt roads leading to the temples. There are normal paved roads going in different general directions, but to reach the temples you usually have to ride dirt roads. It was very, very dry(it's the dry season,) and very very dusty. The fields are full of thorn bushes and dead grass. It's a pretty inhospitable environment.

Lawkananda Pagoda. This was the closest major pagoda to our hotel and a really unique temple. It is right on the river's edge in New Bagan.

Our second hotel in Bagan. The hotels were all full for new years, so we stayed in an expensive hotel for December 30th and 31st. on the first we moved to this little place. the room wasn't too nice but I loved their garden and driveway! the next day we left for Mandalay.

Aung San Suu Kyi's House, errr... Wall.

Inya Lake. This is the most prime neighborhood in Yangon. All the embassies, expensive hotels and nicest restaurants are around here. They are building tons of high class residential complexes and shopping mall all over. It's definitely the old money/yuppy capital of Myanmar. This is the famous lake that the guy swam across a few years ago to visit Aung San Suu Kyi, blessing her with a couple extra years of house arrest.

Secret photo taken through the two way mirror(see the little grey box to the right of me in the picture below.)
This is about the best view you can get of the other side of the wall. Pretty amazing, huh?

Her awesome wall and gate! This is now a major tourist spot in Yangon. Her house is somewhere on the other side. In the past, taxi drives and locals were afraid to drive here, stop or take tourists here as they could get in serious trouble for supporting her. Today, it is a popular spot for local and foreign tourists to come and visit. NLD stands for Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, Nation League for Democracy.

Shwedagon Paya and our Early Yangon Morning

After our mistaken train ride back to Mawlamyine, we got a free first class ticket to Yangon(not that amazing.) Our train arrived at about 430am in Yangon. We went to the hotel we had stayed on our previous trip and hung out for an hour until the staff woke up. They let us check in early and we put our bags in our room. We were thinking of going to sleep, but since it was before sunrise, we figured it was the perfect time to Shwedagon Paya at dawn(supposedly the best time to see it.) We arrived at Shwedagon Paya about 6am, right as the sun was coming up. It was pretty quiet compared to how crazy it was when we left. There are tons of little pagodas surrounding the main pagoda.



There are monks all over praying, playing with their phones, walking around. Shwedagon Paya is the largest pagoda in Yangon(possibly in Myanmar too,) and on top of a hill in the center of the city. Here it is in the background.

The pagoda was being renovated so the top of the stupa was covered in a sort of bamboo scaffolding. I was a little sad, but its' nice that they are renovating it and keeping it in good shape.

The main pagoda. You're supposed to walk clockwise around it.

Each day of the week has it's own Buddha. You are supposed to go to the Buddha for the day of the week you were born and then pour some water on him, washing him. Here I am washing my Saturday Buddha.

There are tons of little shrines all around the main pagoda.

This is the giant lion at the entrance gate.

 

Our train ride to Yangon.... Wait, what?

Jin tried to open the metal window, but the sun was so intense it was pretty much unbearable. Our neighbors didn't seem very happy about it either. So we finally relented and closed the window, choosing to sit in a shady hot wooden box.

The guy standing up is selling hot drinks.

typical scene from the train

there are lots of pagodas in Myanmar.

each seat number is written on the corner of the seat. Jin is my hero, and was able to learn their numbers, thus we were able to find our seat! Of course we were in the completely wrong train so we actually were in the wrong seat, but whatever. Lots of people just sit on the floor, it's pretty much as comfortable as the wooden seats.

This is when I started getting excited, looking forward to arriving in Yangon and taking a shower. Not to be.

Going across the bridge and seeing this island I thought we were approaching Yangon and it's large river. However, in retrospect I realize that this is the exact island and bridge pictured in the Mawlamyine post may days earlier. If you check the Mawlamyine picture of the bridge, this is the island on the right side of the bridge. Boy are we idiots.

Sunset over Yangon... Damnit!

my personal favorite