Myanmar-velous 2: Bilbo Bagan

Next morning, up really early to make what we thought was a 7am flight BUT ACTUALLY LEFT AT 6AM!!! Luckily, Rani checked the tickets in the morning, and we were able to rush out of there and made our flight to Nyang U (Bagan). 

Met up with our new guide Aung, drove through this amazing expanse of dusty plains sprinkled with temples everywhere you look (more than 3000 in 42 square km or something) 

Seriously, all those little bumps you see are temples. This place is the product of rampant temple one-upmanship.

straight to a big old red and gold temple with lots of Buddhas, learning about hand gestures and how to tell which century the statue is from based on its features. 

If you look at this little pool of water, you can see the reflection of the top of the stupa. It was for the king, because if he raised his head to look, his crown would fall off.

Some really intricate wood carving.

Then to a shabbier temple with a viewpoint to see it from above, 

I came down with a little case of temple-head; I'm ok now.

then to ANANDA Pagoda, with some really impressive paintings and plaster work (can you tell I’’m already getting temple’d out?). According to Aung, this is the most beautiful temple in Bagan.

Outside of this temple there was a traveling market that was still around after last week’s festival, and we convinced our guide to take us to a local restaurant instead of the tourist stop for lunch. 

Back to our hotel to check in and take a little nap, then out to another temple with some impressive paintings and twin buddhas, 

Was that you?                                                  No idea what you're talking about, man.

then to another temple that we could climb to watch the sun set (while kids popped out of the brickwork and tried to get us to buy things). 

Sun's down, let's go, people!

Exhausted, we were able to stay up long enough to have a nice indian meal in town before crashing.

Up at 5 to catch a bus to BALLOON LAUNCH SITE where we had coffee and pastries and got the low-down on safety from the pilot, then up-up-and-away for a 1-hr flight over the plains, probably the best way to see all of these crazy temples. 

Fire it up!

We're the first off the ground.

Sunrise

Really cool experience, very relaxing, cruised over the village and waved to everyone we saw, saw the sun rise over the plains. Back to hotel for breakfast, then out to Mt. Popa, where we climbed the 777 steps to a temple on top of an extinct volcano, learned about some local spirits, saw a palm-sugar operation along the way where we sampled palm wine, beer, spirits, candy, and other snacks. 

Palm beer fermenting

Making candy out of palm sugar

Grinding peanuts for oil.

Lunch, car ride back to Bagan (where we negotiated down to ONLY TWO MORE TEMPLES for the day), saw an underground monastery, a tiny temple with really detailed painting, and a triple temple that got interrupted by the Mongols half way through so its only half painted. Back to the hotel to chill, shower, out for a blah dinner, and tried to stay up until 9 so I don’t wake up too early.

In the morning, visited the village of Salay with a local monastery and school where we awkwardly watched some classes in session and tried to pretend we didn't know they were looking for a donation.  Went to a wooden monastery built by a man with four wives. The monks disapproved, so there are many morality stories from Buddhist tradition illustrated in the wood carvings around the building. 

This is a really interesting story that I don't quite remember...

Saw a big-old hollow Buddha (I checked by looking up his skirts-He's hollow). 

Second-largest hollow Buddha in Myanmar

Had a nice lunch with our guide and driver on the way back, and begged off any further sight seeing. That evening, we took a sunset cruise down the Aye Yarwaddy River. A nice end to this chapter of our trip.

Sunset with Aung.