We finally arrived in Bagan! Probably the most famous thing in Myanmar. It's also in the hottest part of Myanmar during the hottest part of the year. So basically like being back in the Arizona summer, but with more dust and some really old temples.
We decided that we were going to get bikes to get around the super spread out temples. And not just any bikes, electric bikes. So basically just scooters that don't go so fast. But man were they nice in the heat.
Our first morning in Bagan, we took a hot air balloon ride. I'd never done one before, and it was quite a pricey adventure. They picked us up at 515 am and we took this awesome old bus out to the middle of a field. We were greeted with french press coffee and biscuits while we watched the balloons get inflated. After a safety talk, we were climbing into the baskets and taking off into the air. The air was dusty, so I can't say I got the most amazing pictures, but it was gorgeous.
Hot air balloons can gain altitude at an impressive rate, and we were quickly gazing out onto so many impressive temples. So of them are massive! We floated for about 45 minutes and then touched town on the other side of the temples. After we climbed out, we were met with banana bread (that tasted EXACTLY like I expected) and champagne. And champagne refills. Wow. So this whole expensive tour thing has its perks. And we were buzzed by 9am on St. Patricks Day.
For the next couple days we buzzed around on our wimpy scooter-bikes and explored. It was amazing because in general they didn't really restrict you from much. We watched a sunrise from the window on an upper floor of a temple that required climbing up this sketchy staircase and sitting on a relatively small ledge that dropped off on two sides. And we were in a temple that has a violent history and is supposedly haunted. The temple was built to atone for the fact that the king killed his father to come to power. But fun to explore when it's not dark!
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| Balloon eclipse! |
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| Sunrise ledge! |
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| Just after sunrise. |
One of my other favorite temples had all sorts of paintings on it, but it was really dark and you had to look at them with a flashlight. It was really exciting because you could only look at a small part at a time. You never knew what you were going to find!
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| We finally found a little "women's" Buddha we were allowed to put gold onto. It was down the hall and around the corner from the one the men were allowed to touch. |
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| 30 m Buddha |
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| This is Ananda, the active temple whose outside is being completely redone |
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| More of the brand new outside of Ananda |
We picked some random temples to watch our sunsets and of course we went out and drank some beers to celebrate St. Patricks day properly. Unfortunately, I haven't been organized enough to find out which pictures go with which temples. I have to admit that it some ways my memories of the temples have all blurred together.
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