Ruby True Hotel Bagan

The ancient capital of Myanmar, Bagan, is a great place to chill out. It is surrounded by green mountains, full of dusty roads, and oh yea, is the site of about 4,500 ancient temples, stupas and pagodas in a 45 square kilometer area. It is an absolutely breathtaking experience to see 11th, 12th and 13th century temples that dot the landscape as far as the eye can see. The pics do no ...

... such a simple construction, it doesn't admit too many variations. Bagan reminds me of visiting the khmer temples in Siem Reap, a humongous amount of pagodas that dot a huge dry tropical forest. The best is to hire a bike and hit the hidden dusty roads, play again Indiana Jones and pretend to be the first one to visit some of these monuments it took you so much time and effort to find (you need to put a bit of imagination on your side otherwise the visit becomes monotonous and boring and ...

... of beef overcooked to leather status with a tomato and onion sauce. The waiter was extremely attentive though. I don't think he was more than 2 feet away the whole time. I was kinda funny. We stayed at the internet cafe until they threw us out! I would have stayed there until 5 am if they let me. Sweeny Todd was on the movie channel, it was almost at the same spot where I stopped watching it a few days ago. It was a very odd movie... We finally went to sleep around midnight.

... and West are replicas. When you are up close to the Buddha, his face looks serene, when you walk away his face looks like it is smiling. There are three rings around the Temple in which you can pass. One ring was for royalty, one for monks and the third for commoners. At the entrance to each there is a statue that has a hand held out to remind commoners to stop. We were able to see the original teak doors to one entrance. We have not seen any teak doors at any of the ...

When we arrived at Bagan, we also had to pay a $10 archeological sites fee, which is basically just a way for the government to get money out of foreigners. None of that money goes back into restoring the temples or shrines in Bagan. We headed to a guesthouse that was recommended by the other trekkers. We got a few beers and sat on the roof talking. It was a nice way to spend the evening and Bagan was ...

... t* c*me. F*r all the n*t*riety *f the junta h**e, they're far less n*ticeable than I w*uld've believed. The capital city *f Yang*n is surprisingly dev*id *f any presence, which is the c*mplete *pp*site *f what I'd been expecting- a rigid, subdued atm*sph**e punctuated by the *rd**ly *p**ati*ns *f a fully decked *ut military. On the c*ntrary, Yang*n is a bustling, multicultured, multihued city *f unexpected ent**prise. Pe*ple are all ab*ut, engaging in ev**y mann** *f ev**yday ...

... is filled with excellent relief carvings; gaya thung tzu - situated outside of the main archaeological area on the way to Mt. Popa this temple is famous for having the most intricate original paintings still mostly intact from the thirteenth century, very detailed, and of course depicting the life of Buddha, these paintings are quite beautiful and much imitated by local artists whose touts pedal them mercilessly at all the major temples; obb yahn gee is another temple famous for ...

... Three generations with no hope. My parents, me, and now my children." We couldn't argue with this man's logic after spending almost three weeks here. The system was broken, and all the blame could be put on a few men in Myanmar (and China and Russia for their support). He had to close two restaurants in the past year, this was his last one, and it was not doing great. It was low season, but both nights we came by we were the only patrons in the place ...

... a couple as they are very good depictions, sketched straight from the walls of one of the temples. Dinner that evening back at the café is an awkward feast. I'm served a selection of what must be close to the entire menu of the restaurant, with chicken, beef, fish and vegetarian dishes covering the table. It takes me a few moments to establish that this is all just for me, and he and his family watch me eat with magnificent smiles on ...

... odd picture or bit of jewellery. Postcards and little carvings were common. They could be mildly annoying at times, but generally good-natured. You had to appreciate their desperate circumstances. Not knowing our nationality, the odd one would request we change a Euro coin to local currency. We discovered they had likely asked a previous tourist for a souvenir coin from their homeland, and were now trying to convert it into something ...