Silver Moon Hotel Bagan

... to the experience of seeing this amazing place. It was one of the coolest places I've seen in my life.<br> <br>One day the three of us took a horse cart from like 9am till 7pm around the whole area. It was absolutely amazing and we learned a ton from the horse cart guide. The whole day for the three of us on the horse cart was a total of 12 dollars...yea Myanmar is pretty cheap. The ...

... am staying here for a couple of days). Even if it is a must-see in Myanmar, it is possible to ride alone with the occasional meeting with the flock of goats or the touts that assault you in each and every pagoda and try to sell you anything. It is the only place so far where it is possible to see a critical mass of tourists coming together, but even that, it only happens in one pagoda an at sunset where everybody gathers at the same spot to get the best views of the falling sun.<br><br>

... Temples, they are all gone. After the Temple was constructed, there was an echo. In order to fix this they had to carve out niches. They contain the story of the life of the Buddha or Buddha images. Our guide also told us that Buddhists never apologize (Buddha did not). Where you are in this life (rich or poor, man or woman, healthy or ill/crippled) is because of what you did in your previous life - you get what you deserve. If you have a disfigured face, it is because ...

We woke at 4:00 am and were at the front desk at 4:45 to meet Ronald and Khun. The boat departed at 5:30 am and is scheduled to arrive in Nyaung U (Bagan) 14 - 15 hours later. It is 183 miles from Mandalay to Nyaung U - Seriously! Obviously, Myanmar is still in the 19th century when it comes to travel. Remember it took us 14 hours to go 432 miles from Yangon to Mandalay. Sarah had taken the train from Yangon to Mandalay and it took longer than 14 hours ...

... little warmer at night than Inle Lake. Since we only had one full day in Bagan, we got started early! We rented bikes, got a map and were on our way. We bicycled all over Old Bagan, through New Bagan and around again. The temples, pagodas, and shrines were amazing. There were some we could climb and those were the best. It was amazing to go up top and see all the temples around us. We had the guy at ...

... and the c*mm**ce and s*cializati*n that c*me with it. I've since c*me t* learn that the military is nev** t** far away, in the f*rm *f und**c*v** surveillance. An*th** reas*n f*r the lack *f presence may be due t* the recent m*ving *f the capital t* a l*cati*n furth** n*rth, in between Yang*n and Mandalay (supp*sedly up*n the advice *f an astr*l*g**, and t* av*id the frequent *utbreak *f pr*tests). Bagan Aft** all the h*rr*r st*ries *f hardc*re Burmese travel we'd heard ab ...

... some of which are actually original painted cloth that was glued to the interior and somehow parts of which still survive; shwee see gon which is probably the most famous of all the temples and features a massive festival as it is the temple of nats (nats are a strange animistic feature of the religion here where statues are thought to embody local spirits who must be acknowledged or appeased in order to stay on their good side and not get bad luck) - in fact it's famous for being ...

... was voted a top 5 restaurant in the country by the 2006 Lonely Planet. Most of the people including our drivers (name?), the restaurant owners, artisans, were friendly, honest, and not pushy. Quite extraordinary considering the amount of pressure they are under. We bought postcards, and some sand paintings. People were more than willing to show us the temples, and one even refused a tip when I tried to give them one. You don't find people like this everyday.

... faces, having had dinner themselves before I arrived. I'm not used to this hospitality and in particular having an audience when eating, and I wonder in a country impoverished as this just how much such glorious generosity will cost him. I had brought with me a wooden chess set as a gift for his son, and feel guilty that this, plus some conversations with his 11-year-old son about him aspiring to be aeronautical engineer is all it cost me.

... could use. We encountered a number of French, plus Germans, Dutch, Italians and Aussies/Kiwis to lesser degrees. Of the few Canadians we encountered most were from Quebec. Dan, a trained linguist and native of Northern Ontario, was immediately joking with them in patois. Americans and British were relatively rare. Shoes are removed in (and on) all temples. Most surfaces were reasonably clean and smooth from constant use, but sometimes ...