Written by Nelly
Written on Dec 17th in Mandalay
Bagan Temples
Bagan was the capital of the Bamar Kingdom between 11th and 13th century. The Bagan plains are dotted with thousands of temple ruins built around eight hundred years ago. Apparently the Bamars built palaces with wood, but religious Payas and Temples (pahto) with bricks and covered the facade with decorative plaster and tiles. A lot of decorations have deteriorated with time, and what is left are the brick buildings. The most striking features of the architecture are the arched door and windows. Some of the temples reminded me of the great cathedrals of in Europe.
Bike around the temples
Since the temples and payas are scattered throughout Bagan, it is easier if you rent a bike or horse cart with a driver for a day. As most of you know, I barely know how to ride a bike. We managed to rent a bike with a back seat, so Jesse pedaled the bike from temple to temple and I sat in the back seat trying to keep my balance. It's a good thing that the roads are fairly flat. Jesse had threatened me not to eat anything all day so his "load" will be lighter.
When we rode up to a temple, we never quite knew what to expect. We could tell if the temple had been restored or not, or if it's a brand new structure. Extensive restoration has been done in Bagan with mixed results. The bricks from newer restorations have different color and size, and often the restored plaster portion was a little more coarse than the intricate work done some eight hundred years ago. Most of the old temples have certain parts restored. You are lucky if the outside of the temple still has some old intricate plaster work, you are luckier when you go inside and it doesn't smell of bat guano and the floor is fairly free of dirt and rocks( you have to walk bare foot inside and outside of the temple), you really strike it rich if the inside have beautiful mural work and old Buddha statue, instead of a modern Buddha with Christmas lights flashing behind his head.
We biked around for three days (or rather, Jesse biked around toting me on the back seat) exploring the payas and temples. It was really quite fun and amazing to see these buildings. Some of them you can climb to the top and view the lush green fields dotted with big and small orange ruins, along with the Ayeyarwady river along the west side of Bagan. Even the new brick payas looked cool from above.
Bon Bons, Stylos and Canadian pins
Of course, since Bagan is a huge tourist attraction, there were a lot of hawkers and kids in most of the temples trying to make a buck. The hawkers were very versatile, they first asked if you want to buy their souvenir ( color-by-number paintings, lacquer ware, carvings, bronze figurines), if not, do you want to change money? If not, do you want a horse cart or taxi? After the hawkers, there are kids hanging around these temples asking you for Bon Bons and Stylos. They really don't look like deprived kids since their parents are the shop keepers, but they knew that the tourists will give them pens and candy. At the end of the first day, I'd lost all of my pens but one. Sometimes you'll even encounter adults asking Bon Bons!
Also, we stopped telling people we are Canadians, because everyone in Bagan knew about the Canadian pins, and they all want the Canadian pins! In fact, one of the Laquerware vendor offered me three pieces of lacquer ware if I can give him one Canadian pin! Another guy went through a litany of things we should give him depending on where we were from; French perfume, Belgian chocolate, ... When we started telling them we're American, all they could ask was "From California?"
Too many Bananas
The second day we arrived Bagan, we were invited to share a picnic lunch with a jolly Canadian couple we met on the bus the night before. I was so hungry that I ate at least three bananas. Afterwards, we stopped by a restaurant and I had a big plate of fried bananas with honey (boy they were good) by myself. I think I had about nine bananas that day. For the next two days, I had terrible stomach aches. Finally Jesse took me to a doctor recommended by the guesthouse. It was a small one-person-operation clinic by the market, and the doctor spoke really good English. He told me that I had a really bad case of indigestion and gave me drugs to take for five days. The consultation and the drugs cost only $10. I have to do liquid and soft food for the next five days, no fry or solid food. I was so disappointed because the food here is so good and I've yet to try them all! Luckily, the fresh fruit juices are excellent here and there's always milk tea for dessert. Regardless, this forced diet is making me hungry all the time, and what a torture it is to see all these delicious pancakes, flat bread and idlis the street vendors are selling.
Mt. Popa
The last day we were in Bagan, we shared a taxi to Mt. Popa. Mt. Popa is a tall hill 50 km away from Bagan. It's the holy mountain of Myanmar, home of the Nats (spirits). We would probably have been more impressed by the Mt. Popa had we not already seen the amazing mountain ranges in Tibet. Regardless, you have to climb up Mt. Popa barefoot since the mountain is dominated by temples. Barefoot isn't usually that bad, but here there were monkeys everywhere along the steps, and monkey poop everywhere. The monkeys were having such a good time, they made such a ruckus on the tin roof that covers the path climbing up to the top.
Mohinga and Lassi
Since I was told by the doctor only soft food (noodle soup and rice soup.) I've been asking for Mohinga at the restaurants and street stalls. We initially thought that Mohinga is rice vermicelli with soup, but as it turned out we sometimes got rice noodle salad instead of noodle soup. Everyone makes their noodle salads differently too, with different sauces and ingredients. It's quite an adventure, you never know what you'll get when you ask for Mohinga. They are almost always quite good.
At the cities catering towards tourists, you can always get Lassis. But not all Lassis are equal. The Lassis we had in Yangon were solid yogurt with fruits in it, the Lassis we got in Bagan, one tasted creamy with a Parmesan cheese flavor, the other taste like watered down milk. The lassis in Mandalay are so far the closest thing to what I think is Lassi.
What's next
We'll be in Mandalay until Dec 18th. Then we'll head to Kalaw where we'll do a 3 day trek to Inle lake. After Inle Lake we'll probably head to Yangon maybe via a few other sights.
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