On the Road to Mandalay: Holiday

We’ve been lucky to have this week off to do a little exploring. Shawn’s daughter will be visiting in a couple of weeks and I’ll cover at school while they take some time to explore.

We left Mandalay on Saturday (Mike’s birthday) and took a boat to Bagan. The boat chugs down the Ayeyarwady River at a patient pace, which is a nice way to see the countryside and some villages.

We arrived in Bagan in the afternoon and took the next two days to explore temples. There are over 2000 temples in the area, which covers over 70 square kilometers. Clearly, there’s lots to see, so we rented an e-scooter (electronic scooter.) The other choices are bicycle—which would be pretty brutal in the heat—or a horse cart, which I think would be pretty brutal for the poor horse. The e-scooter goes along at around 15 miles/hr and is completely silent. Mike, of course, drove and I sat behind, giving suggestions on directions and commentary on driving skills. He likes that.

The temples are pretty amazing, especially when you have the chance to climb to the top and look out over the landscape. Hard to fathom so many temples stretching nearly as far as one can see.

The oldest temples are from the 11th century, and are giving way to dense foliage. Some were also damaged in the earthquake last August, and many now have bamboo scaffolding around the stupas for repair.

It doesn’t seem like there is much consideration about historical accuracy when it comes to conservation, but that is nothing new. Most pagodas have been added on to and updated throughout the years. One often finds the Buddha surrounded by neon lights and a disco ball. It’s just how they roll here.

From Bagan we flew to Yangon, a really huge, hectic city. Lots of interesting colonial architecture, pagodas, and street food, though. Yesterday we ventured downtown, took in some pagodas and wandered around some markets. No shortage of chicken feet here!

The neighborhood we’re staying in is outside of the city center and a little quieter. Last night we ventured out for a beer and some noodles. Mike spotted what looked like a “real” bar so we ducked inside. Usually having a beer means sitting in an open air place and watching the world go by, but this was a legit bar. A/C, bottles of booze on a mirrored shelf behind the bar, and a guy wearing a bowtie wiping glasses. There were two other tables of drinkers. A big TV had some Myanmar MTV playing. We sat down and ordered a big Myanmar beer to split. The guy at the bar must have thought we would enjoy hearing some western music, so he put on a disc of music videos from the 70’ and 80’s. It was brilliant. Dan Fogelberg, Glen Campbell, Billy Ray Cyrus, the chick who played Pinky Tuscadaro singing a duet with some dude. It’s amazing to find out how many crappy songs from that era that you know all of the words to…

Tonight we are taking an overnight bus to Kalaw. From there we’ll do a two or three day trek to Inle Lake. We’ll be hiking through villages and tea plantations, staying in homestays with minority people (of which we are one…)

We’re looking forward to taking a break from the cities. More to come. Ta ta.