Myanmar- Day 3 (Bagan)

February 28, 2014

Since I couldn't cover everything on the previous post. I'm going to continue our first day in Bagan.
After visiting three temples, a souvenir shop with a woman with neck rings and one more temple. We decided to go for lunch. The restaurant looked clean and tourist friendly with good food and the prices
are not too expensive. It is also a relief that Myanmar food has similarities with Indonesian food and they serve good salad. At least I could eat something that I have been craving for a long time.

We finished lunch at 2 pm then we proceeded for another tour of temples which are actually different from each other. We also got to try the "Thanaka" put on our faces by a kind girl who also sold us some of it. The "thanaka" is a white powder that myanmar people put on their faces which they claim is a kind of cosmetic and to keep them cool in summer. And it's not only women who wore it but men as well. Sometimes, just on both cheeks and sometimes on the whole face. I even saw a teen girl whose probably not so keen on putting it on her face applied it on her legs. To be honest, I'm not sure about the health effect on the skin but I did felt it to be cooling under the heat while going around. So we kept it until we got home later in the evening and of course bought from the girl who showed as how to use it.

While going to the temples, the views on the top are magnificent. There was a girl who accompanied us and keep on selling postcards but I just gave her the chips that I was holding. Sometimes, you want to buy but once you buy from one person then everybody starts trailing you while you tour which is a bit annoying at times. We also met one Japanese girl who seems to be scared of trying out climbing some parts of the temple but brave enough to go around by herself by bicycle and two British tourists who actually live and work in Beijing. We asked them about the smog in Beijing and they told us that it was actually exaggerated on the news. They told us that it happens around twice or thrice a year but generally living there is good since they get to tour around Asia and live the way they want. I guess wherever you live, there are pros and cons.

Mitchell preparing her tripod and camera while I just used my Samsung Note II for this nice pic.

Most of the temples are dark inside so the guide usually have a torch to use so the paintings on the wall and ceilings can be seen. No lights policy are also important to lessen the erosion or destruction of the materials inside the temple. Our horse cart driver gave us a torch to use to see the inside of the smaller temples. For the bigger temples, electric lights were installed since the space are bigger to explore. As for me, the amazing part was the fact that the temple architectures are not all the same as shown by the pictures below.

One of the temples with birds resting around the dome

A replica of some  of the 2000 temples. 

The outside of a temple. 

I'm not really sure about these things but they were on display on a hall outside of one of the temples that we've visited.

Lunch 

Another kind of temple which reminds me of the Balinese temples

The outside wall of the temple above. It is different from the other temples that usually have straight  walls.

The Buddhas were outside the temple above. I think it is the only temple where the Buddhas are put outside.

The Thanaka that we put on our cheeks.

Irrawaddy River as viewed from a temple.


Yes, there's another temple near the river and there are cruises that will take you for a few hours or a day along the river. I just read that you won't see much anyway and since we only had 2 days to visit Bagan, I don't think we can do the cruise but maybe someday. Irrawaddy river is also famous for it's Irrawaddy dolphins.

One of the temples without entrance

The only white temple in Bagan. It looks more like a church for me and the architecture is very pretty. I actually took this atop another temple. You can go inside the temple but going up is not allowed to protect it from collapsing. These temples are thousand years old so they are very vulnerable to many things that could hasten their destruction. It is good that the government is doing what they can and tourist should also help preserve them for the coming generations to enjoy.