Bagan - Day 1

On disembarking we had to run the gauntlet of touts until we reached the sanctity of our new coach, considerably smaller than the last, both in overall size and in seat dimension too – half of the luggage had to be passed through the windows and is on the back seat and Ian and I are virtually sitting on each other.

Lost cities abound in Myanmar, but none approach the splendour of Bagan.  Scattered across an arid plain in a bend of the Irrawaddy River are the ruins of around 2,000 (not 2,500+ as I said yesterday) monasteries, temples, shrines and stupas – the remnants of an imperial capital that reached its peak between 11^th and 13^th centuries.  Since the 1990s the government has pursued a massive renovation program, restoring even smaller off-track monuments.  Local villages have been forcibly relocated and some ruins totally rebuilt, often from scratch with little regard to the original appearance.  Sadly because of this UNESCO has denied Bagan the coveted World Heritage Site status.  

Nevertheless visitors are flocking to the area which is quite beautiful – especially at sunrise/sunset when the red coloured bricks glow an even richer colour.

We visited the Bu Lei Pagoda noted for its panoramic view of the area and quite a difficult climb as there are no rails and is rather high and quite steep – this doesn’t do it justice.

 (Sally in the pic, hopefully I can write about our group in another post)

Also the magnificent Shwezigon Pagoda

And the Ananda Temple with its four standing Buddhas (only I got bored listening and wandered off so I didn’t realise there were four and only photographed one).

Finally for sunset we climbed Shwesandaw, a massive 5 terraced pagoda with very steep steps (2’ high) but at least it had a handrail.  

It was very crowded when we got up there but as sunset neared more and more people came up.  There were no rails at the top so Ian and I were pressed hard against the brickwork but others walked really close to the edge without any concern.  One young girl from NZ asked if anyone was sitting in front of us (actually on the edge of this very high pagoda), I couldn’t help myself and said “not anymore, they just fell off” and she believed me!  When I told her I was only joking she happily sat down – just one slight movement by someone and she would be off.  I don’t think these pictures do justice to the beautiful sight (and sadly loads of dust spots on my lens aaarrggghhhh).

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had a problem going down stairs or steps so the longer we stayed up there, the more I began to worry about the descent.  Ian, despite his dislike of heights was amazing, he convinced me I could step over the edge (the worse part) then helped me down and carried the bags.  The view from the top – it’s so, so easy unless you have a phobia.