shifting sands

We were tired & weary when we arrived in Mandalay. Thankfully we were whisked swiftly across town to our hotel. We really perked up when we saw our room – a lovely bungalow with terrace overlooking a manicured garden – and inside a huge comfortable bed which we both just wanted to collapse on to after our 15 HR train journey. However Hoi wanted to show us Mandalay so after a quick shower & de-louse we were up and out. We spent an action packed day visiting workshops to see traditional crafts including gold leaf making (for people to put on the Buddha statues) , tapestries & wood carving. We also visited some temples, the newly restored Kings Palace surrounded by a 1 sq mile moat & saw the worlds largest book – the teachings of Buddha carved on over 700 tablets of stone, each placed in their own mini temple. An incredible sight & hard to comprehend how much time & effort went into each one. Later, we headed up into the hills to a temple overlooking the city to watch the sunset. There were quite a few gathered to see this spectacular, particularly when the sun hits the gold on the temples & pagodas below. 

Our time in Mandalay was brief & the following morning we were up before sunrise & heading to the Irrawaddy River on a boat to Bagan. We made two schoolboy errors here – 1. We didn't bring any food 2. We didn't put on enough clothing. The boat was open sided & as it set off at speed we huddled together in our windbreakers which didn’t do much breaking. There were about 25 others on the boat mostly French with their hotel provided breakfasts. we were starving . Eventually some food arrived & the sun warmed us up.  It took about 8 hrs to get to Bagan & it was quite relaxing to watch the local boats &  barges & see the villages that were dotted along the riverside whilst enjoying a Myanmar beer in the sun.  Arriving at Bagan was a bit of a frenzy. There is no Jetty, as much of the city is built on sand which erodes in monsoon season but the locals are great at improvising. A plank was placed between the land & the boat whilst 2 lads stood in the water each holding the end of a piece of bamboo to create a makeshift handrail. It was brilliant. Then we had to negotiate the steep climb up the sandbank to the road. We arrived at our hotel &  headed to the swimming pool to enjoy the last of the sun. We were delighted to read that there was a happy hour  but that was short lived when we saw the price -  $6 for a beer. We headed out to find where the locals drink! 
The following morning we met our guide. He was very knowledgeable about the area & the buildings but he was a sniffer & a snorter so every time he cleared his nasal passages or throat in between imparting information I felt myselF wince.

It's so difficult to sum up Bagan –an ancient city surrounded by temples & pagodas – lots of them. There were over 4000  now still over 1000 in various states of repair. Unesco has been advising on restoration particularly since the recent earthquake in August so some of the pagodas are embraced with bamboo scaffold. Please look on line at the place – it's incredible and still so untouched. We kept thinking if it was anywhere else there would be restrictions & fences etc but there is none of that.  you can walk in all of them or around them or climb some & when you do,  you are afforded views across  the vast area where the landscape is filled  with these magnificent structures that are many many hundreds of years old, some with original wall paintings  inside.  Quite breathtaking. We spent 2 full days here & it was enough to explore with a guide but it would have been nicer to have another day to look around ourselves on bikes but there was the rest of Myanmar still to see.