Album: 01-06 Bagan-Burma

Album:2017:01-06 Bagan-Burma

Bagan was an unbelievable surprise.

We hadn't even heard of it until our quasi-family Ron and Linda had visited. It is a space about the size of San Francisco that has the remains of over 10,000 temples, over 2000 are left.

That means they had one temple every couple acres. That's just plain silly.

It was beautiful and overgrown and collapsing all at the same time. We rented scooters and spent time with the wonderful villagers and travelled from temple to temple, sometimes climbing through the overgrowth to walk from temple to temple.

Basically, a lot of temples.

Oh, and I almost had my eye plucked out.

Balloon Ride

3 folders , 48 images

Seven Sisters restaurant!
( comments)

Salads, salads, salads!
So good! ( comments)

Entering Thitsarwadi Temple
( comments)

With a long, spooky staircase
( comments)

On the top.
( comments)

Count the temples.
You can't. They're infinite. ( comments)

Tour guide,
explaining the different bricks (the flatter ones are more original) ( comments)

Shwezigon Pagoda,
in the distance ( comments)

Tiny doors.
( comments)

Dave climbs up
( comments)

Dave chillin' with Buddha
( comments)

Did I mention..
all the temples? ( comments)

Down the stairs
( comments)

Walking through Min Nan Thu village,
seeing the local lifestyle ( comments)

Someone made this truck
work, by replacing the entire power train with this diesel generator ( comments)

Temples in the distance
( comments)

The edge of a water reservoir
( comments)

Panorama
of the temples in the distance near the reservoir ( comments)

Shwe Zigon Zedi
(Shwezigon - the golden temple) ( comments)

The temple steeple was aligned
by using three of these mini pools of water precisely placed around the temple. You can barely see the steeple reflected upside down in the water ( comments)

Change the focus, and boom!
( comments)

Walking around the lavish Pagoda
( comments)

A little bird,
found a home in one of the art pieces ( comments)

Locals selling art outside
( comments)

Entrance to Htilominlo Guphaya (1218AD)
( comments)

Arielle in front
( comments)

One of the larger temples,
with a number of hallways ( comments)

..and places we can't go
( comments)

Walking towards one of the main rooms
( comments)

Looking down the halls
of a temple, Buddha to buddha ( comments)

Remnants of the outer wall,
on top of the thin clay brick ( comments)

A barefoot Dave
( comments)

Old, "burnt" temple
( comments)

The side of Gawdawpalin temple,
one of the larger temples ( comments)

Reconstruction
( comments)

Poor little strays everywhere
( comments)

Arielle in a doorway
( comments)

Field of Stupas
( comments)

Cute little kitty
at the restaurant ( comments)

Helping me enjoy my meal
( comments)

Arielle and the kittenboo
( comments)

Temples, temples, temples!
( comments)

Walking out of a small temple
( comments)

Lineup of temples
( comments)

Temples falling over
( comments)

..with nobody to repair them,
or with poor repair jobs ( comments)

Unfortunately the area does have
large earthquakes occasionally, which will probably destroy many of the older stupas and temples like this ( comments)

That spire is about to go...
( comments)

Beautiful
( comments)

Always talking to the animals
( comments)

Some of the old frescos
( comments)

Temple becomes garden
( comments)

Outside the Ananda Temple
( comments)

The corner lions
are amazing. ( comments)

Anada temple,
was huge and amazing inside ( comments)

Golden Buddha
( comments)

With a billion billion Buddha statues,
give or take. ( comments)

With windows to other hallways,
giving it a very open feel ( comments)

One of the main rooms
( comments)

Windows to passageways to hallways to windows..
( comments)

I am one with everything
( comments)

Optical illusion Buddha.
Smiling/laughing from far away,.. ( comments)

..but get closer,
and Buddha gets serious. (same Buddha!) ( comments)

Gubyauk Ghi (1113AD)
( comments)

..is famous for having...
( comments)

..the oldest paintings
in Bagan. And you can't use a flash. So it looks like this. ( comments)

Manuha Phaya was an oddly crowded temple,
that had a reclining Buddha in one half that filled the room ( comments)

Nanpaya Temple,
also built by the captive king that built Manuha ( comments)

The interior
has some beautiful carvings.. ( comments)

..that managed to survive
( comments)

Carvings of Brahma
( comments)

Little animals
( comments)

Nagayon Guphaya (11th century)
( comments)

Isn't huge, but has some paintings inside
( comments)

The hallways resemble Ananda
( comments)

With windows through halls
( comments)

Walking through the exitway
( comments)

Law Ka Ou Shaung Temple, known for it's sunsets
( comments)

We climb up through
the narrow stairs and doors ( comments)

pan 9878
( comments)

The top of the temple
( comments)

Inside the top room
( comments)

So many mini hallways
( comments)

Arielle makes them fit
( comments)

We grab a perch,
as people show up for sunset ( comments)

Happylove
( comments)

Relaxing
( comments)

The sun starts to glow
on the temples in the distance ( comments)

Shwesandaw Pagoda,
famous for sunsets, and filled with people. Glad we didn't go there. ( comments)

Thatbyinnyu Temple,
in the distance ( comments)

The golden Shwezigon Pagoda,
far, far off in the distance ( comments)

pan_9986
Panorama of the temples, ( comments)

Preparing for sunset,
on what I believe is Gawdawpalin temple ( comments)

Arielle looking fabulous
( comments)

Wandering cows
( comments)

The sun sets
( comments)

Arielle in the golden light
( comments)

The glow on the temples
nearby ( comments)

Bagan Temple Sunset
( comments)

Temples everywhere
( comments)

Many are being repaired
( comments)

Happy
( comments)

Spires
( comments)

Buddha statues
of many varieties are inside the temples ( comments)

Tunnel vision
( comments)

Spires
( comments)

Looking out of the temple
(it actually took like 10 minutes to get this shot, because people were walking everywhere) ( comments)

Heading down some incredibly
steep and dangerous (and blurry) stairs ( comments)

Walking around temples nearby
( comments)

Fruit smoothies!
( comments)

This little kitty monster
came running from outside the restaurant and made a bee-line straight for me, like he had been waiting for me to show up and had just heard I was finally there. ( comments)

He seriously loved hard.
So cute. [Video, 20.1M] ( comments)

The pathways through
the hotel gardens ( comments)

Our front porch
at our fantastic and reasonably cheap hotel. ( comments)

Attacking salads
back at Seven Sisters restaurant ( comments)

Ginger salad, fermented bean salad, pennywort salad, tea leaf salad,
.. so good! ( comments)

More temples, more Buddhas
( comments)

We go offroading,
in our daring (not)4x4 vehicles, and find an endless sea of temples in the forest. [Video, 97M] ( comments)

Almost all the temples
were falling apart ( comments)

And many were held up,
barely. ( comments)

Temple in the forest
( comments)

Many of the temples
that are deeper in the forest are locked up to protect them. ( comments)

And then I walked over to this temple...
( comments)

And this horrifying moment happened.
(True) [Video, 50M] ( comments)

This is the snake.
Or it's brother. Doesn't matter. I later found out the name of the snake actually means "Eye Plucker". Because it Likes. To. Pluck. Eyes. And it was on my shoulder. And fortunately I screamed and jumped away before looking at what had landed on my shoulder, otherwise I'd be known as "Old Dave One-Eye" [photo Jayendra Chiplunkar] ( comments)

We come across a number of "Stupas",
which are solid temples. ( comments)

And a few semi-open temples
( comments)

Learning all about Stupas and Buddha statues
with Tour Guide Dave [Video, 263.1M] ( comments)

Peering for snakes before entering
( comments)

Reclining Buddha
(the Buddha as he is entering death) ( comments)

"Snakes? Hello?"
( comments)

A Golden Buddha
(IIRC, this is the more "Indian" version of the Buddha) ( comments)

Stupas
( comments)

Buddha Mother (Maya)
giving birth to the little Buddha ( comments)

Temple,
with some of the original (or at least older) flat brick as opposed to the newer sized brick, and showing some of the original concrete outer covering ( comments)

Sein Nyet Pagoda
( comments)

..one of the large temples
( comments)

..crumbling walls
( comments)

Steps up the side
to the top of the wall remains ( comments)

Arielle up another section
( comments)

Temples in the distance,
and the Irrawaddy river in the background ( comments)

Looking down from the walls
( comments)

Arielle in front
of temple reconstruction ( comments)

Up on the steps
( comments)

Arielle does a shadow dance piece
( comments)

And then we come across
a pack of cows, just walking along the road ( comments)

Cows!
[Video, 26.2M] ( comments)

We take a cooking class,
at Pennywort Cooking School ( comments)

Pounding the curry paste,
in a little chair ( comments)

The stoves
( comments)

Wanting to steal
some of the tea leaf salad ( comments)

The cooking stoves
( comments)

Unfortunately the teacher
didn't have much experience (at least when we were there) with teaching people how to actually make the food, so we all just ended up feeling like we were helping do individual various jobs in a Burmese restaurant, and walked away not really knowing how to make any one thing. And the Tea Leaf Salad didn't even turn out that great, and that's the main reason we took the class. ( comments)

I tried to get as involved as possible,
but there wasn't much being taught. ( comments)

Making one of the salads
(Pennywort salad, methinks?) ( comments)

The table is set
( comments)

Scootering at night
we find an amusement park filled with locals! ( comments)

We go on a ride of death
[Video, 11.6M] ( comments)

The aftermath.
The ride ended up being a little more than we were ready for, and getting off while it was moving was an adventure. A Deathventure. [Video, 7.9M] ( comments)