Bagan and around

We spent two days in Bagan and have to say, liked it much better than Mandalay. We were met at the airport by our guide with an unpronounceable name, so we called him Coco. He took us to a local market - much like the one we went to yesterday, then on to three different types of temples - the brightest (all gold leaf and gold paint, the tallest and the biggest. All interesting in their own way but by now, becoming somewhat repetitive. We have learnt a lot about Buddhism though. We declined to eat in a local “tea house” for lunch and were taken back to our hotel for lunch and a rest. We were picked up at 4:00 pm and taken to two more temples before viewing the sunset from a vantage point with a view over a plain containing many, many temples! While we were waiting for the sun to set, we met a young couple who were living in Beijing - he was American and she was Chinese (had lived and studied in California for 10 years). Anyway, it turned out that he was a TV star in Beijing and had his own show singing and doing skits, all in Mandarin! Very interesting talking to them.

On our second day we were picked up in the morning and taken to a nearby village were we witnessed a parade of young boys who were going to enter the monastery for their time as novices - a minimum of seven days. The boys were all dressed a princes, complete with fancy costumes and make up and rode horses, or if too young, rode in a carriage. A local wealthy man had organised the parade and other children from the village could participate with their parent paying a small fee. The wealthy man’s son was first in line and rode an elephant (apparently at a cost of $1,000). Most of the boys were about 7 or 8 but the youngest was only three! I asked our guide if he would have to go to the monastery to live and he said yes, but his parents would be on hand to feed him. I couldn’t imagine how a three year old could learn anything about Buddhism’s teachings and live on only two meals a day! Our guide assured us that it was fun to dress up and parade and relatives gave them money which they liked very much, but once the festivities were over, they had to get their heads shaved and go into the monastery.

Next we visited more temples and shrines, then went on to visit an area well known for weaving beautiful silk. It was so intricate work and once we visited the shop, we could understand the exorbitant prices! Next we visited a factory that made lacquer wear. We had no idea how much work went into producing this product - very interesting, but again, all that work became obvious once we hit the shop and saw how expensive everything was! Our last visit of the morning was to go to a village that was founded in the 12th century. We were able to see how people lived. One family were weavers and we saw how they made the thread from the cotton plant. The grandma of the family (91 years old) was sitting on the floor spinning the cotton into threads. She was amazing and when she took a break, she smoked a cheroot that her daughter had just rolled for her! Apparently she smokes two cheroots everyday. She does a lot of the cooking for the family on a very primitive wood fire. Hard to believe people still live like this - there is a well in the village, but no running water, but they do have electricity - very interesting visit.

In the afternoon we went for a ride on the Irrawaddy River on a not too comfortable open boat, but we did have comfortable cain chairs to sit in. After about half an hour, we landed - well the boat,an rammed the bow into a bank and we clambered ashore, then walked for about ten minutes through some trees to, guess what, a temple! This one was built into a cliff and tunnels had been carved out with alcoves that served as cells for the monks to meditate. Actually a very interesting visit. We sailed back having been served tea and snacks with a wonderful view of a sunset over the water.Lue lisää