Bagan - City of Four Million Pagodas

Had an early morning flight fromYangon to Bagan. Had to get up at 4 a.m. and have luggage out ready for departure by 4:45. It was a short flight of a little more than an hour on a twin prop plane. Upon arrival our mini-bus was waiting to transport us into the town. 

Bagan airport 

Even though Bagan is known as "The City of Four Million Pagodas" there aren't actually that many but there are over 2,000 of the old shrines, pagodas, and stupas constructed between the 11th and13th centuries scattered among the remote rural area located along the Irrawaddy River. Many of them are small and simple, but there's many that rise majestically above the plain and are visible above the trees. Bagan has the title as the largest temple city in the world as well as one of the most important archaeological areas in all of Asia.

The first pagoda we visited was Shwe Sandaw Pagoda. We climbed to the top where the view really drove home the immense number of pagodas that are located here. 

Some landscape sweeping shots to show just how many pagodas you could see in the area.

 Some workers were piling cut hay by hand in a field nearby.

After our pagoda climb, we went to the village of Nyaung-U to experience the local market. Yes, another market visit, but I feel that the local markets are the heart of the community and you can get a real sense of how the local people live on an everyday basis. 

Tourist Police force - they are there to help protect the tourist from pick pockets and any other incident that might arise.

Seeing all the different meat stalls with the pungent smells and swarms of flies I could almost entertain the idea of becoming a vegetarian.

She was using C batteries as her counter weights. The customer tells her how much is wanted and she puts so many batteries in the scale and weighs out the food.

Large push carts wee being used to move products around the market.

There were the typical vegetable and meat vendors but this one also had a large material and sewing section. The cloth available was beautiful. Notice that they were using the old pedal style sewing machines. 

There were the fresh and dried fish, various seafood, beef, and chicken (notice that the chicken heads are still attached) vendors.

New meaning for the word basketball. The kids play with these woven balls in a sports game.

What is a child safety seat?

We stopped at a lacquer ware shop to learn the process of how it is made. Basically they start with a basket woven out of bamboo that is coated several times, decorated with carvings, and then fired.

Had lunch at this riverside restaurant.

They played the drums and sang as the food was brought to the table.

After checking into our hotel and taking a short rest period, we headed out to visit the 

Ananda Pahto Pagoda. This is a terraced temple peaked in shimmering gold that is considered a symmetrical masterpiece. Built around 1090 by a Burmese King inspired by tales of visiting Indian monks, it has served as a prototype for the successive temples. 

The outside had deteriorated over the years and now a group of archaeologists from Indian are helping to clean the temple and repair some of the damage. You see the drastic difference the cleaning is having.

The inside walls were whitewashed over the years but are now being restored to show the beautiful detailed murals that were painted originally.

Before entering the inner chambers, these statues stand guard.

There are four huge Buddhas with different facial expressions.

Small alcoves are placed all over the interior walls and have over 90 different statues of Buddha during various phases of his development/enlightenment.

Next we went down to the Irrawaddy River for sunset cruise and to learn about the importance of the river. It is a natural resource that plays a big role in the economy of the country. There were many fishing boats. Families live along the river banks in small shacks.

Locals flock around visitors trying to sell trinkets, t-shirts, postcards, etc. This happened at all the stops we made but especially at the pagodas.

Our boat

You could see some of the pagodas along the banks.

We landed at a sand bar and got out to spend some time and watch for sunset.

Did get to see a little color of the sunset even with the clouds.

We stopped by one of the homes along the bank and talked with the family as they were preparing a large pot of soup that would be sold the next day at the market.

Another fantastic day even with the early start. Can hardly wait for new experiences tomorrow.