Today we had a morning and an afternoon tour.
This morning we were stopping in Tankyi village, where we had just a short, almost level walk to our transport; mini vans, to take us up Tantkyi Hill to visit the Tantkyitaung Pagoda.
It was an interesting 40 minute drive up the hill and then we climbed up the 28 steps to the pagoda.
The pagoda has 32 elephant statues encircling it, facing all directions.
The embossed gold was magnificent.
Our guide today was Terry and he gave us his usual enlightening talk and with the help of a very young novice monk again showed us how the monks wear their robes.
Then we got back into our mini vans and headed down into the village to see a traditional Elephant Dance.
The whole village turned out to see it too, or maybe they turned out to see the tourists!?
Then we headed back down the hill to the mooring, and were cruising again before we enjoyed another splendid lunch.
Around 2.30 we were docked in Bagan.
Despite Bagan being a huge tourist destination the mooring was the 'usual', not a city quay. Michael had visited Bagan before and was feeling a little under the weather so once again I joined the tour group on my own.
We had the usual climb up a muddy, sandy bank and about 30 steps.
There were a lot of hawkers, who were very persistent. When we boarded our coaches and headed off on our sightseeing, they set off on their motorbikes and would be waiting for us!
Our first stop was the magnificent Ananda Temple. Built in 1105, it was damaged in an earthquake in 1975 but has been restored.
The temple is built as a square and is cool and quiet inside. The tall walls have alcoves in them to buffer the sound that would reverberate when the monks were chanting.
There are also some amazing murals visible. These are slowly being restored in lots of the temples. When first painted they were bright colours and have naturally faded over the centuries. Added to this is the fact that for many years people lived around the temples and used them for shelter, cooking inside them. Some of the walls were white washed to give more light, all of this whitewash and the soot is now slowly being removed to reveal some magnificent works.
Inside there are four, 91/2 metre tall Buddhas,facing north, south, east and west.
Two of the Buddhas are original and two are replicas and they are definitely quite slender 'female' form.
Terry amazed us all by turning off the electric lights illuminating the south facing Buddha. We were then able to see it as it would have been when first made. It was now lit from above with natural light and was incredible. Very atmospheric.
(1st photo is with electric lights,lit from below. 2nd is with just natural light, from above)
We drove out of town to the Nan Myint (High Palace) watch tower, built in 2005. It is actually an expensive resort. (owned by a wealthy miiltary family and frequented by russian oligarchs, paying around $US600 a night.) We took the lift up to the restaurant, some folks climbed up to the outdoor viewing platform 2 stories higher. Personally I have to agree with what we heard was the opinion of most locals - it's an eyesore!
We enjoyed free drinks and nibbles whilst watching the sun go down.
Unfortunately it was not the most stunning sunset, but it was a wonderful evening.
Back on board I confess to enjoying 2 Bagan Beach cocktails - Whisky, Apple Juice, Lime, Grenadine Syrup.
There was no entertainment tonight as tomorrow morning there is a dawn balloon ride planned.
We were moored overnight in Bagan,at YaeKin Jetty, ready for the early start.
Day 10 Saturday Dec 9th.
We had not booked a balloon ride over Bagan so went down to breakfast as usual. We saw all of the prospective balloon riders there, because of the rain - the balloon rides had been cancelled.
These passengers had got up at 4.30, had an early snack and then climbed up to their coaches. Here a representative from the ballooning company had come and told them that they couldn't safely lift off so were unfortunately cancelling. these poor people then had to come back to the boat!!
Today we had a choice of tours: a temple tour, a day trip out to Mount Popa or a local workshop tour. We had opted for the temple tour so at 9.30 (once again leaving Michael on board) I joined the group and we set off on a tour of the temples. It was raining slightly, but APT provided umbrellas for everyone.
We stopped and walked around the area around the Khe Minga Temple and stupas. These were built in the 11th century.
Lots of brick temples and stupas, some leaning and some showing obvious signs of earthquaked damage. It was actually quite evident which ones had been repaired by Unesco and which ones had been attempted by locals - most of the Unesco work was still in tact.
There were some lovely little temples and statues and despite the light shower it was a very nice 20 minutes spent strolling around.
There were lots of birds flying around and we were told that they were Weaver Birds, I spotted a nest hanging from a low branch.
We visited Htilominlo temple, a large brick temple built in 1218.
The rain stayed with us and Terry was quite concerned about our safety, walking barefoot on the wet and muddy marble floor tiles.
We had a look around the outside of the temple at the old facade, what a magnificent sight it must have been.
Around the outside of the temple there were many souvenir shops and stalls but the rain meant that it was very quiet. We stopped at one shop selling woven shawls and cloth. Terry introduced us two 'long necks'. Women from Kayan area of Burma. These ladies smiled nicely for our cameras and handed around some 'rings' like the ones they were wearing,. they weighed around 8kgs. These ladies also had leg rings, with rings around their ankles and knees.
We visited Paya Thone Zu temple, which we were told had some absolutely amazing murals. The temple was built as 3 small temples in a line, with one entry.
At the entry there was a sign saying No Photo Video and Camera Inside. But it had no official accreditation. We were debating whether No Flash photography would be okay when we heard a local guide insisting to his group that it meant absolutely No cameras at all. This seemed a bit strange when, once inside this same guide spent many minutes pointing out highlights of the murals with a torch.
We visited the Shwezigon Pagoday, one of the oldest stupas in Bagan, being built in 1057. It was reminiscent of the Shwedagon in Rangoon.
Then it was time to head back to the boat, the oldest temple / stupa we had seen was 1,200 years old, the newest 850 years old. We were no longer making jokes about APT meaning 'Another Pagoda Tour!.
We arrived back just as lunch was being served, Michael was standing there to meet me - not sure if he missed me or wanted lunch?!
We stayed on board in the afternoon, although there was an option to take a private car or horse and cart trip into town, possibly to a market but the clouds descended and by 3.00pm it was raining again. We lazed the afternoon away in our cabin.
At cocktail hour we heard stories from fellow travellers who had gone on the day trip to Mt Popa. Some of them had actually made it all the way up the 777 steps to the top of the pagoda, fending off marauding monkeys on the way.
(The two people who had their spectacles swiped by a monkey, got them back after the guide paid someone a 'ransom fee'.).
After dinner the evening's entertainment was a local puppet show.
We got to the lounge early and grabbed front row seats.
It was excellent. A wonderful professional show. At one point the puppeteer was holding the strings in his mouth.
At the end of the show there was a Q and A session, where Thomas revealed that he had once trained as a puppeteer, for 3 weeks. He demonstrated his skills by making the horse puppet trot, and received a round of applause.
Another wonderful day came to a close.
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