The first photo of the control tower is to remind of us the local airlines that we used within Myanmar.  From Yangon (up at 7, of course) to Bagan, we used Air Kanbawza, whose control tower was no higher than the pilot.  😉 All flights were economy naturally.  Our guides in Bagan were twin brothers, whose names both sounded like Nyaung.  We started at Shwezigon Pagoda, a gold-gilded stupa at the north of Bagan, then saw the Htiilominio temple with several Buddha images, and checked into our hotel (resort) at Tharabar Gate.  In the afternoon, we visited the Gubyaukgyi Temple, with its excellent (still colored) mural paintings from the 13th century (no photos allowed, unfortunately), and then went to a lacquer-ware workshop in Myinkabar Village.  At the end of the day, we went on a horse cart ride for over an hour, which was a lot more fun for whoever sat in front.  The person in back never gets to see the (many) potholes coming up.  But we passed dozens and dozens of old brick stupas and pagodas.  The locals are excited because this is one of the ways that tourists are helping the economy.

At the end of the ride, we ended up on a hill to see the sunset over the pagodas.  That night we found a message saying that there was a local festival (opera) going on all night across the street from the hotel to celebrate a donation to the local monastery.  The “opera” was more like a loud karaoke (with many American Western and rock songs) blasting through our rooms, and the ear plugs provided by the hotel did little to quell the damage.  And the worst part is that we had to be up at 4 am for our sunrise balloon ride over Bagan in the morning.

So at 4:15 am, we headed out to see three balloon companies start setting up in the dark.  There must have been three dozen balloons altogether, and it was quite a sight.  Our group was Balloons Over Bagan, and our pilot and one of the co-owners, Moses, was terrific.  It was a magnificent trip, and while a bit expensive, it was worth every penny.  It was beautiful to float over the pagodas with the sun coming up and to see the balloons behind and in front of you.  Truly a marvelous experience!  After breakfast at the hotel, we headed out for more temples, and Bagan has thousands.  With only two days, we could only hit the highlights.  We first saw the Ananda Temple, with four huge standing Buddhas at each direction, each with different style of faces, hands, necks, ears, hair styles, etc. (they’ve changed over the years and the influences, such as Indian).  Then on to Manuha, where the Buddhas are very, very large and the enclosures are built around them, so you can barely see the entire figure.  One more temple (can’t remember) before a sunset cruise on our own boat on the Ayeyarwaddy River.  I’m loving this way to travel!

Cheryl

We’re in the back right.

Our hotel, where sleep was non-existent…

Ananda Temple

Hanuma Temple

 And his feet………..