I am a city girl, through and through. Some people find a thrill in getting lost in a new place. Getting muddy and dirty. Going off the beaten path.I know many people who love camping and hiking and all of those types of things. That's not me. I get a thrill from conquering public transit systems and orienting myself in vast urban settings. The feeling of successfully navigating to a new place for the first time. I love tall buildings and feeling the heartbeat of a city. I love listening to local music, exploring the art scene, trying food and local beers. I am a runner (#runlikeagirl). I love running through new cities, learning how the grid systems are setup. I still remember the first time I ran in Astoria and FINALLY figured out how Queens is laid out. I am a road runner. I like pounding the pavement. I love running through parks, but mostly ones that are in the middle of big cities. I am also a girly girl. I like to get dressed up and wear make up and go out exploring the nightlife in new places.
I do try to branch out occasionally because I think it is important to put yourself in situations outside of your comfort zone. That is how we learn and we grow. This is the main reason why I left New York City a little over three years ago. I absolutely love that city. It will forever be in my heart, and I hope that I end up living there again someday. But my biggest fear in staying there was that I would never know what it was like to live any place else. For some reason, that did not sit well with me. While it was not easy to leave the city I love behind, I am glad that I did. Leaving it made me realize how much I love it. Leaving also gave me a set of new experiences that have changed who I am and how I live my life.
When it comes to traveling and branching out of my comfort zone, I have done things to push myself. I've been on biking trips. I've been kayaking and white water rafting. I have even been on a couple of smaller hiking trips with my friend Leah in the States, but Bagan was definitely set to be my most rustic experience yet. I was nervous - and I had every right to be. I got sweaty. I got dirty. I fell in the mud (repeatedly). I got lost. It was all very scary for me, but I am so grateful for the experience. I am a different person now than I was before the trip. Beauty like that just changes a person, and everything else simply made me stronger.
When it comes to traveling and branching out of my comfort zone, I have done things to push myself. I've been on biking trips. I've been kayaking and white water rafting. I have even been on a couple of smaller hiking trips with my friend Leah in the States, but Bagan was definitely set to be my most rustic experience yet. I was nervous - and I had every right to be. I got sweaty. I got dirty. I fell in the mud (repeatedly). I got lost. It was all very scary for me, but I am so grateful for the experience. I am a different person now than I was before the trip. Beauty like that just changes a person, and everything else simply made me stronger.
Bagan: The land of hot air balloons and ancient temples.
One of the best parts of my job is the amount of time off that I have. I am very aware how lucky I am to have so much vacation time throughout the year. (Believe me, I earn every bit of it!) At my new school, I am even more fortunate than I was in my previous position because we have more breaks, and they are longer! We did start school at the end of July, so we were all definitely ready for a break by early October. On the Friday before our October Break, we had a half day of school because of a special holiday called Homage Day. It is another Myanmar traditional dress day for students and teachers alike. On this day in their culture, students bow before the teachers and say a special chant in Burmese, asking forgiveness for their past transgressions and thanking us for teaching them. In the Buddhist culture, Teacher is equal with Mother and Father, so many of the students take this ceremony very seriously. It was unlike anything I have ever seen. Once they finished the chant, groups of students from various grade levels performed for us. They sang and danced performances from their culture, and it was almost like another trip to Karaweik Palace! When the ceremony was over, everyone got a (delicious) lunch of chicken biryani with rice, as well as some ice cream for dessert. It was really great having a half day on the last day before a long break! I headed home to eat my lunch and then finish packing and catch my flight.
Gym decorations for Homage Day ceremony.
In our newest longyis for the occasion #pauling
I spent the first weekend of October Break in Bangkok. I absolutely love Bangkok, as I gushed about in my previous post. I was happy about this trip because I had a lot of time to myself. Like I said before, I get a thrill out of learning how a city works, and I got a lot of independent exploring done in those two days. I shopped for things you can't find easily here in Yangon (like a yoga mat, a hair straightener, and a various food and toiletry items). I had my Starbucks fix and navigated the VTS system. I ate street food. I got my hair cut and got a foot massage (my new obsession in this part of the world!). My favorite part of this quick trip was my Saturday morning run. It was the 1-year anniversary of spraining my ankle during the Chicago Marathon. I absolutely nailed my run that morning. I ended up running in the same park for a shake out run on Sunday because I loved the scenery and the peaceful aura of the park. I was also fascinated by all of the different activities going on in the park - including some type of sword training. At a certain point in my run, I suddenly noticed that everyone around me had stopped. It was almost like everyone was frozen in time. Because I had my ear buds on, it was a bit creepy. What was happening? The apocalypse? Was I hallucinating? When I pulled my ear buds out, I realized they were playing the national anthem, so everyone was saluting the king (may he now rest in peace). I loved every bit of my running over the course of those two days.
Benjasiri Park. My newest happy place :-) #runhappy
My flight got in to Yangon late Sunday night, and I was right back at the airport early Monday morning. At the time I was booking, this seemed like a good idea. When my alarm went off that morning, my body begged to differ. I peeled myself out of bed and headed for the airport. It was an interesting experience flying domestically here. It turned out that we were at the airport way too early, so I'll know better next time. We boarded our plane, and I slept most of the way because it was a quick trip. I woke up when we were landing. I was looking out the window, wondering where all the temples were. Maybe they're a little bit of a drive away? But I thought they were closeby? I was so confused. When we landed, my friend looked up our hotel on Google Maps. It was more than 6 hours away! Yep. We were at the wrong airport. Oops. Somehow, that fact escaped both of us! My friend beat herself up quite a bit because of the mistake because she was in charge of booking, but I didn't catch it when she sent the email confirmation my way. I didn't even think twice about it. Personally, I found the whole situation hysterical. I mean, you could be mad or upset about that situation, but in the end, you're still at the wrong airport. It was a rather simple and affordable fix, so we had about an hour until our next flight. (Ironically, I saw one of my students during my accidental layover. In class the following week, she asked, "Ms. Stefanie, if you were going to Bagan, why were you in Heho Airport?" I stammered something about the airplane and then changed the subject. I also found this very funny!)
We checked in (again) and headed to our gate. On the way, we discovered that there was a little cafe that had wine tasting for 2,500 kyats (less than $2 USD). It was only 9:00 in the morning, but if you ask me, that's brunching hour. And we were on an adventure. So wine tasting was a perfectly acceptable way to pass our accidental layover. As it turns out, the wine was local Myanmar wine because that particular region has vineyards, so it's definitely a place I want to come back and explore.
KBZ Airlines
They give you these stickers to wear. You must have it in addition to your boarding pass.
Because I wanted to be a cool kid with cloud pictures too.
Actually not a bad breakfast! (especially for airline food)
As we were landing... "So pretty! But where are all the temples?"
Wine tasting for the win!
I choose to look at this as a happy accident. I definitely wasn't mad about trying local wine. Delicious! And really, we weren't in a rush to get to our final destination anyway. Sometimes, it really is all about the journey. Cheers!
And now, I can finally talk about The Bagan. I giggle as I type that because my friend kept calling it The Bagan. I thought it was really cute the way she said it. Bagan is a city, like New York City or Chicago. So it would be like saying The New York City or The Chicago. Maybe I'm weird for thinking that's funny. But that's how the title of this post came to be. Now, on to The Bagan.
Beautiful. Untouched. Rustic. So many adjectives for this place, and none of them truly does it justice. En route to the hotel, I immediately noticed how different it is from Yangon. It is much slower. There are far fewer signs in English. There are many, many more huts and markets. Most roads are unpaved. The roads are littered with electric motor bikes. There are fewer dogs. And more temples. Oh. So. Many. Temples.
Roadside market, as seen on our drive to the airport. (We later stopped here for some food. AMAZING.)
The temple at the corner where we turned go to our hotel.
If you ever travel to Bagan, I HIGHLY recommend (maybe even insist) that you stay at the Bagan Thande Hotel. I don't know how they don't have a higher rating. The grounds are beautiful, and the staff is simply lovely!
This sign also made me giggle. (Maybe it was the wine tasting?)
The view from our hotel room onto our balcony. It was so lovely to sit out there.
We were quite exhausted from traveling, and the second presidential debate had just finished airing in the U.S. We decided to order room service and watch the debate. (I DARE you to say that you vacation better than I do! Haha!) We rested for a bit as there was an afternoon rain shower outside. As it turns out, this was one of the only times it rained on our whole trip. Considering that it is still rainy season here, that was amazing luck. Around sunset, we wandered to the end of our little road and found a temple. We climbed to the top and watched the sun go down. I absolutely love a good sunset, and this one was simply gorgeous. I won't caption my photos because there are only so many ways that I can say, "It was so pretty!"
Room service!
I will keep my political beliefs to myself. My only comment is this: I definitely needed a beer to get through the debate (and a couple of more for the election results...).
The stairs I climbed in the temple down the road. They were quite steep and narrow!
But totally worth it.
After sunset, we headed back to the hotel to use one of our dinner vouchers at the restaurant. (Another reason to stay at this hotel: You get one free dinner voucher for every two nights you stay in this hotel.) I was so excited to find out that there was a school visiting, and a string ensemble was performing while we were eating. Live entertainment with our dinner? Amazing! They were so cute. The group was a beginning ensemble, and I immediately recognized the Suzuki pieces that I learned when I took String Methods in college. I absolutely loved watching them perform.
The next morning, I woke up early to go for a sunrise run. I was really anxious about this run for a lot of reasons. I am not the type of person who likes to get lost on a run. Yes, I like to lose myself, but that is totally different from being physically lost. I like to know where I'm going, or at least to have a general idea of where I am. I guess it's the part of me that likes to be in control of situations. That part of me that likes to navigate cities and understand how places are laid out. I know what I like and I know what makes me feel comfortable. I also know that not everyone is like me, nor do I expect them to be. I am perfectly aware that other people have different feelings than I do about this matter, and that my reactions are not the way others would handle the situation. I am emotional. I react. It's who I am.
I actually got quite frustrated on this run. Honestly, I was probably a brat about it. (I'm not perfect.) I was out of my element. I didn't know where I was. I was completely uncomfortable, which was really scary for me. It was muddy. It was hot. It was all kinds of things.
BUT
There was this sunrise. These colors. Those temples. This was unlike anything I have ever experienced. Unlike anything I had ever seen. I still can't get over the beauty of this sunrise. It looks like an artist painted it. At the very least, it looks like I filtered the pictures. But these are unfiltered. (And the pictures don't really do it justice.)
And I was lucky enough to see it firsthand. How many people can say that? So, brattiness aside, I guess I would have to call this a pretty good morning.
And hey, sometimes you just need a good cry!
After breakfast, we decided to be ecotourists for the day. The hotel had bikes for rent (at a whopping $4 USD per day! So cheap!). We rented bikes and set out to explore. That day was very taxing on my body, as we ran over 6.5 km (more than four miles) during the sunrise run, and then proceeded to bike more than 20 km throughout the morning and afternoon. It was incredibly hot that day, and it was tough biking at times. My legs were shaking. I was dripping with sweat. The terrain was really rough. I was once again pushed out of my comfort zone, as many of the paths that we took that day were not main roads. More on all of that later...
We started that morning with Sulamani, which is a very famous temple in Bagan. Unfortunately, there was an earthquake back in late August, and Bagan suffered a great deal of damage. As it turns out, there have been other larger earthquakes in Bagan's long history, but this one was one of the most debilitating because of renovations and construction done back in the 1970s. Rather than using proper building materials, they used a lot of packed sand to make cheap concrete for the reparations. Therefore, when the earthquake happened a couple of months ago, the ancient temples were not structurally sound, and when small parts started to break off, even larger chunks of temples simply imploded. I have learned that this is one of the main reasons why Bagan is not a UNESCO World Heritage site. There were many temples that were blocked off and were only viewable from a great distance because of the instability of the remaining structures. I hope they can find ways to use proper materials and eventually qualify for UNESCO. This area really is lovely, and it would be sad to lose so much history. The earthquake situation obviously is not going to change, but hopefully with the opening of Myanmar's borders comes education and opportunity to learn and rebuild.
Setting off on our ecotouristing adventure!
My first peek at Sulamani
Absolutely stunning - notice the damage at the top.
Many temples were covered in tarps and scaffolding.
This dog was either as hot as I was, or he was trying to blend in with his surroundings...
I bought a coconut to drink in the small market outside Sulamani and tried my best to rehydrate before continuing our journey. It was early in the day, but I could already feel the heat getting to me. At this little market, I also decided to buy a hat. I have one in Yangon, but that did not do me any good in Bagan, where the sun was turning out to be quite brutal! I bought a pink hat because it's obviously the best. After my purchases, we continued on our way.
Yum, delicious, and oh so very necessary on this blazing hot morning.
The small market outside of Sulamani.
One last peek as we left its grounds behind!
We continued on our very long journey. We saw small moments of daily life for villagers in Bagan. We also went way off the beaten path and explored temples that were not on the map and appeared to have been untouched for decades. Some of these temples were the most beautiful to me. It was almost like they had been forgotten, abandoned, or left behind, and suddenly I found someone's secret. That being said, this trek was not an easy one. This city girl is not used to off-roading (I would venture to call this off, off, off roading!). There were times that the grass was so overgrown, it was impossible to pedal. There was the constant threat of plants scratching my legs, the possibility that a snake could slither out at any moment, and the sun was incredibly intense that day. All of that being said, I think that sometimes it is important to push yourself outside of your comfort zone because you may just surprise yourself.
I know that I did not do this very gracefully, but I did it. And I am quite proud of that. The things I saw that day were absolutely amazing, and it gave me a totally new perspective.
Most of the places in the following temples were unmarked, or if they were marked, it was entirely in Burmese. Many of them were actually not listed on any maps that we had. Some of them had a bit of damage from the earthquake, and most of them had Buddhas inside. There were many with local villagers outside eager to take you on a tour and explain the history of each temple (and then offer their paintings to you for a certain price), but I spent most of that day simply wandering, looking, thinking, and absorbing the experience.
After an intense morning, we stopped for lunch at a local market. The food was so delicious and cost less than $2 USD. I gobbled up my food (and some of my friend's food too!) and we set out again. My favorite temple that day came at a particularly brutal part of the off, off, OFF roading that we were doing. Suddenly there was this massive temple sitting behind a field. It was being taken over by the plants, and it was surrounded by a wall that made it appear to have a secret garden (or at least, it did at one time). I really liked this place because you could feel the history and the care that someone took in designing it. The sweeping views of temples surrounding it were also stunning. As I wandered around, I suddenly got a little creeped out by the Buddha statue inside. (I think I watch too many scary movies.)
All jokes aside, I am very happy that I had the chance to explore this place off the beaten path. Most of the time, beauty (to me) is in concrete and steel and the thriving heartbeat of a city, but sometimes I can appreciate a different kind of beauty in the absolute silence.
See the Buddha statue in there? I began to wonder how long it had been since another human being saw it...?
My *fabulous* pink hat
After that last temple, we started back toward the hotel because the sun would be setting soon. We discovered that this place is kind of like a light switch at sunset: It goes from being light to being very dark in a matter of about half an hour. This is because there are not street lights and buildings to light the roads; instead they are dotted with temples and the occasional motor bike.
On the way back to the hotel, we found this food truck that was set up on the side of the road. It seemed a bit random, but I was so happy to find out that he had coconuts and cold water. It appeared that you could call a number and find out where this guy was set up, so I guess it was a different spot everyday.
Back at the hotel, I spent about an hour poolside. It was so nice to just relax after a day that was so physically and emotionally exhausting. As it crept closer to sunset, we walked over to the riverfront. Our hotel was by the river, and as we made plans of what to do for the sunset today, we suddenly realized that this would not be a bad plan. We had to wake up early the next day for our hot air balloon adventure, so it was nice to sit by the river and watch the sunset. I do love a good sunset, and there are bonus points if it's on the water. This one was a cloudy sunset, but still stunning nonetheless.
The next day was the day that I was the day that I had been looking forward to ever since my sister gave me the Lonely Planet Myanmar book for Christmas last year. The front cover of that book has a picture of a hot air balloon in Bagan. Apparently it is THE thing to do. It is quite expensive, but to me, you are paying for the experience and the memories that go along with it. It was about the same price that I paid to go skydiving in the Swiss Alps, and I have never once looked back on that and regretted the dollar amount. I think this will go down in the same way.
We woke up incredibly early because the hot air balloons are supposed to fly at sunrise. We were told that we would leave our hotel by 5:10 a.m., so imagine our surprise when the front desk phoned at 5:00 asking when we would be coming down. We hurried to catch the shuttle with another family from our hotel. They were from England, and the son is teaching in Singapore. They were hilarious, and we ended up being in the same hot air balloon later as well.
As we waited, I began to get a little anxious. They were concerned with the wind and there was some question as to whether or not we would be able to fly. We continued to wait, and I was a bit disappointed when I noticed the sun starting to rise. Eventually, the hot air balloons did fly, so I tried to be grateful and positive as we climbed into the basket. It turns out, it was only the third time they had been able to fly that month (and it was the 11th of October!), so I felt really happy that we even had the opportunity. As soon as we were airborne, all disappointment melted away.
It. Was. Stunning.
Our balloons were a purple-ish color. The company chose that because of the color of the clothing of the monks in that region. There was another company flying that day, so it was really neat to see all of the balloons dotting the temple-filled horizon surrounding us. It was a bit scarier than I expected. I am usually fine with heights, but something about this flight made my stomach drop. It was perfectly safe and absolutely worth it. Unfortunately, we had to land in New Bagan where there are fewer temples (they are mostly in Old Bagan, where our hotel was). This is because of the earthquake damage and the safety of landing. When we landed, we were suddenly surrounded by local Myanmar men who helped us disembark. While we were landing, they set up a makeshift place for us to sit and eat a light breakfast and provided us with options of souvenirs to buy. I did not buy any here, but I happily sipped on champagne and collected my certificate that states that I flew in a hot air balloon over the ancient city of Bagan.
O Captain, My Captain (or is it pilot?)
This is my favorite shot, with the golden temple in the background.
By the time I got back to the hotel, I was pretty exhausted. I laid down for a nap and ended up sleeping for almost three hours! That is a really long nap for me, but obviously I needed it. We decided to have an "easy" afternoon and rented bikes for only a half day. That day we "only" biked about 12 km... Haha.
We stopped for another delicious local lunch at a nearby market and heading for more off-roading and exploring. We once again started at a bigger, more famous temple. This one is called Dhammayangyi. It also had many tarps and scaffolding on its vast structures because of earthquake damage. We started to realize that these larger temples are very impressive, but they are also the most crowded places in this ancient city. There are many different types of tour groups that come through this area, and most of them stop at the major temples. Because we could only explore the outter areas of Dhammayangyi, we continued on our biking journey and went to find more untouched temples.
Notice the puppets in the trees
We quickly came across more farming and agriculture as we traveled down the narrow dirt roads. Soon, we discovered this really cool area that had several small temples right next to each other. It probably sounds crazy, but it almost felt like a little playground to me because the structures were so small and so close together. I really liked this mini temple village and the cool temples that we explored here.
As we continued our trek, we came across many other temples dotting the landscape. Again, most of them were so small that they were not listed on the map. I continued to appreciate the vast and ancient beauty that was surrounding us. This really is a special place.
I can't really explain it, but I found my favorite temple in Bagan on this part of our expedition. This unmarked temple almost seemed like it came out of nowhere. It looked like a gorgeous castle to me. I'm not going to do it any justice by explaining the feeling that I had. All I can say is, this temple left a huge impression on me. As it turns out, it was totally worth getting stuck in the mud so that I could find this beauty!
As sunset approached, I found my way to Shwesandaw Pagoda. I had read in multiple places that this was THE place to watch the sun set in Bagan. Going into it, I knew it would be busy. I knew it would be crowded. I knew it might even be overrated. But to me, these "must sees" are so important. I absolutely kissed the Blarney Stone, saw the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, went to the top of the Empire State Building, and rode in a gondola in Venice. Yes, many of those things were pricey and/or touristy. But I did them. I have those experiences. I have those memories. And many of those things, I absolutely loved.
The person I traveled was not a huge fan of watching the sunset at the Shwesandaw Pagoda. It was busy. It was crowded. It was all of the things I expected. BUT it was something I wanted to do, and I am so happy I got to see what so many people were raving about. As it turns out, there were better sunsets, but if I hadn't gone to this pagoda, I would never have this frame of reference. Again, different people enjoy doing different things, and I think that is part of what makes traveling (and life!) so interesting.
When you travel to Bagan, you have to pay a 25,000 kyat (about $19 USD) archeological fee for visiting. When you do this, they give you a stamped card that basically says, "Yes, I paid the fee." You are supposed to travel with it as you explore Bagan, but no one prior to this had asked to see it. Shwesandaw at sunset is a popular destination, so it's not actually surprising that they enforce things here. To give you an idea, when you see the temple from a short distance away, it sort of looks like the structure is crawling with ants because there are so many people moving around it.
In order to watch the sunset, you have to climb some really steep stairs. When we got to the top, there wasn't room for us, so we actually had to sit on the stairs for awhile. Eventually people started to leave and we were able to go all the way up and walk around. There were tour buses in the immediate foreground, but beyond that, it was really beautiful. I do love a good sunset, and I do love a good skyline. It was so interesting to see a skyline filled with outlines of ancient temples.
When the sun went down, we ventured out for some dinner. The Lonely Planet highly recommends this vegetarian restaurant called Be Kind To Animals The Moon. I giggle every time I say that because I think it is such a cute name. For dinner I devoured my curry, coconut rice, and watermelon juice so fast that I didn't even get a chance to take a photo. If you ever travel here, this restaurant is an absolute must! (I ate here twice on this trip, and will definitely go back again.) After dinner, we carefully biked home in the darkness, using the flashlights on our phones to light the way. We made it safely and almost immediately passed out after another long and intense day of exploring.
The next day I slept in and spent the morning by the pool. I was working on my previous blog post as I lounged by the pool. After my computer battery died, I actually jumped in and went for a swim. It was quite lovely. I also spent part of the morning exploring the grounds of the hotel. The grounds are stunning. The landscaping is so beautiful, especially now because of rainy season making everything so lush and green. They also have many different kinds of flowers and manicured pathways throughout the grounds. After lunch on the riverside, I ventured over to the spa for a little bit of pampering. The spa is definitely not their strong point, but overall I really enjoyed my day lounging around the hotel.
Oddly enough, this was the entrance to the spa!
We walked over to a local temple for sunset. Originally we were headed to Law Ka Ou Shaung because my friend wanted to go there, but when we were en route we met a nice young man name Joe Joe. He was on a motor bike and wanted to take us to show us "his temple." Now, in any other situation, this sounds like a creepy set up to be kidnapped or mugged or worse. But in Myanmar, things are very different. The people here are so friendly and proud of where they are from, and they want to share it with you because you do not know it yet. Sometimes they ask if they can sell you things, but mostly it seems they want to show you around out of the kindness of their hearts and their desire to help/educate you. It really is fascinating. Now, no place is perfect and I have met one man who was trying to scam us out of money, but he really does seem to be an oddity around here.
So, we followed Joe Joe to Temple #1041. That's right. No name. Simply a number. We climbed to the top of the temple and sat on the ledge. This was actually quite scary for me - I don't love ladders, and this was even more intense than being on a ladder - but it was absolutely worth it. Hands down, this was more gorgeous than Shwesandaw Pagoda. It was actually very nearby, but this temple did not have tour buses and crowds. We met a few other travelers who were there to take in the views, and I talked quite a bit with Joe Joe as we watched the sun go down. He told me he works of the hot air balloon company (from the day before!), and it is his dream to go to Bristol to learn how to be a pilot so he can become the first Myanmar hot air balloon pilot. (All of the pilots here are British or Commonwealth.) He is attending university right now in Myanmar, and his family lives in a nearby village. I really admire how much he loves Bagan, and how he wants to educate people about his culture. His temple also delivered one of my favorite sunsets to date. As we were leaving, he asked me if he could show me his paintings. I was actually going to ask this myself, as I collect small pieces of artwork from places that I travel that are meaningful to me. Joe Joe ended up having the usual sandpaintings that I have seen from others in Bagan, but he had a very special one that I fell in love with: A golden silhouette of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the newly elected leader of Myanmar. Her story is very inspiring, and she is quite beloved by the people of Myanmar. I bought this painting from Joe Joe, and I hope it helps him achieve his dream. The painting now hangs on my wall. I smile every time I see it.
Sunset at Temple #1041
Temple #1041
My new friend, Joe Joe
I absolutely love this painting, for so many reasons :-)
We headed back to the hotel room shortly after sunset. We ordered room service and settled in for an early night. This turned out to be the day that King Bhumidol, the king of Thailand, passed away. We saw many stories on TV, and it was so sad to see his people so heartbroken. It was odd to think that I had been in a park where people were saluting him only days before that.
The next day, I woke up early for another sunrise run. Again, we headed toward Law Ka Ou Shang, but found ourselves back at the beloved Temple #1041. It was a very cloud morning, so the sun sort of snuck up behind some clouds. The clouds lead to rain, which was actually very refreshing at the time. I really love running in the rain. However, the rain lead to lightening, which definitely made me hustle back to the hotel! After a huge breakfast, we nestled under the covers and watch Michelle Obama's speech while drinking tea.
When the rain cleared, we walked around the area (we were kind of done with bikes). We walked to lunch at Be Kind To Animals The Moon for more vegetarian deliciousness. Actually, most of the food here is vegetarian, but this place is by far my favorite I've been to in Myanmar! I actually remembered to take pictures this time before devouring my delicious food. After lunch, we walked over to another famous place in Bagan, the Ananda Pagoda. It has four incredible Buddha statues inside, each one unique and beautiful in its own right. We also wandered around the grounds outside, but I was mostly impressed by the statues on the inside.
Guacamole with curry - SO GOOD!
Watermelon and lime juice
Bagan Thimande Curry with coconut rice (not pictured: stir fry veggies)
"Phaya" means "pagoda"
Next, we ventured outside the walls of Old Bagan. We went to the Golden Palace, which was quite underwhelming compared to the beauty of the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, and pretty much all of the other temples around Bagan. It is a replica of a palace of some king and is probably significant to the history of Bagan, but it did not leave much of an impression on me. Ironically, it is the only place that we had to pay a fee (other than the initial archeological fee), but I wasn't mad or annoyed because we had so many other beautiful experiences.
When we left, we went to a local stand to buy some coconuts, as it was turning into another hot day. Here, I met another new friend. Unfortunately I did not write down her name and I do not remember it. It makes me sad because she was so kind. She saw my fair skin and insisted that I allow her to put Thanaka on my face so that I wouldn't burn. I had this once before in Karaweik Palace, but that was a very touristy experience. This was delightfully authentic, as she made a beautiful design on my face as well. It was wonderfully cooling, and I loved listening to her talk. She is currently attending university (which is impressive, as a woman in these parts!), majoring in history and medicine. Her dream is to come back to Bagan and work as a tour guide so she can educate people about her city. I admire her passion and her love for her city. I think she and Joe Joe should get married and live happily ever after! I ended up buying a couple of things from her as well. They are handmade little decorative things that I thought I would give as gifts to friends or family, but I ended up keeping them for myself! (#sorrynotsorry)
The walls of Old Bagan. So old and so beautiful!
The one on the right has Myanmar astrological animals, which completely fascinates me and is one of my favorite things about this culture. Each animal represents a day of the week. There are eight because the Myanmar calendar has eight days in a week (Wednesday is divided into a.m. and p.m. Each is represented by an elephant, one with tusks and one without).
This is the perfect storage for my hair accessories! Love this purchase.
That evening, we had tickets for a sunset river cruise. I have taken sunset cruises in other places like Key West, New York City, Chicago, and more. They all have very similar types of boats, so in my mind's eye, I imagined this larger river cruise boat full of people. I was completely wrong. For only $5 USD (apparently it was less if you bought the tickets in person!), you go on a private boat, and two beers are provided! I have no words for this experience. By far my favorite sunset of the trip, and one of my favorites of all time. (Again, the pictures do not do it justice.) I highly recommend this if you travel to Bagan!
This kid asked me for my hat. I told him I would give it to him if he would take a picture with me. He was so happy and said I was his new friend.
I am grateful for my time spent in Bagan. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Some moments were really hard for me because I was so far outside my comfort zone, but I truly think that is how you learn and grow as a person. I love this country - my new home - even more because of my time spent in this beautiful place, and I feel that I have a better understanding and a deeper appreciation for it.
Until next time, Bagan.
This is how Yangon says "Welcome Back!" on my first sunrise run after the trip.
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