Bagan Day 2

After breakfast, we went into town to see the market. This is the typical mayhem of people selling fruits and vegetables and everything else from stalls. Total craziness. Many things we did not recognize. Soft bamboo (for eating?). Also the lacquer and T-shirt sellers, along with the ubiquitous kids selling postcards and even books about Burma (George Orwell and others). One clever bigger had her baby but also a puppy. Cute will get you something.
We went back to the Ananda temple grounds to pick up horse carriages. We rode among the smaller pagodas and stupas for some close up pictures. We ended up at a small village. This probably had been around in this area for close to 1000 years, as the name was related to a very early king. The houses were mostly made of bamboo. We looked at the goats and the cows. Some of the cows were more scared of Ann than she was of them. We saw the local communal peanut grinding stone. Electricity is a relatively new phenomenon here, but there were a few satellite dishes. I was reminded of the little farming village of Zabava, outside Lviv, when I went on a genealogy trip to Ukraine many years ago.

Lunch then rest period.
We went to the river for a Sunset cruise. We had to brave the usual gauntlet of kids selling T-shirts and got onto a little skiff the motor out onto the Irrawaddy to watch the sunset. More photo opportunities.
Dinner in town on our own. We went to the Aroma (2), a little family restaurant. Not sure where (1) was, but their catch phrase was "No Like - No Pay". The menus had cute stick figures showing "before meal" people on bicycles,etc and "after meal" round figures being carried in a cart! The food was good, but not spectacular. Our waiter was the son of the family, having recently gotten married and he was looking forward to his honeymoon in Thailand. He then became our cab driver to drive us back to the hotel!
I still haven't adjusted to the time difference. I awoke at midnight, and it is now 4:30, and I haven't been able to coax myself back to sleep. My guess is as soon as I get adjusted, it will be time to go home.... :(
Tomorrow to Mandalay.


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