Bagan Encore - Ann's Notes..
We arrived in Mandalay at about 8:30 this morning after a very short flight from Bagan where we had spent the last two days.
There are miles and miles of temples remaining in Bagan, estimated to be about 2,000, but only one that we actually went into, the Ananda Temple, which Steve described well in his blog. The temples and pagodas date from the 11th to 13th centuries, and I found it frustrating that our guide shared very little of the history on them. Checking later with the Lonely Planet guide book I had down loaded, I came to find out that very little is known about them. Lots of mythology but little recorded history from that time. So I guess I need to give our guide a pass on the lack of info he provided. He did give us a tour of the Ananda Pagoda, which is one of the ones that is the most well preserved and restored. After a visit to a lacquer factory, in the afternoon, we drove back to one of the temples for sunset. It turned out to involve a very steep climb to the top of the temple so I stayed back. One look at what the climb involved was all it took to convince me. I hung out with another group member from Arizona who had also decided not to do the climb.
Dinner followed at the home of Mrs. G., our home hospitality evening which is a hallmark of the Odysseys tours. Mrs G has a car vehicle rental service, not a hertz type operation, but one in which she rents out cars and busses with drivers who come with. In fact our bus and driver in Bagan was one of Mrs G's. I think our host made a sincere effort to offer us an interesting Burmese dinner. We had a delicious rum drink along with potato puffs and vegetarian spring rolls, followed by a salad we each made ourselves. The greens for the salad were cut up star beans that had been blanched. We added crushed peanuts, powdered dry shrimp and oil and vinegar. Instead of salt, we were offered Knorr bouillon powder. The main course included a chicken dish, a meat dish and large prawns. I skipped the chicken as it did not look very appetizing. The prawns were huge and looked delicious but did not taste very good. There were also two very good veggie dishes. A mixed vegetable curry and a spinach dish. For desert we had dragon fruit, a first for Steve and me, and a sweet tart type desert which was ok. Desert was followed by a tea salad which was beautifully presented in a lazy susan. It consisted of cured green tea in the center surrounded by different nuts and beans which you mixed all together on your plate. It was a delicacy worth trying.
While Mrs. G was more than glad to answer our questions she asked us nothing about ourselves. At one point during dinner I actually asked her if there was anything she would like to ask us and she replied no. As Steve said when I mentioned this to him--this is a business for her and she could care less about us. Probably true, but still a bit disappointing.
Yesterday, our second day in Bagan, was really the best so far on our trip. Before that I was really questioning whether we had made the right decision. But things got much more interesting. We began the day with a walk through a market and I got lots of good pictures. Then we took a horse cart ride through the temples and the horse cart driver was able to answer some of my basic questions about Buddhism, which our guide had not discussed at all. We then walked through a rural village which includes about 100 households of bamboo homes with cows and goats in the yards. We really felt like we had stepped back in time to a much earlier time. Steve described the rest of our day so well - no need to repeat here. Only difference in our day was that Elsa and I worked out at the fitness center while Steve took advantage of the midday rest hour and slept. For quite a lovely hotel, the so called fitness center was quite sad. It was onthe lower level of the complex, and we had to traverse an area that wreaked of sewage to get there. The room itself was hot and the equipment not very good, but we managed to get somewhat of a workout.
Dinner that evening was on our own and we made our way to an Indian restaurant Steve has described in detail. Steve struggled through another sleepless night but I got more than enough.
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