Exploring Bagan by balloon, bike, horse cart & bus - Bagan, Myanmar
Bagan, Myanmar
Where I stayed
motel myakantha
Saturday 25th January 2014 Yangon - Bagan (Myanmar)
We're lying
awake when we decide to see what time it was, and find it is 5.10am. Realise that we haven't had a wake-up call
because of our broken phone. Up and quickly pack, and down right on the appointed
time of 5.40am. We are not last, and wonder if the others have also missed the
wake up, but they arrive just before the search party goes out. We load up the
same bus through the back window in the classic style and drive to airport in
light traffic for our 7.30am flight with Myanmar Airlines to Bagan.
The
flight gets away pretty much on time, but a bit haphazard, with minimal
security, no restrictions on water bottles, announcements which may be in
English, or not. We get a bus to the plane, and are pleased to see it is an
Embraer jet, probably pretty new. We get
our normal seats over the wing, but there are quite a few vacant seats so both
move forward, one on each side, looking at the engines. There is not a lot to
see once we get above the ground smog, but there are lines of mountains pushing
through out to the east. Closer to Bagan, as we descend we can see dry hills
with large winding dry river beds coming down from them to the east and the
main river to the west.
The ground is pretty bare, probably between
crops, waiting for the wet season, and there are lines of palm trees separating
the fields. We can't see a lot of villages or towns. The flight is about an
hour, disembarkation is straight forward, and there are no formalities. We are
met at airport by a small bus, pack our bags in through the back window again
and go straight to sightseeing.
Our first stop is Shwezigon Paya, the town’s main religious site, with a marble tiled
platform, everything covered in gold, all in as-new condition. We are
introduced to "nats" pre-Buddhism invisible supernatural beings who
have been converted to “nat” status after suffering a violent death. There are
37 nats (guardians) housed in their own building behind glass. It is always the
same 37 nats, elaborately costumed, and they are accepted in conjunction with
Buddhism by a lot of the population.
The pagoda has an original Buddha with his
hand in "no fear" position. He is four metres high and is 900 years
old, cast in bronze and coated with gold leaf.
Our next stop is at the “Balloons Over Bagan” office to sign up a couple
of late starters and to confirm 4 of us. Another two decide to go, so we have
to go to the bank for them to get money, then back to balloon place to
pay.
Finally get away, and off to Htilominio Pagoda, which is nearly 800
years old (built 1218). It has four large Buddhas inside - two are 70%
original, and two are not. The brickwork
under stucco is joined very closely with no gaps. The bricks are fired then
ground flat and are glued together with a mixture of buffalo hide, tree resin,
kapok and quite a few other things, and applied when the bricks are still hot
from being ground flat.
In all the pagoda precincts there are lots
of trinket sellers, but they are also selling sand paintings which are quite
attractive and are made with up to seven layers of sand with glue between them.
The design is traced onto thin cloth and projected on the bottom of the sanded
sheet with a form of light table, then painted. There are traditional intricate
designs and also more contemporary designs with a winding column of monks with
umbrellas on a vertical narrow panel.
We stopped at Khay-min-Gha Paya for photos
back toward Htilominio Pagoda, then carried on to Ananda Pahto, started in 1091. There are four 31ft standing Buddhas
with bodies of solid teak. Only two are
original. Up close, when you are looking almost directly upward, one of the
Buddhas has a serene unsmiling face, but the further back you go, the bigger
smile he has. Take photo looking west towards Thatbyinyu Pahto, which is within
the Palace Wall and is the highest Pagoda.
We go for lunch at La Min Thit restaurant,
fairly out-of-the-way in a grotty back street.
The restaurant itself is quite
classy, and we have a great meal - for 5,000 kyat Dianne gets two
curries (goat and fish) and rice, and lots of wonderful small dishes -
maji-yweq thouq a local salad made with young tamarind leaves and crushed
peanuts, tasty pumpkin, mashed sweet corn, and salad veges including raw young
aubergines. Murray is feeling a bit
better, and has his first food since lunch time yesterday - a bit of rice, and
some pumpkin and sweet corn.
We book into our accommodation about 2pm -
Motel Myakantha. First room we are given
is very close to the road and noisy, so get it changed to one at the back. This
is much quieter, but has a very aggressive bathroom smell, but we cop it sweet
and go straight to bed for a much-needed one hour's sleep after our bad night
last night.
We head out at 3.30pm to get four horse
carts (15,000 kyat per cart) to take the group around. We have one to ourselves, but it's not as
comfortable as we imagined, particularly if you want to look forward, and
pretty rough on the dirt tracks. We're
pretty early for the sunset so we go to a monastery that was badly damaged in
the 1975 earthquake and is now abandoned.
One of the buildings has newly concreted terraces, reached by climbing
single-brick steps for a good view over the countryside. While we take photos,
one of the horses is being reshod.
We then continue on to an unnamed pagoda
(not far from Royal Golden Tortoise Hotel and near Dhamma-ya-za-ka Pagoda,
which is being repaired). This is one of
the few pagodas you're allowed to climb up, which we do for a good view of the
sunset. In fact the views away from the sun show up the late sun on the
brickwork better than toward the sunset itself. There is no cloud, just some
low haze, so the sunset is pretty brief, although quite red.
We
head back to the hotel as it's getting dark, with lots of traffic on the road
including petrol and electric motorbikes, push bikes, buses, trucks, lungers
large and small, etc, all of which pass our fairly slow horses. We arrive back
at hotel about 6.30pm, and spend an hour or so finally getting around to doing
some diary. We are not feeling very hungry after our great lunch, but we head
out about 8pm for something light, and see most of the rest of the group coming
back. Have a fairly ordinary fried rice and chicken, and aubergine salad at
Kaday Kywe Restaurant, then head back to set up our technology charging, then
have a fairly early night, and set our alarm for 5am.
Sunday 26th January 2014. Bagan (Myanmar)
Today
is going to be a VERY big day.
We
wake every hour or so during night due to dog fights etc, but unlike the night
before manage to go back to sleep fairly easily. We are called at 4.50am, and dress quickly,
ready for our US$320 each "Balloons over Bagan" hot air balloon
flight. It's still dark when we're
picked up in their vintage bus, and taken a fair way across the town to where
the balloons are inflated on a sports oval. They take off from two different
places - there were six from this site. There
are twelve people in each balloon plus the pilot, and one hundred and forty
people flying this morning, which is a gross take of $44,800 for the day! However they employ a lot of people to help
with the take-offs and landings, and the canopy has to be replaced every five
years or so for a cost of $100,000.
Our bus load is briefed after a coffee
stop, divided into two teams, ours under Barry. We then go to our respective
balloon stations, where the balloon is tethered to one of the vintage buses,
and the edge of the envelope is held up so cold air can be blown in to start
the inflation process, and make space for the burner (currently horizontal,
with the basket on its side) to be fired without setting the envelope on fire.
Murray is pleased to see that the suspension cords, which seem to be drooping
pretty close to the flame, are actually stainless steel. The whole operation
seems very professional.
Once we're up in the air, we have a
fantastic view of all the temples, and the river, and what looks like mist, but
is actually smoke from all the wood fires being lit for cooking the morning
meals.
We're
definitely glad we spent the money to do this, as it will definitely be one of
the highlights of the trip. We get a much better picture of the layout of the
area and its relationship to the river and mountains. Barry the pilot gives us
some good information, and rotates the balloon so everyone gets a view in the
direction we are slowly travelling, and we hear him reporting altitude and
speed to the controller. We were the last balloon away, so we have a lot of
balloons in front of us at various altitudes, which adds to the spectacle.
Barry points out to us the dual carriageway and golf course right in the middle
of the historic area which is preventing World Heritage listing. He also points
out a circular tower totally out of cultural context built by one of the
generals.
We see the sunset viewing pagoda,
recognising it from the multi-coloured pagoda near it, and the bamboo
scaffolded pagoda just to the west of it. The river which curves around the
town is obviously in a low-water state, with lots of exposed sandbanks, but it
is still a very big river with a lot of water in it.
We are heading generally south, parallel to
the river, and after 45 minutes or so, we start our descent. We can see the
other balloons heading for roughly the same place, and can see “Balloons Over
Bagan” buses and recovery trucks and a swarm of balloon handlers converging.
The balloon is remarkably steerable, and we are able to miss a tree, then
assume the brace position, sitting with our backs toward the direction of
landing, hanging onto rope handles, with cameras stowed. Land in a bare paddock
remarkably free of obstacles. The handlers catch the basket and ground it, and
hang on until enough hot air has been vented to firmly ground it (four tonnes
of hot air). We have to wait in the basket while photos are taken and ground
sheets are laid and the basket is tethered to the bus, then the envelope is
collapsed onto the ground sheets and we are allowed to disembark.
We actually do have a good champagne and
croissant breakfast waiting for us. We are offered the opportunity of buying
souvenir USB sticks of the photos for 15,000 kyat, a small marginal expense, so
pay up. The landing paddock is not far from our hotel, and they deliver us back
to the hotel about 8.30am for our second breakfast.
By 9.30am we're on our way again, this time
on bikes to explore more temples. The bikes are single speed basic women's
bikes, made in Japan, but not all that sophisticated. They have drum back
brakes, caliper front, fully enclosed chain guards, and back carrier shelves
only. Apparently tourists keep leaving goodies in the front baskets for the
local thieves. We get an occy strap for the backpack on Murray's bike. We start
on the tarred road, and make a stop at a group of small pagodas to wait for all
the group. By this stage it has become clear this is no picnic, as, although
the site is relatively flat, even a slight hill is ************* these bikes.
Murray adjusts his seat higher, which makes it a lot easier, but the seat
slowly reverts. We are also soon off on sand tracks, which are generally not
too hard going till you hit a soft patch of sand, when it becomes hard
pedalling to get through it, and stay on the bike.
The
first temple is Mahabodhi, built in
1215. This means great body, but is actually pretty ordinary, with no golden
spire, and the inside has a modern make-over with tiled floor and carpet.
Next
is Shwegugyi, built 1131, which we climb up, for some fantastic
views of the surrounding temples. Almost as good a view as the balloon at low
level. We can look back from here to Mahabodhi, which looks fancier, with its
intricate tower more obvious from here than close-up. It is an example of
Bagan’s middle period of temple building, a transition from the dark and
cloistered to the airy and light.
We
carry on to Thatbyinnyu Pahto (built
1144), which is supposed to be the highest one.
Don't go in as told it's pretty ordinary inside, but get some good
outside photos from the top of some nearby ruins.
Next is Dhammayangyi
Pahto, (12th century), which is supposed to be the biggest one,
but was never finished as the story goes that the King who had it built (King
Narathu) was very cruel and had his father, brother, bricklayers whose work
enabled a needle to be placed between
two bricks, and his Indian wife, all killed.
Killing the wife was probably a mistake, as she was the daughter of an
Indian King, which probably led to his own killing. He is known as "killed
by Indians". Others believe it was built by an earlier king.
We have a long haul through virtually
pagoda-free scrub on sandy, then paved, roads to pick up the main road back to
the village. By now it's the middle of
the day, we’ve biked about 11 kilometres, and everyone is hot and tired. We stop at the Welcome Typical Food House
for a good, but expensive by local standards, lunch. A cheap restaurant charges
about $4 for a main meal and $1 for a coke, while an expensive restaurant could
be up to $7 for a main meal and $3 for a coke.
We’re surprised how little money we’ve been spending – a bit for meals,
and a bit extra for optional activities.
Murray
is back onto food again, in a modest way, with soup, and Dianne is too tired to
eat, so we get a doggy bag and head off early, nearly forgetting the bag, then
the camera.
We
get the bikes back without incident, have 20 mins sleep, then write the diary
till time for our next activity at 3.30pm, this time in a large Korean bus, as
our normal bus and driver is off somewhere else. Our first stop is the Bagan
House lacquerware workshop, in well-presented grounds in a back street. Out
front there is an older man on a platform forming the basic core of lacquerware
plates from strips of bamboo, and a show-and-tell of photos, tools and
ingredients for the process. The mainstay of the process is the lacquer resin,
which is tapped from a tree of the same name in a process similar to rubber,
but it produces a dark, sticky but mobile liquid which will only dry in cool,
high humidity conditions such as found in an underground cellar.
The bamboo core is saturated with glue,
allowed to dry, the surface is shaved with a special knife, then coated with
cotton cloth, bone ash and more resin to produce a smooth surface which can be
hand engraved with a pointed stylus to produce a key for the pigment. The
process is repeated for three colours, then gold leaf is applied to a receptive
pattern and the excess is washed off. The cured surface is sanded smooth then
polished by hand rubbing with fine abrasive powder, producing a mirror finish.
The process is highly labour intensive and the workshop employs at least 50
people. We watch while an artist draws freehand five elephants around a dish in
gold paint. Offers to put an elephant on the camera lens hood, but we decline.
Murray takes an interest in the man making
the bamboo cores, and he demonstrated how to cut half millimetre thick strips
from a bamboo stick by starting with a sharp knife cut, then peeling the strip,
holding one end by the toes. The bamboo used is special, with nearly a metre
between the knots, and the strips are very flexible, but quite strong in
tension. The process is actually a historic form of fibre reinforced composite,
as used on modern aircraft. Murray ends up with a bangle of bamboo strips,
quickly notched to form the initial circle, then coiled and cut to exact length
to lock the whole thing together. Being unsure whether or how tipping is done
for something you don't want or need, he does nothing, but still feels
uncomfortable.
In the attached shop, there are some very
classy lacqerware plates, bowls, plaques, and chests of drawers, all beautifully
made, but very oriental.
We move on to the Sulamani Guphaya built 1183 AD (means ruby). Ceiling painted 12th century, walls 18th
century.
Sunset
is at 5.50pm and we watch from Shwesandaw
Paya, with lots of people here as it is supposed to be one of the best
places for viewing the sunset. There are five levels, reached by four very
steep staircases, very Mayan or Inca like. We are told the 3rd level is good
and this is fine with us. Murray walks around the shelf to look at the pagodas
behind, nicely lit by the low afternoon sun, then back to catch the sunset,
which was quite red, but lacking in clouds to give it character. We beat a
hasty retreat down the stairs to stay ahead of the rush, and get clear of the
parking area remarkably quickly.
We take our flash Korean replacement bus
fitted inside with all sorts of frills and bling back to the hotel, tip our
driver then rest till 7.30pm. Dianne is
feeling fluey, but has no fever. She wasn't
wearing a hat on the bikes because of the helmet, so may have got too much sun,
and a bit of dehydration. Most of us walk down through the dark but not
threatening back streets to La Min Thit, where we lunched yesterday, for
dinner, but in typical style they'd run out of our favourite young tamarind
leaf salad. The meal was still pretty good, and the condiments that come with
the meal are excellent. We get to sleep about 10.30pm, but still wake a lot
during the night, and are quite tired the next morning, with Dianne still
feeling sick.
Monday 27th January Bagan - Mt Popa- Bagan
Today is an optional activity day, and an
excursion to Mt Popa has been suggested, so we agree to all put in K16,000 each
for the hire of a minibus, and set off at 9.30am. We head out to the North East,
along the dual carriageway featuring in the World Heritage knock-back. Pass out
of the monument zone, then pay up at the world's fanciest tollgate. Our route
passes through open ploughed fields, with toddy palms and mountains to the
right. We see oxen turning peanut oil mills beside the road, and stop beside
one at the toddy factory.
The peanut oil mill is something else, a miracle
of primitive engineering - a tree trunk set vertical into the ground, with a
conical chamber which serves as a bearing and grinding surface for a timber
cylinder which is held against the surface by a large horizontal weighted lever
which is rotated by the large white ox, walking in a tight circle on a sandy
track. The peanut oil drips out through a hole in the side of the tree trunk,
and the residue forms a *********ical shell which is used for cattle feed. The
man driving the ox is quite friendly, but is doing it mainly for show, as the
residue is already hard and dry and there is little oil emerging.
We move on to the sugar toddy production
centre, where the sap harvester climbs a bamboo ladder strapped to the palm to
cut the tip off a bud and hang a pot under it. The sap he comes down with is
quite dark and dilute. We are told the sap is sweet in the morning, but in the
afternoon it has fermented to sour. In the factory, two processes are at work
here. The sweet sap is progressively concentrated in a line of aluminium dishes
all heated by the same fire tunnel.
On the other side, the sour sap is mixed
with rice yeast and allowed to bubble away in clay pots. The fermented liquid
is heated in a series of pots over a fire tunnel, with an aluminium dish of
cold water sealing the pot. Vapour boiled off condenses on the bottom of the
cold dish and drops off into a catch funnel and is piped out to drip into
bottles. A plastic bag with a slit is used as a one-way valve to keep air out
of the vapour. The product spirit smells pretty much like metho, and we don't
sample it. There is no charge for looking around, so we buy some peanuts and
some jaggery (palm sugar) with coconut in it, which turns out to be quite
morish.
We climb into hills, have a photo stop when
we come across a group of women carrying long bundles of cattle feed suspended
vertically from shoulder yokes. The villages we pass are pretty basic, with woven
bamboo walls, thatch roofs, on stilts.
In the distance we can see a steep mountain
with communication towers on top. This is Mt Popa proper. The monastery we are
visiting is on a volcanic plug protruding from the flanks of the mountain, and
is accessed by 777 steps, and is a premier venue for nat worship. We pass through
the spread-out town of Mt Popa, climb steeply to a shelf with a smaller
village, then drop down towards the base of the volcanic plug. We stop for
photos on the steep descent, then park and walk up the covered stairway to an
intermediate station where we drop our shoes, then continue on stairs and
occasional steep metal stairways. The whole mountain is infested with macaque
monkeys, not obviously aggressive, but worth steering clear of. Further up,
Murray manages to stand on a monkey dropping, in spite of the best efforts of
the self-employed cleaners on the steps asking for tips.
We proceed independently, Murray taking an
anticlockwise path, including a shelf with a famous gold-coated rock, and good
views over the lower slopes of the mountain. The whole area is a major
religious precinct, with monasteries, temples, and stupas scattered over the
foot hills. There are views out to other ranges and a large body of water,
either a lake or the Irrawaddy, and up the mountain.
At the top there are a number of shrines and
stupas, bells, gongs and terraces, with a lot of paths and passages to the
downward covered stairway. At the top, we reconnect and Murray shows Dianne the
gold covered rock. We discover by knocking on the rock that there is a lot of
space between the outer sheath and the rock itself. At the top, other members
of the party have told of monkey attacks on water bottles etc, so we stow the
loose items in the backpack for the return trip, and have no incidents,
although Dianne has to backtrack to avoid a confrontation.
Back at the base of the hill we inspect a
shrine to the 37 Nats, then get back into the bus for the trip back to the
restaurant up on the shelf above.
The restaurant is pretty flash, with a
large fixed building and a thatched pavilion in the pretty garden with some
really good orchids. We can no longer remember the meal, so was probably a good
Burmese typical menu.
On the way back we made a stop at a poor farming
village in the hills. It was a collection of farms in a grove of tamarind
trees, with deeply worn tracks between fences of vertical sticks. Each farm has
a collection of primitive machinery, such as spring return, foot-operated chaff
cutters, a see-saw grain mill, animal feed troughs from split tree trunks,
woven bamboo walled houses and sheds. There are a lot of small children, and
Dianne curses leaving her I-phone with its animal noise app behind. The guide
makes his usual statement on responsible tourism, and we don't offer money or
gifts for photos of the women and children.
The whole village is pretty primitive and
poor, but they have livestock, chickens and massive pigs. The tamarind trees
which have been planted in the village also help with their economy.
We get back to the town without incident,
rest for a while before walking to the cultural show and meal at the Amata
resort. It is quite a walk through the dark streets, but we are highly
impressed with the resort and the scale of the dinner-theatre setup - tables and
chairs set out on a short grass lawn and a large stage. The food is good, but
expensive by local standards, but quite reasonable when you consider the
entertainment was free. Murray's papaya drink was a shocker, the worst ever.
The show started off with two puppeteers
standing on a platform over a stage for the puppets. The puppeteers were
visible at all times. Most of the performances were conflict between two
puppets, one involved a reluctant horse and its rider. Later the puppet stage
was removed and dancers took over, about five girls in a number of costumes,
two highly blinged male dancers, very effeminate looking, then a very well done
two-man elephant routine, including back leg stands. We are just leaving when
the tiger dance starts -two tigers on stage performing acrobatic leaps and
dives, particularly well done.
We manage to find our way back in the dark
in spite of our guide leaving early to visit his mother, and hit the sack after
another VERY long day.