They say Bagan has temples to rival Angkor Wat and that certainly seems to be the case! In true Asian style… same same but different 🙂

We were up at 4am this morning to catch a 6:30am flight to Bagan. I didnt sleep well last night despite being incredibly tired but such is the hardship I face.

After a one hour flight we arrived in Bagan in time to catch the Nyaung-Oo morning market which is primarily fruit and vegetables. I always find markets fascinating in new countries as it gives you an idea of what the people eat and how they live. This market was quite busy with people doing their daily shopping and for the first time in Myanmar I came head to head with aggressive sellers. They werent the people selling the fruit and veg but rather people selling crap that they think tourists want. It was indeed evidence that tourism has hit Bagan and was the same all day long at each site we visited.

The market in Bagan

Bamboo shoots ready for cooking

Tourist crap

During the day we visited a few temples, including Shwezigon and Annanda temples. I’m getting to the point where I am just about about all templed out but these were covered in gold leaf and were quite striking.

One of the temples in Bagan

The littlest monk - 3 years old!

A girl at one of the temples

In the afternoon we went to a lacquer ware place where I actually surprised myself by buying a lacquered elephant. Not something I would normally do but when I saw the amount of work and effort that went into one of these things I had to buy one.

Lacquerware - freehand etching

Following a horse and cart ride out to Pyitthagyi Temple and a climb to the top, we watched the sunset to end yet another perfect Burmese Day.

Horse and Carriage

Monk running away from a temple... dont know why...

cheers

KC